Old Sayings, Asylum Seekers and Dogen

There is an old saying in Zen: “In the beginning, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers; later on, mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers; and still later, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.”

There is a path to follow which is the circle of the way. Each moment is complete in itself yet leads on forever.

Such throw away phrases as "All is one" should be understood in a genuine context.  Ubiquitous in serious teachings of the "east" are words such as these....

It is not that duality stops existing or functioning; the small is still small and the large is still large. The body remains the body and the mind remains the mind. Without discerning the differences between things, we could not conduct even the simplest task of our daily lives. And yet...

The "and yet" is the key, words which lead to the meeting of "east" and "west", where the "incomprehensible" God of the Christian mystics, beyond all knowing, can meet the non-theism of Buddhism.

In the end, as D T Suzuki has said, we become the same old Tom, Dick or Harry we have always been. Nothing is lost. No "self", dissolved, slips into the shining sea. 

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time   (T.S.Eliot)

The journey is required, the circle of the way.

Moving on, and safely settled in Costa's, time to ruminate further. 

Latest in "Global Britain" is news of a tragedy in the English Channel, with at least four people drowning as they sought asylum in our land. One a five year old, another just eight. There are reports of a baby entering the water. I tend to think of my own grandchildren, just about the same ages.

As a sovereign nation, which is what we claim to be, we signed a 1951 Convention, which recognises that people fleeing persecution may have to use irregular means in order to escape and claim asylum in another country – there is no legal way to travel to the UK for the specific purpose of seeking asylum.

Indeed not. And since 1951 as a sovereign nation we have invaded other countries - uninvited - bombed others, sold billions of arms around the world which have been used in various way - most to kill and maim, to strike terror into human hearts. So, as I see it, we have ensured that a steady stream of those seeking asylum will seek those illegal ways. And to save our moral rectitude we then express our anger at those who "exploit" the refugees and asylum seekers, while our Government comes up with such ideas as "wave machines" to flush the human debris back to France. Well, anywhere in fact, just so long as they do not reach Global Britain.

Well, here is Dogen.....

On the great road of Buddha ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moment’s gap; continuous practice is the circle of the way.

Which seems a shift in topic and perspective. But if Dogen's words are understood, taken to heart, this is not so. For Dogen, time was being. Forget Einstein, relativity, and the warping of time and space, one the other. Dogen seemed to apprehend such long ago. Lived it. On the cushion and in the kitchen. While common sense tells us that there was yesterday, and now we are in today, and tomorrow is coming - a linear perspective - for Dogen his meditation, his life, was "an ocean that is serene and yet dynamic, its field as vast as spring time, which encompasses all of its flowers, birds, and mountain colors. Being in spring, he heard the sound of a valley stream or became a plum blossom swirling in the wind."

Very fanciful. Much like some, even most, of the garbage that passes for "thought" in our very own restless minds, each and every moment, as we ourselves progress through time, our anticipations and epitaphs, desires, likes and dislikes inevitably creating the suffering we are fleeing from. And so Dogen had his fancies and we have ours.

So much for Old Sayings. Ever new.

Meanwhile, perhaps even now, as I sip my cappuccino, another group of migrants are being ushered towards an inflatable dinghy, securing their lifebelts, reassuring their children.

Dogen once said that nothing in the entire universe is hidden and that there are no unanswered questions. In fact it was not Dogen who said this.....

Dogen simply told a story of when he was a young novice monk and he spoke to a temple cook in China. Dogen asked the cook, “What is the practice of the Way?”

The cook responded, “Nothing in the whole world is hidden.”

I think maybe we just make what is perfectly simple, complicated .

Related Quotes:-

Whoever told people that ‘Mind’ means thoughts, opinions, ideas and concepts? Mind means trees, fence posts, tiles and grasses. " (Dogen)

If consciousness is confined to the skull, how can joy exist?  (A zen master)