Natalie Leon

According to the Daijisen Dictionary, the word shizen, often translated as “nature” or “natural”, comprises the entire cosmos

Spring enters a thousand forests – flowers everywhere”. This is a Zen proverb or philosophical question known as a kōan, which is a brief, deceptively simple phrase that’s shorthand for a much larger question to be contemplated by students. It’s understandable then that Robert Aitken Roshi has described kōan as “the folklore of Zen”. In this instance, spring is a metaphor for the teachings of the Buddha or enlightenment because, according to Soiku Shigematsu, priest of the Rinzai School of Zen, all nature is the manifestation of satori (enlightenment)