Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu (Companions for the Journey)

About this book

Ikkyu who lived from 13941481 was known as one of Japans most irreverent and iconoclastic Zen masters. He spent much of his life as a vagrant monk wandering here and there and mingling with people both high- and low-born. On occasion Ikkyu played Robin Hood taking money given by the rich and spending it on the homeless. Interspersing his travels with retreats deep in the mountains he eventually became head abbot at the most important Zen temple in Japan. Much of his verse rants against the pervasive hypocrisy of the Buddhist establishment and the corruption of the imperial court but his writing is at its finest when centering around what he loved most: the unfettered Zen life and the joys of sexual intimacy.