Ikkyū

Ikkyū, the bastard son of an emperor, was a Zen monk who loved brothels and hated Buddhism. When his master presented him with the formal certificate typically given to a monk after they attain enlightenment, Ikkyū tore it to pieces. After his students put it back together, he burned it entirely. He was appointed head monk of his temple, but he lasted only a week before resigning in disgust, preferring to practice Zen by walking through town with a human skull on the end of a stick. He spent the following years drinking and sleeping with women until turning 77 and falling in love with a blind singer who inspired his most erotic poems. At 80, Ikkyū was made abbot of the same temple he had fled decades earlier. What a funny situation, he wrote to his friends.

sin like a madman until you can’t do anything else
no room for any more

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fuck flattery success money
all I do is lie back suck my thumb

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I try to be a good man but all that comes
of trying is I feel more guilty

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I’m alive! right? don’t we say that?
we don’t see the bones we walk on

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why is it all so beautiful this fake dream
this craziness why?

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nature’s a killer I won’t sing to it
I hold my breath and listen to the dead singing under the grass

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the crow’s caw was ok but one night with a lovely whore
opened a wisdom deeper than what the bird said

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nobody understands why we do what we do
this cup of sake does

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self other right wrong wasting your life arguing
you’re happy really you are happy