To ascend is to fall...

The knell of the bells at the Gion temple
Echoes the impermanence of all things.
The colour of the flowers on its double-trunked tree
Reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall.
He who is proud is not so for long,
Like a passing dream on a night in spring.
He who is brave is finally destroyed,
To be no more than dust before the wind.
source
See also: Heiki Monogatari

祇園精舎の鐘の聲、
諸行無常の響あり。
娑羅雙樹の花の色、
盛者必衰のことわりをあらはす。
おごれる人も久しからず、
唯春の夜の夢のごとし。
たけき者も遂にほろびぬ、
偏に風の前の塵に同じ。


Gion shouja no kane no koe
shogyou mujou no hibiki ari.
Shara souju no hana no iro
jousha hissui no kotowari o arawasu.
Ogoreru hito mo hisashikarazu,
Tada haru no yo no yume no gotoshi.
Takeki mono mo tsui ni horobinu.
Hitoe ni kaze no mae no chiri ni onaji.


“The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells
echoes the impermanence of all things;
the color of the sala flowers*
reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall.
The proud do not endure,
like a passing dream on a night in spring;
the mighty fall at last,
to be no more than dust before the wind.”

― Helen Craig McCullough, The Tale of the Heike



The 2nd Abbot of SFZC Zentatsu Richard Baker apologized for a bump in the road - some 30 years past. SFZC survived. And so did Richard Baker.
http://50years.sfzc.org/weekend-dharma-talks

And so did you and I or I would not be writing it and you would not be reading it.


*Shorea robusta - not to be confused with the cannonball tree