Birth, old age,
Sickness, and death:
From the beginning,
This is the way
Things have always been.
Any thought
Of release from this life
Will wrap you only more tightly
In its snares.
The sleeping person
Looks for Buddha,
The troubled person
Turns toward meditation.
But the one who knows
That there’s nothing to seek
Knows too that there’s nothing to say.
She keeps her mouth shut.

                Translated by Thich Nhat Nanh & June Hirshfield

Ly Ngoc Kieu (1041 – 1113) was a Zen Buddhist nun in Vietnam. She was the daughter of a prince and the goddaughter of a king. She is the earliest known woman writer of Vietnam and directed a temple for many years.

This short poem iterates some basic Buddhist themes. Life is a cycle of birth, sickness, old age and death. To think you will be spared or can escape only leads to more delusion. Some people seek deliverance from suffering through a savior, others through detachment or the intellect. Ly says that seeking is an act of the mind or desire. Higher Consciousness cannot be an object of either prayer or understanding as its realization lies outside of the mind and the act of seeking.

This passage is also reminiscent of the lines from the Tao te Ching which says, “Those who talk don’t know; and those who know don’t talk.” Although many consider Buddhism one of the more sophisticated views of life, there was a belief by many that women were lesser beings and not capable of reaching enlightenment. Ly Ngoc Kier wisely sidestepped the whole debate by keeping her mouth shut.