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#4123 - Monday, January 3, 2011 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Here are some old Japanese Haiku about New Year's
(translations by R.H. Blyth):
The Great Morning
Winds of long ago
Blow through the pine-trees.
-- Onitsura
(The "Great Morning" was an
ancient Japanese term for the
morning of New Year's. )
New Year's Day:
The beginning of the harmony
Of Heaven and Earth.
-- Shiki
New Year's Day;
Nothing good or bad,-
Just human beings.
-- Shiki
That is good, this too is good-
New Year's Day
In my old age.
--Ryoto
New Year's Day also
Has come to its close,
With the sounding bell.
-- Hakki
New Year's Day;
Whosoever's face we see,
It is care-free.
-- Shigyoku
The First Day of the Year:
I remember
A lonely autumn evening.
-- Basho
New Year's Day:
The desk and bits of paper,-
Just as last year.
-- Matsuo
New Year's Day:
My hovel,
The same as ever.
-- Issa
New Year's Day:
What luck! What luck!
A pale blue sky!
-- Issa
New Year's Day
I do not hate
Those who trample on the snow.
-- Yayu
The dawn of New Year's Day;
Yesterday,
How far off!
-- Ichiku
The first dream of the year;
I kept it a secret,
And smiled to myself.
-- Sho-u
The smoke
Is now making
The first sky of the year.
--Issa
[Blyth's commentary on this last haiku is:
"No smoke, no sky; no sky, no smoke.
But Issa does not think this. He knows, somehow or other, that
the smoking rising
and forming the first sky of the year has a meaning that can be
expressed only
by pointedly saying nothing about it."]
All quotations are from Haiku Volume 2:
Spring by R.H. Blyth. Tokyo: The
Hokuseido Press, 1981
posted by David Hodges to Facebook
Vermont, 3 photos by David Hodges
Half Empty of What?
If I am holding a cup of water and I ask
you, "Is this cup empty?" you will say,
"No, it is full of water." But if I pour out the water
and ask you again, you may
say, "Yes, it is empty." But, empty of what? . . . My
cup is empty of water, but it
is not empty of air. To be empty is to be empty of something. . .
. When
Avalokita [Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion] says
that the five
skandhas are equally empty, to help him be precise we must ask,
"Mr. Avalokita,
empty of what?" The five skandhas, which may be translated
into English as five
heaps, or five aggregates, are the five elements that comprise a
human being. . . .
In fact, these are really five rivers flowing together in us: the
river of form,
which means our body, the river of feelings, the river of
perceptions, the river
of mental formations, and the river of consciousness. They are
always flowing in
us. . . . Avalokita looked deeply into the five skandhas . . .
and he discovered that
none of them can be by itself alone. . . . Form is empty of a
separate self, but it
is full of everything in the cosmos. The same is true with
feelings, perceptions,
mental formations, and consciousness.
_Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding
Do Not Be Dualistic
Do not be dualistic. Truly be one with your
life as the subtle mind of nirvana.
That is what subtle means. Something is subtle not because it is
hidden, nor
because it is elusive, but because it is right here. We don’t
see it precisely
because it is right in front of us. In fact, we are living it.
When we live it we
don’t think about it. The minute we think about it, we are
functioning in the
dualistic state and don’t see our life as the subtle mind of
nirvana.
_Maezumi Roshi, "Appreciate Your Life"
Buddahood does not happen by being made to
happen. It is unsought and
naturally indwelling, and so is spontaneously present. Rest
nonconceptually in
this effortless, naturally abiding state.
- Longchepa
posted by Rashani Rea to Facebook