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January 20th, 2013
10:58 am - (recollections and soliloquies)
Some time ago, I read an interview with the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. He said that sometimes he feels the pangs of lust and what he does with it and about it. I recalled the stories about the Sixth Dalai Lama and his escapades in Lhasa and then about other great spiritual teachers in Tibetan and Zen traditions. I also recalled when, as a young man, I asked out a girl who just broke up with my good friend. A stupid thing on my part, very unskillful. A bad karma, too.
RECOLLECTIONS AND SOLILOQUIES (Part I, II, IV and VI, VII)
(I)
What can we learn from the ancient masters?
Take this ol' Zen man Ikkyu
with his passion for earthly affairs
An outstanding painter, a calligrapher
a poet famous for his wit
shortly after becoming the abbot
of the great monastery Daitoku ji
he sternly scolded his monks
and sent their hypocrisy to
the whore-houses and sake parlors
he himself frequented openly
At seventy, Ikkyu fell in love
with Mori a blind singer forty years his junior
"one tune with you among the flowers
is worth ten thousand springs" he wrote
and scandalized all
moving her into the quarters of his temple
to the final days following the dictum
to be but ordinary
in every way
(II)
Indeed, what can we learn from them?
Take this pretty boy Dalai Lama, the Sixth
with his elegant clothes and fancy rings
Recognized as the incarnation of the Great Fifth
reborn at the time of political intrigue
thus kept in hiding for many years without the usual
monastic training, he eventually gave up
even his novice robe and
openly cavorted in Lhasa
drinking and composing love songs:
"this bar maid is my refuge, this drinking place
my true home", he wrote
Yet even when drunk on wine or being
in love, the Sixth never lacked compassion
he chanted sutras days and nights
for his beloved
he tied prayer flags
The Sixth passed away early (again a victim of plots)
leaving behind his Song of Rebirth -–
"white crane, please, lend me your skill of wings
I am not gong far, I will return"
(IV)
So, what can we learn from the ancient masters?
Like this mendicant Ryokan with his rugs
so shabby he looked like a wandering thief
To beg for food and humility
he mended a cracked weather beaten bowl
and took good care of the famous vase
days and nights so it was never feel lonely again
An exquisite calligrapher, a haiku master, a hermit
doing zazen like a towering mountain
he adopted the Zen name Daigu -- The Big Fool
indeed, who would care about a small one
In old age, Ryokan fell in love
with Teishin a young beautiful nun. "Even in heavens
there is nothing more precious than your visit
on the first day of spring," he wrote
Ä great fool, indeed, dozing
in this world of dreams
yet urging us to sing and dance
all night long under the silent moon
(VI)
crimson dawn
like strawberries
we share
(VII)
What can I learn I am not sure
perhaps you could teach me
how to remember
the sound of morning mist
falling off a blooming camellia
Where I belong I do not know
hermit, perhaps, in past lives
yearning for days as a lover
in this life, I am a lover
longing for days as a hermit
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What lovely poems, what lovely thoughts.
Love comes--there is no virtue in turning from it--the whore houses and sake parlors, the mendicant's path and the seashore, they are all ways to love, in all meanings of ways to love, I think.
(and the photos are beautiful as always--I love light seen through birds' wings) Thank you!
This love, so complicated. In China monastics were bhikshus (meaning celibate monks). The same in Tibet, but the story about the Sixth shows what happens sometimes when the politics and spirituality intersect. In Japan, at least these days, there are only priests and they can get married.
You are so right, loves comes -- no virtue in turning from it. |
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stefan11
