The moon in a dewdrop

 A poem by Dogen:-

To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane’s bill.

A short commentary found on a website:-

In Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddhism of all Japanese schools including Zen, the moon stands for Buddha-nature. So the poem teaches a familiar truth that the moon (Buddha-nature) is completely reflected in every one of the countless dew drops (all things) without discrimination, namely one in all, all in one. This understanding is accompanied by a sense of fragility and impermanence within nature – strongly present in Japanese culture independently of Buddhism and reinforced by Buddhist teaching. Dogen gives us elegance and complexity in a 31 syllable form.

Hee-Jin Kim, a modern Zen scholar, takes this further, bringing out Dogen’s sensitivity to history as well as to nature. He draws attention to the word ‘shaken’: each dew drop holds a full yet shaken reflection of the moon. Dogen lived in what was seen as a dark and ill-starred time in Japanese history. Many Buddhists thought that even their path was compromised and talked of degenerate dharma (mappo). Kim understands Dogen as resisting this ideology of despair whilst fully aware of the collective turmoil. On this reading, the poem asserts that timelessness is experienced within, and only within, momentariness, even when the times are stressed.

So many in the West misunderstand the entire idea of "maya" (illusion) simply because of a dualistic way of apprehending Reality. From a non-dual perspective there can be no ultimate distinction between "illusion" and "reality". ALL is real. We are what we understand.

Well, that is enough waffle for now. I was reading a short section of Dogen's "Genjokoan" (the actualization of reality), the translation found in the "Treasury of the True Dharma Eye" - it really struck me, a beautiful translation - and I have read many.

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not crush the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

A nice image above. As Dogen expressed it, it is a question of realising non-duality within duality. Diversification, after touching the Source, the ground of reality, is of another order to diversification pure and simple - which can lead to confusion and aimlessness.

Related to all this is the ending of Edwin Arnold's poem on the life of the Buddha, "The Light of Asia". It ends with the line:-

The dewdrop slips into the shining sea

....as some sort of summary of nirvana. Totally wrong, and even the opposite i.e. "the shining sea slips into the dewdrop" is not much better.

Dogen, as far as "realising non-duality within duality" emphasises that individuality is not lost at all. As individual unique human beings we do not "dissolve" in some pantheistic mulch, but as D.T.Suzuki says elsewhere, we become once again the same Tom, Dicks or Harrys we have always been.