Ryonen’s Face

Change is the only constant.

Ryonen, the beautiful courtesan of the empress of Japan was a ravishing beauty at the tender age of 17.
Oneday, the beautiful Empress died suddenly and Ryonen became acutely aware of the impermanence of beauty and life in this world.
It was then that she decided to study zen. She was only 20 and hauntingly beautiful.

She shaved her head and took the name Ryonen –the realised one.
She came to the City of Edo and prostrated before the master of the zen temple to take her as a disciple.
At one glance the master rejected her because she was so beautiful. “Your beauty would only create trouble among our ascetics“. replied another master.

“Your face is your enemy”
said the next master.

So Ryonen took a hot iron and pressed it against her face. Her beauty vanished in one second.

Ryonen composed a poem and reached the master Hakuo:

“To serve my Empress, I burned incense to perfume my exquisite clothes.
Now as a homeless mendicant, I burn my face to enter a Zen temple.”

“The four seasons change
naturally after one by one.
Why do you look at my beautiful face when it’s destined to change?

Ryonen

“Is my face more constant ?” she asked.
Hakuo immediately accepted her as a disciple.
Ultimately, she became the head of the temple after him.

When she was about to pass away from this world at 66, she wrote the following poem:

“Sixty six times these eyes have seen the changing scenes of autumn.
I’ve said enough I’ve known,
Ask no more.
Only listen to the voice of pines and cedars
When no wind stirs.”