Zen Poem
Tai just sent me this poem by Ryokan, a Japanese Zen poet of the eighteenth century (it, and more like it here). It’s not yet where I am, but it’s where I’m aiming to be, and it helps me understand that odd detachment or distance I experienced at the workshop:
Without a jot of ambition left
I let my nature flow where it will.
There are ten days of rice in my bag
And, by the hearth, a bundle of firewood.
Who prattles of illusion or nirvana?
Forgetting the equal dusts of name and fortune,
Listening to the night rain on the roof of my hut,
I sit at ease, both legs stretched out.
In the airports, and on the plane, I heard conversations about sales pitches, job searches, quotas met, promotions, layoffs, new products…all sawdust in my mouth, dry, dry. I observed people talking constantly on their cell phones or plugged into ipods or laptops. [Note from conference: Katya Esson doesn’t have a cell phone because, she says, “I don’t want to give other people that much power to break into my mind at any time or place. It makes them furious, but it’s one way I protect my sanity.”]
I noticed my own blog addiction (there I was, standing up at a newsstand, on a public computer, blogging; and here I am again). I love us. We’re all crazy. We spin our wheels, strive, do stuff, make stuff, achieve…what? And then we die, just like everybody else. What are we trying to prove? To whom?
One young woman asked Karen Allen during Q&A after Raiders, “What affect did early success have on you?” Allen paused, chuckled, and said, “I guess I have to ask what ‘success’ means. It didn’t feel like success to me. I was always flying by the seat of my pants, trying to figure out how to do things I was already doing. There just weren’t that many roles I wanted to play, so I had to find other things to do, and then I was in love and had a son, and then I was a single mom, and I guess you never feel successful at that. I started a knitting business, and I’m getting this award from an organization in the Berkshires as ‘entrepreneur of the year,’ which is amazing to me. Is that success?” She laughed, “How do you know when you’re a success? Is there ever a point when you say, ‘There. I’m a success. I can quit now.’?”
Maybe Ryokan found that point. Maybe Kendall is finding it. Time to go give another exam and get started grading the first set while the second group is writing theirs.
Tags: Books and Movies, Buddhism, Karen Allen, Katya Esson, Massachusetts, Ryokan
Kendall
I thought about you when I visited Koya-san in Wakayama Prefecture last week. It’s a very spiritual place, the center of one of the schools of Buddhism in Japan. I prayed for you. I am not Buddhist, but I felt so moved there….moved like when I read your blog. Your blog just gives me so much to think about. I feel alive reading it! I also don’t have a cell phone. I love NOT needing one. Thank you again for the light!
What an honor to be prayed for. To say thank you seems insufficient. I bow and receive your blessing. I’ve never been to Japan, except in movies and in imagination, but you are there, and your blessing/prayer puts some part of me there for that moment. I don’t think the Buddha ever said he was a Buddhist either. It’s not the naming that matters; it’s the way of life…being moved, wishing for the well-being of others. That’s what buddhas do, what you do. What else is there to know?