Monday, March 26, 2012

because zen is not zen





we went to our master and asked him, what is zen? 

he sighed

wait until it rains, he said, and ask a blackbird

impatiently, we waited until it was raining.  we asked a blackbird, what is zen?

he said, the rain is zen

it seemed true.  raindrops gleamed on his feathers, like small worlds born and dying.  he pressed the wet air and it answered with a song

but, we objected, it isn’t always raining….

the blackbird sighed. oh, fuckinghell, he said, give me a break, lifting himself on his perch and shaking the rain from his wings to fly away

15 comments:

  1. I was of three minds,
    Like a tree
    In which there are three blackbirds.

    It's good to keep adding to our ways of looking at blackbirds.

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  2. Hannah: you took the best one :-) but ...

    A man and a woman
    Are one.
    A man and a woman and a blackbird
    Are one.

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  3. What an amazing photo. <3 I love rainy days as much as the blackbird above. Few things on Earth make me happier.

    Kisses.

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  4. Kenia: i love the way rain accentuates some colors almost to surrealism, while muting others, and softens every edge and sound ... the drone of rain is like sleep -- i dream through such days :-)

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  5. Liz: did a man fall asleep and dream he was a blackbird, or did a blackbird fall asleep and dream he was a man? (that works as well as a butterfly, i guess :-)

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  6. I love how this bit of serious contemplation we partake in becomes a lark (or rather, a blackbird). I just read Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. How many years, six or something, to finally release the bowstring without a thwack. Maybe rain is lots of arrows being released without effort, always reaching their mark.

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  7. I wish it was raining now...
    Beautiful words. :)

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  8. Ruth: and the blackbird flies perfectly, presumably by never thinking about flight ...

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  9. Lucia: make it rain! this is largely a matter of will ...

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  10. That made me laugh :) what a beautiful bird, delicate and regal, and that little eye which seems to know so much.

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  11. Marion: i think this bird knows everything, but it ain't telling much :-)

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  12. zen is not zen? ha! in this case he's a feisty blackbird with an attitude. i like him. i'd follow him anywhere, even if it involved sitting quietly in the rain; perhaps especially if it involved sitting quietly in the rain.

    up the tote road today i sat with no purpose. nothing happened. and i wasn't delivered. instead, i read some bly, was happy and then grew bored. i left the car. it was cold. i made my way to the river. i do what i do outside. squatting on my haunches i noticed small droplets of water frozen to thin stems like crystals or earrings just over the river. holyhell! they were gorgeous! a quick zip and i was running to the car for my camera as if the ice might melt any second. what could zen or a blackbird tell me that i would hear? i had to hear it for myself with my eyes in a moment with no expectation. (always the transitional moments hold the significance. it was buds and bursting green last week. today it was, again, the ice.)

    your photograph...well, i envy it. envy is not a good thing. i'll have to work on that:)

    xo
    erin

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  13. erin: zen is not zen! all the bumbling and sputtering speech around the practice is not the practice. it is a moment by moment perception, recognition, disappearance -- and talking about it necessarily separates you from it ...

    your story is zen. seeing these frozen droplets in their being (especially as it happened :-)

    i can't possibly say it better than this: what could zen or a blackbird tell me that i would hear? i had to hear it for myself with my eyes in a moment with no expectation. (always the transitional moments hold the significance. it was buds and bursting green last week. today it was, again, the ice.)

    exactly :-)))

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  14. and we tried to photograph exactly the moment when the blackbird took off, shaking the rain off its rings, but we missed it and then we started to laugh: well, we still don't know what zen is, but at least we found out something more about photography :-)

    (the photo is simply stunning - i think there is such thing as creative, inspiring envy too, and then it is a good thing, erin :-)

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