Meaning of the symbols on DH cover

[Young dr. Freud]

Say! Those first nine lines from Leonard---are they a new poem?

Interesting
I never suggested that Jikan meant 'The Silent One'
that somehow got into the air
and was taken up by journalists –
whenever I've been asked
I've given Roshi's bad English translation
which is something like:
"ordinary silence, normal silence, just ok
everything don't sweat it silence"

Or is that a format problem?

YdF

[tomsakic]

I wondered that also I think LC writes in that telegrafic form

[Tchocolatl]

Oh silent night, oh Silent One? This is a kind of lapsus, No, Silent One? As he was so silent and also they can have been incluenced by the past of the Man. The legendary Leonard Cohen must have a poetic nickname, not a slogan like for Mr. Muffler.

I like this story of the Zen Master teaching Zen, I mean, the search for spiritual enlightenment is reported to provoke the inflation of the ego in the first times, which must absolutely be deflated in order to progress, and how the poetical twist of mind can be anoying in this field for the spiritual leader (is a ZM can be put in this category - I mean buddhism is not a religion? I don't know), I had a similar experience few years ago (not in Zen discipline, though) : he was saying (more or less) "no fiorituras, stick to plain reality, it is what is important, do not lose time with flourishes".

[Anne-Marie]

Jikan night
holy night
all is calm
all is bright

[Anndiamo]

I may be the one who started the false rumour flying that "Jikan" means "Silent One." I got this information from the then-Abbot of Rinzai-ji Zen Centre, Teki-O Michael Radford, and wrote it into a little report that was published in the Montreal Mirror, a weekly entertainment paper, the same week that Leonard was ordained on Mount Baldy. I believed Teki-O had got it from the horse's mouth, which would be Roshi or Leonard himself. I also think other monks commented on the name, and thought this was the correct translation -- but of course, I could be mistaken...

[jarkko]

From Steven Marx:

I ask him about the graphic signatures, or chops, as he refers to them, that he designed and stamps onto several of the drawings. Perhaps they are too private to explain. They look like a secret code. “Not at all. Not at all,” he murmurs. “This one is the old Chinese writing of my monk’s name, Jikhan,” he says, pointing to one. “It got into the press as ‘the silent one,’ but it just means ordinary silence.” The poet as an absence of communication. Roshi, who assigns the names, likes irony, presumably.
“Yes, could be,” Cohen says. A beat of silence. “Since Roshi doesn’t speak English, it’s almost impossible to discern what he means.”
“These two interlocking hearts I designed for the cover of Book of Mercy,” his 1984 poetry collection, he says, moving along as he describes another chop. “I established this Order of the Unified Heart, that is a kind of dream of an order. There is no organization. There’s no hierarchy. There’s just a pin for people of a very broadly designated similar intent.”
“And yours is?”
He thinks for a minute. “To just make things better on a very personal level,” he says. “You’re just not scattered all over the place. There is a tiny moment when you might gather around some decent intention.”
“And what has been your most decent intention?”
He places his hands on the edge of the table. “I can’t think of any right now. There must be one or two.”
“Beauty, maybe.”
“Beauty, certainly,” he responds.

http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?o ... 1&limitsta

[pulgawang]

As a Chinese, I think the Chinese meaning of this stamp is the same with Japanese,"自闲". as a reference, check out this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Yuanming