The Buddha and Self

When Ippen Shonin met Hotto Kokushi, the founder of the Kokokuji in the village of Yura in Kii Province, he said, "I have composed a poem."

Kokushi said, "Let's hear it."

Shonin recited:

When I chant,
Both Buddha and self
Cease to exist.
There is only the voice that says,
Namu Amida Butsu.

Kokushi said, "Something is wrong with the last couple of lines, don't you think?"

Shonin then confined himself in Kumano and meditated for twenty-one days. When he passed by Yura again, he said, "This is how I've written it":

When I chant,
Both Buddha and self
Cease to exist.
Namu Amida Butsu,
Namu Amida Butsu.

Kokushi nodded his enthusiastic approval and said, "There! You got it!"

~ Takuan Soho, The Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master (translated by William Scott Wilson)