On the Impermanence of Dynasties

Text

Flashing lightning is existence; flickering cloud-light is non-existence. The affairs of the world are just like this — do not trouble your heart over their rise and fall. The ten thousand affairs arise and disperse like dew on the morning grass. Power and glory are a single night's dream; do not mistake the dream for the morning.

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Vạn Hạnh

Lineage: Thiền

By Vạn Hạnh

• The Prophecy of the Lý Founderdialogue
• The Illusory Nature of Powersermon

From Thiền Uyển Tập Anh (Anthology of the Garden of Vietnamese Zen)

• The Illusory Nature of Power
• Verse Composed in Vietnamese (Chữ Nôm)
• The Duty of the National Preceptor
• The King Tests the Third Patriarch
• On Receiving the Succession
• The Dharma Is Not Separate from Mind
• Silent Transmission

Sources

• contentCuong Tu Nguyen — medieval Vietnamese Buddhism scholarship

  Cuong Tu Nguyen

  Thiền Uyển Tập Anh, section on Vạn Hạnh; verse attributed to Vạn Hạnh, quoted in Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư; after Cuong Tu Nguyen, 'Zen in Medieval Vietnam' (1997), pp. 44–58

  Thiền Uyển Tập Anh (Anthology of the Garden of Vietnamese Zen): On the Impermanence of Dynasties