Love has no why

Winnie the Pooh

I recently downloaded a little book of quotes by A A Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh. One caught my eye:-

  "A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business. " 

Well, be that as it may, I have always liked a quote or two, and for those unfortunate enough to be familiar with my Blogs, they will know that one of my all time favourites is that spoken by Meister Eckhart, "Love has no why" . Deep words which perhaps touch upon the "meaning" of life. 

Often "words" come in for a lot of criticism, sometimes from those who claim that they obscure the truth, which is deemed to be "beyond" words, a truth of "feeling", to be lived not thought. I seem to remember saying much the same myself. 

However, Dogen argues differently, seeing dualism lurking in the shadows of all such claims. His thought is complex and often  leaves me trailing in its wake, but that said, we "understand as we are, and we are that which we understand", and as such, as Dogen sees it, we all participate in Buddha-nature, even express it at all times. Our ultimate unity does not negate our differences. Our expression now of Buddha nature does not deny our journey - which is itself "home".

Buddha-nature

So "love has no why", which tells me much of the meaning of life. That in fact, life has no "meaning" as such. No purpose other than to be itself. What is the meaning of a rose, a daffodil? In flower, to be itself is enough, no matter the bulb and the withered petals of "before" and "after". One philosopher of science, Alfred North Whitehead, taught of "process", where nothing ever actually is, but is always in process, becoming. Dogen would argue that everything  is a continuous Is, each moment unique and complete in itself, yet empty. Whitehead would perhaps counter with:- "The many become one, and are increased by one." I think perhaps it would be an argument between friends. 

Alfred North Whitehead

Maybe all this sort of thing can be thought of as academic, a waste of thinking, purposeless as well as meaningless. For myself, I think back to when I first began to take the Buddhist path seriously, of just how inspirational I found the words of the Buddha,  that he taught one thing and one thing only, suffering and the ending of suffering. Inspirational words and also, giving purpose to all life and thought . Not "academic" at all. 

I still instinctively associate all thought and even my blogs with those words. Given the suffering of our world, given how suffering's sheer depth and extent can undermine any faith at all in a final meaning to existence at all, then any path that speaks of its "end" becomes significant and makes worthwhile every step we take, of mind or body. Add bodhicitta, the "heart/mind" that seeks enlightenment selflessly, purely for the sake of others, and what more purpose would anyone seek?

Bodhicitta

Yet, selfless or not, "In protecting oneself one protects others; in protecting others one protects oneself." All for one and one for all, or the Tao cannot be divided, but only shared. Oh yes, quotes can certainly save me from thinking for myself - very laborious at times. 

So I think words can be important, even enlightened. They can certainly add clarity.  I think of where so many arguments about "relative" and "absolute" begin, of  there being, logically, only One Truth. Replace the word "Truth" with "Reality" and I find a greater clarity. There can be, and is, only one Reality. Yet a Reality that can be known and experienced each according to our unique selves, in each moment, where the only extension is intensity.

 

Speak of a "truth", of a unique "incarnation", a God distinct and separate, and then claim there can be only one such, and look out, here comes the Inquisition, lost and saved,  heaven and hell, and the terrible dualisms as eternal verities. Speak of one Reality, and the "work of Christ", if we wish to use Christian terms, takes on a hue that can truly "save", truly be shared.

Not used to divide and separate, creating sheep and goats.

Division and unity

Related Quote:-

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all things you can't hear, and not bothering." 

(A.A. Milne)

And to repeat another quote given in a previous blog, which comes from a book on T.S.Eliot. It again seems appropriate here:-

Eliot feels no compunction in alluding to the Bhagavad Gita in one section of the poem and Dante's Paradiso in the next. He neither asserts the rightness nor wrongness of one set of doctrines in relation to the other, nor does he try to reconcile them. Instead, he claims that prior to the differentiation of various religious paths, there is a universal substratum called Word (logos) of which religions are concretions. This logos is an object both of belief and disbelief. It is an object of belief in that, without prior belief in the logos, any subsequent religious belief is incoherent. It is an object of disbelief in that belief in it is empty, the positive content of actual belief is fully invested in religious doctrine.

