Diamond Sutra
Many of us who will be reading this item are probably fans of haiku. The spiritual tradition and aesthetics of haiku were finally established by its greatest exponent Matsuo Basho. Classical haiku, in that literary giant's influential school, is a methodology which offers a partial solution to this endlessly slippery challenge of cyclical time. Let's take the plunge:
old pond
a frog jumps in
the sound of water
The first verse of The Diamond Sutra deals with repetition. As time goes by the days seem to pass ever more quickly. Weeks are the new days, as it were, and months the new weeks. The metaphor of a rolling stone comes to mind. Obviously there must be a reason for this in the ecology of a single life and presumably this pattern of perceived acceleration templates all things that come to pass. Empires rise and fall and as they age in physical form the time seems to speed itself up. Nevertheless, it is certainly a challenge to discover one's relationship with this well known phenomena. The riddle endures and insists on temporary resolutions, if not closure. The first verse of Diamond Sutra explains Buddha's method or discovery. He is simply not bound by time and its 10,000 things."Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life." - Joseph Campbell
"Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Your poetry issues of its own accord when you and the object have become one – when you have plunged deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. However well-phrased your poetry may be, if the object and yourself are separate – then your poetry is not true poetry but a semblance of the real thing." - Matsuo Basho
We move out of our own local time into the local time of another entity. This shamanic procedure is getting us there. The reason being, that to do this movement of conscious awareness in the process of achieving contemplation of our object (the pine or bamboo) we needs must transit via the space of time which is no time at all. Eternity. Out of our safe zone box of conditioned reflexes and learned behaviours of thought and action. We sensitize to the time line of another's state of being. One does this by entering the experience of eternity. Time-less-ness. Famously, that little enlightenment of a haiku moment's pause; an aha/eureka realisation. A temporal interruption of the theoretical stream of becoming.
The next stage of our evolutionary delight would be to maintain this awareness of no-thing's emptiness and release the pine and bamboo from our—albeit kindly—interference.
"Meditation without an object is the way into eternity. Detachment. Vairagya." - jp
From this boundlessly detached vantage point of eternity, we not only are aware hyper-clearly of the transitory world of busy forms; but we are happy about that temporary state of affairs. This is what all the holy statues are smiling about.
All conditioned phenomena
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, or shadows;
Like drops of dew, or flashes of lightning;
Thusly should they be contemplated.
Buddha (Postscript to Diamond Sutra)
Basho's closest classical peer in respect to this absorption in universal nature and—in particular—her sweet, apparently capricious creatures, is Kobayashi Issa. In this haiku, that most likeable of haijin (kuist), speaks of time's ephemera quite neatly and with much reflective power:
the world of dew
is the world of dew
and yet, and yet...
Issa
So, will this help us to resolve the increasingly urgent riddles of accelerating time as our life's momentum increases? Only in the absolute stillness of boundless eternity it would seem. Here, as mechanical [people] in the land of mixed feelings (Maria Sabina), we soldier in the unfolding complexities of our small incarnate dramas. Perchance gradually to become, in parallel, seamlessly aware of eternity's permanence; even whilst we engage with the myriad snippets and linkages of an accelerating and ever perplexing ephemeral.
silently
a noisy butterfly
scribbles
jp
The Diamond Sutra online
Also see Heart Sutra @ geodesic_eye
A USEFUL ZEN RESOURCE FROM JAPAN NATIONAL TOURIST ORGANIZATION
Zen & Zazen
Zazen is a form of mental or spiritual training which originated in India. When doing Zazen, the practitioner sits with the correct posture, breathes regularly, and abandons worldly thoughts. Zazen was introduced to Japan from China, and a sect was established which used the method to achieve spiritual enlightenment.
The doctrine of zen buddhism can be described as wordless communication, or expression without language. It is a basic tenet of zen that the truth can only be attained through direct experience. Various training methods including zazen are employed to achieve this end.
A priest performs no productive labor, but lives by begging food and money. This is called takuhatsu and is a method of effacing oneself and becoming free of vanity.
jp 06-06-12
This musing is a living document and as such will develop - so, be sure to return regularly to this page, if you like. Not just to note any changes, but also to review the material in the light of your own understanding.
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