[Buddha-l] "Free and Easy" Vajra song

[Bob Zeuschner]

That "song" sounds as though it could have been translated from the 
Taoist Lao-tzu or the Chuang-tzu. Even the "Free and Easy" reference is 
the title of a chapter of the Chuang-tzu.
Is this really a Vajra piece or is it contemporary by Alan Watts? Is 
there a bibliographic source?
Bob


Robert Leverant wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the teaching of  Kohelet the Preacher. I like the contemporary,
> aka Buddhist view, translation. Incidentally, many of the Tibetan teachers
> that I've studied  with say that once we grasp the truth of impermanence,
> then we take our work and life seriously and don't fall into the nihilistic
> void expressed in Ecclesiastes.
> 
> Here's a Doha that suggests an alternative way to the nihilistic void voiced
> by Kohelet the Preacher.
> 
> Robert
> 
> FREE AND EASY
> 
> A Vajra Song
>  
> by
> 
> Ven. Lama Gendun Rinpoche
>  
> Happiness cannot be found
> through great effort and willpower
> but is already present, in relaxation
>          and letting go.
>  
> Don't strain yourself;
> there is nothing to do.
> Whatever arises in the mind
> has no real importance at all,
> because it has no reality whatsoever.
> Don't become attached to it;
> don't identify with it
>          and pass judgment upon it.
>  
> Let the entire game happen on its own,
> springing up and falling back like waves --
> without changing or manipulating anything --
> and everything vanishes and reappears, magically,
>          without end.
>  
> Only our searching for happiness
> prevents us from seeing it.
> It's like a rainbow which you pursue
>          without ever catching.
>  
> Although it does not exist,
> It has always been there
>          and accompanies you every instant.
>  
> Don't believe in the reality
> of good and bad experiences.
> They are like rainbows in the sky.
>  
> Wanting to grasp the ungraspable
> you exhaust yourself in vain.
> As soon as you open and relax this grasping,
> space is there -- open, inviting, and comfortable.
>  
> Don't search any further.
> Don't go into the tangled jungle
> looking for the great elephant
> who's already quietly at home.
>  
> Nothing to do,
> Nothing to force.
> Nothing to want --
>          and everything happens by itself.
>