This poem is "Planting Yangge" by Budai monk in the Tang Dynasty.
The original poem is as follows:
Planting green rice seedlings in the field with your hands, you can see the sky in the water when you lower your head.
A pure heart is the path, and retreat is the path forward.
Appreciation:
Planting green rice seedlings all over the field: This describes the farmer inserting rice seedlings one by one. "When you lower your head, you can see the sky in the water": Lower your head. Seeing the sky reflected in the paddy fields. "Only when the mind is pure can we achieve the Tao": Only when our body and mind are no longer contaminated by external material desires can we be in harmony with the Tao. "Regressing is actually moving forward": Farmers planting rice seedlings are sideways The person who steps back while planting is precisely because he can step back so that he can plant all the rice seedlings. Therefore, his "step back" when planting rice seedlings is exactly the forward progress of his work.
This poem tells the story We: We can see the distance from the near, and regress can also be regarded as progress. Ordinary people have a tendency: to look high rather than low, to seek the far rather than the near. For example: if someone is more knowledgeable than me, respect him; If the person is richer than me, I will flatter him. If the person's conditions are worse than mine, I will ignore him. Little do they know the truth: "When you climb high, you will humble yourself, and when you travel far, you will feel short of yourself." Zen masters have obvious differences between the world and ordinary people. Different, for example, the poem says: "When you lower your head, you can see the sky in the water." It means that only when we lower our heads with an open mind can we truly understand ourselves and the world.
Introduction to the poet:
Budai monk, a native of Fenghua, Mingzhou (Ningbo), or Changting, the world does not know his clan name, he claims to be here, and his name is long Tingzi. According to legend, he is the incarnation of Maitreya Bodhisattva. He has a fat body, wrinkled brows and a big belly. He speaks erratically and sleeps everywhere. He often picks up a cloth bag with a stick and goes to the market, and begs for anything he sees. He puts all the things offered by others into the cloth bag, but no one ever sees him pour the things out, and the cloth bag is empty. If someone asked him about Buddhism, he would put down the bag. If you still don't understand what he means, if you continue to ask, he will immediately pick up the bag and leave without looking back. People still ignored him, so he started laughing.