Slipping back is Progress

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The Journey itself is Home

You're Alone

                Photo credits: Dvids

               The verses above seem to be pregnant with a beautiful double meaning. It may be impossible to figure out what Han San really said in the original Chinese. However, this translation done by J.P.Seaton in his book Cold Mountain Poems give the reader much to think and, mainly, to feel.

               What does the “within” refer to in this case? Is the verse saying that everything within Earth is alone? Or is the verse saying one is alone and have all within oneself? Since it is written in poetic language, plus, being a pre-zen Buddhist poem, I would not be surprised if the verse had both meanings at the same time.

               We are all alone. Nobody can live other’s journey. However, we are all together in journeying individually. At the same time, all the individual journeys compose the only one journey that exists, the journey of the whole Universe. And, as parts of the Universe, each one of us, all beings, is the entire Universe.            

               By the way he is the full translation:

Green water in the stream in the pass,

white water rising the clear-welling spring…

Han Shan’s moon’s a flower, white as well…

So the darkest secret, the spirit by itself illumines

gaze into the emptiness, to the ends of Earth…

You’re alone, with all within…

(Poem XXXIII, pg. 49)

The World is its own Magic

          

          Hopes and goals motivate me to move ahead in life. However, I am aware that hopes and goals can also drive one into a vicious cycle of dissatisfaction, if being hopeful and determination become ends in themselves. That would cost me a very high price; the price of not enjoying the good of living the life that I live right now, exchanging the life that I have for a life that may never realize. May I find a way of turning even my daily commute into a sightseeing trip.

               One of the blessings of my art is to translate and highlight to me the magic present in every moment, the miracle of simplicity and the miracle of ordinariness. May I become a better artist and love the process.

               Afraid of becoming overwordly, I’ll end this comments transcribing two quotes of very well-known poets whom the sentence on the card above reminded me.

                     The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

                                                                                                                                                       - Marcel Proust

O see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

- William Blake

I don't think; therefore I'm not.

This is a short sentence, but pregnant with a lot of meanings, it seems. Once more I borrowed a phrase from Sean Murphy’s “One Bird One Stone”, page, 94. It is suh spectacular book.

               The picture on the card is a black & white version of a photo found at the Buddhist Center webpage. The amazing sculpture was made by Sukhi Barber. You can see many of his other works and also her bio here.

               In my blogs, i only speak as a poet. My quest in life is to speak and live to the full extension that being a poet may allow one to do. Therefore, here i speak as a poet.

Katagiri Roshi’s quote above refers to the well unknown and over beaten Descartes’ quote “I think; therefore I am.” These days the prevalent way of being in society is in the most intimate tune with Descartes’ thought. It seems to me that the implicit suggestion of Descartes is that humans mainly experience life through thinking. The problem is that we can overemphasize the importance of thinking to the point that we confuse thought with Reality. One may even reach the point in which one thinks that one is what oneself thinks. As the last sentence shows, many times thinking can make life more complicated. Most of our limitations and suffering come through a dangerous mix of misguided thoughts and toxic emotions. That happens because thinking gives power. However, many times power causes isolation and aversion to change. That is very much against Reality that is whole interconnected and in constant change. 

               Katagiri suggestion is anti-philosophical: Do not think. Do not let yourself be limited by your own thoughts because thoughts are not Reality. Therefore, what you think you are is not real. Katagiri Roshi is saying that we can be free of the worst prison of all; the prison we most love and call home, the tower prison of “I”. Identity is made of thought. The only way of escape that prison is to let go of attachment to thoughts. Once we realize we are not what we think, and let go of attachment to overthinking, we realize the freedom that we have been all along.

Everybody is in the closet

     OK. i am coming out of the closet today. Not as a gay person because i am not gay, unfortunately. i am coming out as an artist because, very unfortunately, i am an artist. Referring to the enlightening words of Ash Beckham, all of us have a closet (or closets) from which we need to come out. One must free oneself for others may follow. Then, your freedom will be the freedom of many.

     Today, i come out as an artist. The strangest of all is that this act of coming out may be the very fruit of going the deepest within myself through the expansion of my zen practice. Digging into the darkest of myself, I found the sun. By doing nothing, i accomplished all i wanted (and had all along.)

     If you haven't read my page before, be very welcome. If you have been here before, thank you very much for coming back. Today is the start of a new phase for this blog and for my life. The difference will be very noticeable. It will be more intense. It will more personal. It will be more motivating. It will be more relevant.

     Today, it is a great day to relaunch this blog. The stars are just in the right alignment (with time, you'll found out that I am an Astrology nerd, too). There is a lot of fiery energy driving me this time around. However, there is a lot of solid background that has been built throughout the 46 years of my life. This mixing of heat and rock provoked an eruption, bursting lava. That is the reason for my new profile picture. My face is now out here in the World. i wonder if this is the face I had before my parents were born.

Cease practice based
On intellectual understanding,
Pursuing words and
Following after speech.
Learn the backward
Step that turns
Your light inward
To illuminate within.
Body and mind of themselves
Will drop away
And your original face will be manifest.
— Dogen

You cannot describe it or draw it,
You cannot praise it enough or perceive it.
No place can be found in which
To put the Original Face;
It will not disappear even
When the universe is destroyed.
— Mumon