Green Koan Case 51: Soen’s One World  Clark Strand   CASE #51:
Soen’s One World  Soen Roshi wrote the following haiku:  With
Fuji in sight I pick young herbs that world and this world
Soen Roshi     Soen Nakagawa (1907-1984) was the tenth abbot of
Ryutaku-ji monastery. A figure of seminal importance in the
early days of American Buddhism, he was known for his eccentric
behavior and his flair for spontaneous teaching. In Japan he was
also well-known as a haiku poet, having studied the art under
Dakotsu Iida, one of the most influential poets of 20th century
Japan. As a young monk in the 1930s, Soen divided his time
between the monastery and a hermitage near Mt. Fuji, where many
of his haiku were written.  With Fuji in sight… The haiku, a
masterpiece of Zen poetry, was written in 1973 and selected by
Soen for inclusion in a monograph called “Ten Haiku of My
Choice,” published that year and distributed to his friends.
About the poem, Soen wrote:  Fuji is represented by two
characters that signify “wealthy pers