Empty Cloud Wakes Up
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Music: Rev. Heng Sure
Lyrics: Elder Master Xuyun’s Enlightenment Verse translated and adapted by Rev. Heng Sure
During a twelve-week Chan meditation session in 1896, late at night, a tea cup fell from a monk’s hand, and shattered on the floor. Instantly, the monk, Elder Master Xuyun (Empty Cloud), “lit up his mind and saw his inherent nature,” Buddhist jargon for the experience of spiritual enlightenment. He wrote these three stanzas to memorialize the event. One verse is “True Emptiness,” staring directly into the Void, where the Universe holds no sympathy; the other verse mirrors “Wonderful Existence,” full of compassion and life. The melody is an attempt to place this iconic experience in a Western musical setting.
杯子撲落地，響聲鳴歷歷， 虛空粉碎也，狂心當下歇。
燙著手打碎杯，家破人亡語難開， 春到花香處處秀，山河大地是如來.
Beizi pu luo di, xiangsheng ming lili Xukong fencui ye, kuangxin dangxia xi.
The cup hit the floor with a ringing sound, That echoed in the air,
Empty space broke to bits,
And my mad mind stopped right there.
Burned my hand, shattered my cup,
Broken for good, my mind,
Like my family it’s lost, the people are gone, Words are hard to find.
Spring is here, the flowers breathe, Their fragrance to the sun; Mountains, rivers, the earth itself, Are just the Thus Come One.