Sharing the Silence

September 16, 2009 Will Simpson

"Sharing the Silence", number 157 of 188 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

This miniature is surprising. We can not know what is going on, moment to moment when we meet in silence. Aitken relays a incident where his silence is met with crude racism. Surprisingly crude.

Day by Day & Drip by Drip

What we do day by day, drip by drip, over time affects our attitude, the place on which we stand and operate in life.

A daily sitting practice after years and years slowly becomes a touch stone, a friend. We treat ourselves with a healthy dose of quietude to balance the activity of a normal life. Yet it is easier to develop and stick to a diet or exercise plan than it is to stick to daily sitting.

Committing to a daily practice of quite sitting (zazen) counts for more than one imagines. The strength built by both the commitment and the actual practice (not two!) shows up everywhere. It changes the world and connects. It is what is needed for the healing of our world.

This is our challenge, are you up for it?

Any error or confusion created by my commentary on
Miniatures of a Zen Master
is solely a reflection of my own delusion and ignorance.
Any merit generated by this activity is solely the result of
Aitken Roshi's clear teaching and is dedicated to
all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time

A Turning Point

September 15, 2009 Will Simpson

"A Turning Point", number 156 of 188 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

Robert Aitken shares with us one of his life path turning point events. During a gathering of "young would-be writers" a reviewer mentioned that Aitken's poetry sounded like Japanese or Chinese verse. He had not considered this before this. From there he found Asataro Miyamori's Haiku: Ancient and Modern and Arthur Waley's Translations from the Chinese.

"With this a train of karma got fired up, and it's still tooting along."

My turning point was when I was convinced by the changes I saw in my friend Richard Ibey, to follow him and encounter EST. This fired up my "train of karma... and it's still tooting along".

Stephen Crane

September 13, 2009 Will Simpson

"Stephen Crane", number 155 of 188 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

Today Aitken reminds us that Stephen Crane wrote the American Civil War classic The Red Badge of Courage. He recommends Crane to 'the young writer ... for his naturally expressed yet vivid humanism.' I found this quote on Wikipedia and apparently Ernest Hemingway feels strongly about Crane also.

In 1936, Ernest Hemingway wrote in The Green Hills of Africa that "The good writers are Henry James, Stephen Crane, and Mark Twain. That's not the order they're good in. There is no order for good writers."

We have run into a string of miniatures about history and writing. And why not? Aitken is a writer and quite interested in history.

Life and death interpenetrate. In fact, what people call "life" is just generally their own little lives and "death" is the end of that. But death is something that life does and death renews and refreshes life. Life and death are not opposed to each other. So when the bodymind dies, it just dies. Now the bodymind is alive. Can you just live? I mean, since you're alive anyway, why not take advantage of the fact by giving up trying to get anything out of it and just sit up straight and just live? "This is as it is not because you make it so, but because the Dharma is thus."

-Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, continuing teisho 3 "The Body of the Buddha" from the series, "Seeing Eye to Eye: Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's Yuibutsu Yobutsu," Tuesday, May 18th, 2004.

Cinque Ports

September 11, 2009 Will Simpson

"Cinque Ports", number 154 of 188 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

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Continuing on the theme from my previous post, Aitken this time starts off with a history lesson about the seventeenth and eighteenth century town Rye in southeastern England. Aitken can't seem to help himself, he has to get a bit fancy with his writing. Wander off to wikipedia to learn about "cinque ports".

Then as today, greed was run a muck. This reminds me of the part of the Great Vows that goes, ...Greed, hatred and ignorance rise endlessly; I vow to abandon them. Recently it has been brought to my attention that greed is a synonymous with like, and hatred with dislike and ignorance with indifference. So greed, hatred and ignorance becomes like, dislike and indifference rise endlessly.

What type of nerd are you?

Any error or confusion created by my commentary on
Miniatures of a Zen Master
is solely a reflection of my own delusion and ignorance.
Any merit generated by this activity is solely the result of
Aitken Roshi's clear teaching and is dedicated to
all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time.

The Mejiro

September 11, 2009 Will Simpson

"The Mejiro", number 153 of 188 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

Japanese White-eye Mejiro

In this miniature Aitken, in a seven sentence paragraph, lays out an intimate scene between him and Yamada Roshi. In what feels linguistically contrived word play, we move from the "lanai of Koko An" watching a "little bird flitting around the Climbing Fig" to the successfully introduction in the 1920's of the mejiro from "Japan to Hawai'i". Yamada display of a bit of uncertainty about all this.

This all seems a fancy and over written. It takes more words to describe this and Aitken took to write it. Maybe this is my own confusion and lack of skill at writing. In such a short paragraph he has set a specific scene with two characters (three if you count the mejiro). The place is familiar to him but a bit confusing to me as he uses one term that is unfamiliar – lanai. This seems the danger of fancy writing. Turns out that lanai refers both to an island in the Hawaiian chain of islands and also a veranda.

This brings up the question for me as to what exactly Aitken means by a "miniature"? So far this collection of miniatures have been a mix of subtle and not so subtle teachings, family snapshots, history lessons and now with this one we get a bit of a writing lesson.

Something a bit different is going on for sure. Have I missed it?

James Krenov, a legendary woodworker, author, and founder of the College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture Program in Fort Bragg, Calif, died September 9, 2009 at the age of 89.

His cabinet making philosophy and skills at teaching and his students continuing work are his legacy. He was someone who had no idea how vast his influence has been. He even has a style of furniture named for him Krenovian. He is also famous for his wooden hand planes. I have been planning on making one and now seems to be the time to start.

"Tongues in Trees"

September 8, 2009 Will Simpson

"Tongues in Trees", number 152 of 188 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

From WoodenZen

Scene 1, Act 2 of William Shakespeare's As You Like It Duke Senior says "Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing."

This points to the inter-beingness of things contrived and the natural world. Trees that talk, rivers with stories, preached to by stones, and good in every thing. Later in the play it comes out as "these trees shall be my books". Learning from the natural world.

The Friendly Animals

September 6, 2009 Will Simpson

"The Friendly Animals", number 151 of 188 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

From WoodenZen

Two days and no movement. This miniature seems a mix of anthropomorphism and a small bird that foretells the future. Seems odd to be in a book presumably about Zen.

Color me hopeful.