to be utterly without hope is also to be utterly without despair
From the category archives:
the Unsayable
Earlier I wrote — “the peace that passeth understanding can’t be understood.”
What’s worse, it can’t be experienced.
Then what, we may ask, is it good for?
And, of course, the answer is — it’s good for Nothing.
Granted a shattering glimpse of crystalline quiet early,
I came to understand it late.
Finding no one to explain the Unexplainable,
I kept a different kind of quiet;
drifted along some usual ways –
school, jobs, career, a run in public life.
Now and then, in a seeming desert wander, would peace descend –
alleviating for a while the dis-satisfaction of dis-ease.
These days I dwell inside my cottage in a large and fertile plain.
Through my doors a river runs. I do not interfere.
Without reason I study poetic lines revealing Way;
living unfolding within a gift of ease.
(with thanks to Wang Wei)
so simple, yet so seeming hard to accept:
there is nothing that is not It
if your boat is empty, nothing in the world can oppose you on the river of living
with thanks to Thomas Merton and Chuang Tzu
spring 1967 –
one night in the kitchen
two friends stand talking when . . .
words stopping the world.
emptiness . . .
light . . .
laughter . . .
words . . .
the world beginning again,
one night in the kitchen.
for GG
whether to speak of the One, emptiness, God, or even in the philosophy of Zen, the nothingness beyond God, is not to describe reality, but to make a poetic choice
the pointers of a master never reach the Way
All idleness in the back patio,
away from the world for a while,
poetry, a cigar, a pot of tea.
One moment empties into the next…
the Protestant Ethic has left this life.
the peace that passeth understanding can’t be understood
No longer concerned with place in the world,
time relaxes, days fill with quiet mystery.
Everyday life unburdened, cooking, once a chore,
loses its tedium. I cook and eat at home.
In the garden a sapling soaks after planting.
I sit in the radiance of things as they are.
even the darkest clouds do not refute the sky
no fruit of hard work,
but a gift from elsewhere:
absence deepening in presence
(with thanks to Mei Yao-Ch’en)
little to show for this life:
few things the world desires
the early summer sun cool,
light breeze empties passing thoughts
long dead Chinese poets
point to Way with their words –
presence summoning absence
pushing the river does not effect the outcome of the voyage; it’s just tiring
ease in living accompanies acceptance of life’s finitude
dwelling in ease neither entails nor precludes an easy life
you can no more lead a horse to water than you can make him drink
at some point life may disappoint us into the realization
that it turns out only as it does, not as we wish –
afterwards, ease may appear
you can’t cross from listening to Silence — there’s no you in Silence
the 10,000 things,
utterly themselves
and utterly sufficient,
include the self
Growing older, my idleness perfects itself.
Morning I drink tea, afternoon gaze into empty clouds
drifting so slowly by they seem to last forever.
Reading poems, notebook at hand,
I capture one thought, then another
as they disappear into a silence that has no name.
Tranquil in this college town, I savor passing time.
(with thanks to Po Chü-i)
an unlooked for gift: delight in the Way
morning arrives with blues,
the afternoon brings bliss,
questions of why, no longer asked –
who knows which of 10,000 things comes next?
preoccupation with right way and wrong way obscures Way
apparent contradiction . . . using words to end words
what can be said about the Unsayable?
while the Way is beyond words, words are not in the way
there is only the One, which, as it happens, is empty
true idleness is nothing doing
Do you think that you can take the world in hand and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.
The world is Tao’s own vessel.
You cannot control it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to cling to it, you will lose it.
So sometimes things move forward, and sometimes not;
Sometimes breathing is hard, and sometimes easy;
Sometimes we find strength, and sometimes weakness;
Sometimes we are up, and sometimes down.
Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, arrogance.
(Adapted from several translations)
the Unsayable speaks for itself
when you no longer push the river, the river no longer pushes you
a special grace: to be granted contentment with one’s lot