Bit of fun for you. Yoda vs. Buddha. Enlightenment means stepping away from the dark side, something on which both masters of Buddhism and the Jedi Order agree. But can you tell the difference between the insight of Yoda and the insight of the Buddha?
Enlightenment means stepping away from the dark side, something on which both masters of Buddhism and the Jedi Order agree. But can you tell the difference between the insight of Yoda and the insight of the Buddha?
Young creatures grow and expand at an alarming rate. Before you know it they have outgrown their shoes and clothing tugs tight. Hair gets longer – and longer and the first cut is an event to remember. Sometimes with tears and screams. Depending. Some save a lock so precious is that sign of development. So fast this expanding, each day, week, month brings a gasp of amazement. Soon speech and exploration, nothing is sacred for a toddler. Yes, an expanding and exploring self, developing before our very eyes. In no time that toddle is walking arm on arm to music and applause. Another cycle about to begin.
Then the slow trickle. Imperceptibly expansion turns around into contraction. For sure there is some breathing out and breathing in, the growth and decline and growth again however, imperceptibly, contraction. The world, the horizon, extents just past finger tips. Hair thins, clothes hang, nails horn like. Ballance once a challenge towards standing now a challenge of a different kind and magnitude. Vastly different. The self contracts? Diminishes? Or so it might appear.
I have been using the expression ‘diminished capacity’ as a catch-all phrase for those whose world is closing in on them. Mentally, physically and emotionally. I’m shaking, she tells me on the phone. Another and another speaks of what life has become. However while my elderly friends might smile ruefully at my recently, severely diminished, ivy plant picture above, (and that’s another story) there is dignity and depth in the sedate stepping. Gnarled hands indeed but the vital life, inner life, does not fade from the eyes. However sunken or hooded they may become.
What IS it about peeling paint? Decay? A moment caught in the flow of time. There is the Wabi-sabi Japanese esthetic which, I’ve discovered, has a basic Buddhist teaching at it’s roots. Namely the Three Signs of Existence: impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). (Sometimes referred to as the Three marks of existence.) However that’s all very well and good, and one can get caught up in thinking about and analyzing why peeling paint and the like is so…..’beautiful’, but why the attraction? Why, for example, is the wrinkled face of an elderly person so ‘can’t keep my eyes off’ alluring?
This is the The Garden Station, Langley where last Sunday we had tea and scones: that’s after a walk along the old railway line, a sandwich in the lee of a stone wall (the wind was almost gale force), and a pleasant return along a wide and sheltered path through the woods. The station cafe is a delight, the conversation was stimulating and the scones home-made.
My Sunday walking companions. What a pleasure to move across the earth, together.
The conversation that emerged while we had our tea and scone (and jam) has had me contemplating this question of peeling paint! Or rather the underlying question of consciousness and Being – of self nature. Could it possibly be I’ve a blogging theme lurking here to explore? I certain hope so. For, when day after day I am simply not moved to write here, I find myself bereft. Ah! Perhaps it (the lurking theme) is the sweet-sadness of the passage of time, layer upon layer, showing the flow of….what is that? Being?
I stumbled upon a book in the monastery library the other day, looking for the map I seem to remember. While there I checked the ‘new arrivals’ shelf and I’m so glad I did. It is called The Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo with Kosho Uchiyama and Shohaku Okumura commenting on selected sayings and teachings of the Great Master Sawaki Kodo. He was himself, he spoke in a straightforward manner and I love what he has to say. Wise person and he didn’t wrap up the teaching in technical words which then needed explanation. Here is a taste from the start of the chapter, Opinions Gone to Seed.
Kodo Sawaki: Some opinions have passed their prime and lost relevance. For instance, when grownups lecture children, they often simply repeat ready-made opinions. The merely say, “Good is good; bad is bad.” When greens go to seed, they become hard and fibrous. They aren’t edible anymore. We should always see things with fresh eyes!
Often people say, “This is valuable!” But what’s really valuable? Nothing. When you die, you have to leave everything behind. Even the national treasures in Kyoto and Nara will sooner or later perish. It not a problem even if they all burn down.
Soon after Rev. Master Jiyu arrived in Japan in 1962 to study with Koho Zenji at Sojiji she had an understanding sometimes referred to as a first kensho. Koho Zenji sent her to visit Sawaki Kodo who was in Tokyo at the time to have the understanding confirmed. Which he did. He has a special place in my heart and I’m so glad to have run into this book full of his often irreverent words which point deeply and directly to the heart of practice.
Update 28th May: The original map published last evening has been replaced with this one. So anybody who rushed to download yesterdays map with a view to following the marked trail….please delete and use this one. Can’t be too careful about following the official footpaths, although it is not always so easy to know where they are. I speak from experience!
It all makes perfect sense, now! Here is a map of the ‘Well Hope’ walk which I, along with a trusty walking companion, did yesterday. More than three hours walking but we were not rushing.
About a month or more ago I attempted this walk alone. Although armed with this map I lost my way, ending up in the next valley over from the one I’d intended to walk down. It was a bit of a shock to round a hill to find I wasn’t looking at our familiar valley with the monastery reasuringly nestled on the opposite hillside, as in the photograph below. To be honest I have been reluctant to try the walk again and reticent to mention this fact. So I was glad of the company and especially glad to be helped with the correct usage of the words reticent and reluctant! What little gems they are too. And what are good Dharma Friends for if not to pass on the gems of their knowledge and understanding.
Throssel Hole Abbey is picked out in sunshine. Look for Myrtle Bank on the OS map.
Certainty is a dangerous beast to be sure. In terms of my failed attempt at the Well Hope walk I was convinced I was on the correct path! Truth was I wasn’t on a path at all! I remember thinking, I’m not lost I just don’t know where I am in relationship to everywhere else! That’s mistaken certainty, with an extra helping of delusion thrown in.
Oh and I’ve thought myself to be reticent about doing things when in fact I was reluctant! Now thinking about it certainty, knowing you are right, isn’t the issue. It’s ignorance isn’t it? Only when proved to be wrong, wrong valley and wrong word use, does the habit of certainty even come up as an issue. If you are right, then you are RIGHT and why would one question that.
So I think of Buddhist practice, meditation, being about shining light on ignorance. That’s the ‘not knowing’ form of ignorance and also the ‘ignore-ance’ form. Humbling thought. Yes, and sometimes, depending on ones personality and make up, it is important to retain the thought ‘I could be right‘, self-doubt being the default for many people.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