All for one and one for all

I have never much liked hierarchical organisations, or in fact, hierarchical anything at all. Once in the long ago, reading about a particular Buddhist movement, it was revealed that  those who were members wore various colour sashes around their waists, this to distinguish the "level of attainment" of each. Which tended to make me feel just a little bit queasy. Moving on from this, linking it with other things, I once wrote a blog called (in a slightly tongue in cheek manner) "My fertile period", in which I included one or two poems that I had written. At the beginning I wrote:-

I think that the reason I eventually stopped attempting to write poetry was that I discovered the "real" stuff. Which is sad in certain ways. Even though our own attempts are often no more than doggerel they are ours and often seek to express emotions, viewpoints and human empathy. That such is expressed in what in a literary sense is poor is in many ways beside the point. Knowing ourselves and expressing ourselves has a value beyond literary merit as such. 

Yes, now I think it is sad in every way, and the "value" in all our expressions becomes clearer by the day.

No matter what

There is, in the world of zen, a story concerning Bodhidharma - he who "came from the west" - and he once quizzed those who sought to learn from him.

Bodhidharma was about to go back to India. He said to his students, "The time has come. Can you express your understanding?" 

One of the students, Daofu said, "My present view is that we should neither be attached to letters, nor be apart from letters, and to allow the Way to function freely." 

Bodhidharma said, "You have attained my skin." 

Nun Zongchi said, "My view is that it is like the joy of seeing Akshobhya Buddha’s land just once and not again." 

Bodhidharma said, "You have attained my flesh." 

Daoyu said, "The four great elements are originally empty and the five skandhas do not exist. Therefore, I see nothing to be attained." 

Bodhidharma said, "You have attained my bones." 

Finally Huike came forward, made a full bow, stood up, and returned to where he was.

 Bodhidharma said, "You have attained my marrow." 

Bodhidharma

Well, this little story, given our sad predilection for grading everything as "better" or "worse", or as "right" or "wrong" - and thus leads to different colour sashes and eventually to inferior and superior races and cultures and much worse - is often understood in the sense of our own movement along the path of "awakening", of the gradually "deepening" of our understanding. Thus we are "polishing a stone, hoping to make a mirror". This is to seek attainment rather than realisation, or in Christian terms, to justify ourselves by works rather than by faith. 

Dogen understood the story differently, within his own totally non-dualistic manner, stating:-

If you take these different responses as being superior or inferior to each other, you have missed the intent of Bodhidharma. We should realize that although each disciple’s expression of the Dharma was different than the others, nonetheless, each in his or her own way contained the teacher’s whole being.

Each precious moment

Dogen goes on to speak of authenticity of practice, rather than different levels of realisation. and thus however lowly one's symbols and practices are as in, say, a peasants religion, it is authenticity that matters, a point made by Hee-Jin Kim in his fine book on Dogen. The Bible makes the very same point, that we are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Tonight the Music Man Project takes to the Royal Albert Hall. Begun about twenty years ago, the joy of music is shared with those often referred to as having "special needs", who play the instruments and sing. I have had the pleasure of seeing one of the shows (at the London Palladium) and those on stage shared their joy with me. Maybe wrong to highlight just one person, but one young girl in particular grabbed my attention. Her "authenticity", selfless in a performance of pure joy and exhilaration, was everything that reality could be. She had all the moves!

All the moves

Why grade it according to any mode of assessment or calculation, giving her perhaps a blue sash and another a red? 

For as Dogen says:- "nothing throughout the entire universe is concealed". 

(Nevertheless, as Hee-Jin Kim summarises, "the mystery of emptinesss and thusness had to go beyond this: intimacy had to be ever penetrated")

The road goes on forever.

Related Quotes:-

"To cast off the body-mind did not nullify historical and social existence so much as to put it into action so that it could be the self-creative and self-expressive embodiment of Buddha-nature. In being 'cast off,' however, concrete human existence was fashioned in the mode of radical freedom - purposeless, goaless, objectless, and meaningless. Buddha-nature was not to be enfolded in, but was to unfold through, human activities and expressions. The meaning of existence was finally freed from and authenticated by its all-to-human conditions only if, and when, it lived co-eternally with ultimate meaninglessness."

(Hee-Jin Kim, on Dogen)

"Love has no why"

 (Meister Eckhart)