Belonging

 Reading some quite good stuff by David Hinton, who is very genned up on ancient Chinese thought. Thought that eventually gave us the Toa te Ching, which when meeting with the Buddhist Dharma from India morphed unto Ch'an. Later, from Ch'an into its Japanese expressions, zen, now rife in the West and sometimes hitting a brick wall, the wall being the typical western idea of the "self" as that which is to be developed, shaped and formed - in ways that the Ch'an and the zen masters would have seen as narcissistic distraction. Enlightenment as something to gain, to have. Not as given, gift, to be realised. Given by a Cosmos that is a single living tissue that is inexplicably generative, constantly giving birth to the "ten thousand things" AKA the "myriad dharmas".

All is change and transformation, each of the ten thousand things in perpetual flight, always on its way somewhere else.

David Hinton:-

The abiding aspiration of spiritual and artistic practice in ancient China was to cultivate consciousness as that existence-tissue Cosmos open to itself, awakened to itself: looking at itself, hearing and touching itself, tasting and smelling itself, and also thinking itself, feeling itself—all in the singular ways made possible by the individuality of each particular person. This is consciousness in the open, wild and woven into the generative Cosmos: wholesale belonging.

Apparently, and this was new to me, there was a phase in ancient Chinese thought where the possibility of going down the road of monotheism reared its head. Something being known as the "Celestial King". Fortunately such was only a phase, so China had no specially chosen people, no "jealous" God who would eventually demand a blood sacrifice to reconcile us to Himself. Phew! A narrow escape!

And so we can all be seen as chosen. We are not divided by our choices into sheep and goats, saved and lost, and "eternity" is left to be a constant unfolding into novelty, and not a two tier realm of heaven and hell (where never the twain shall mix - the ultimate dualism which will perhaps always be the end result of a created) world totally distinct from its Creator.

Who wants to feel at home?