"...From the Buddhist point of view, reality itself has no meaning since it is not a sign, pointing to something beyond itself. To arrive at reality - at "suchness" - is to go beyond karma, beyond consequential action, and to enter a life which is completely aimless.
Yet to Zen and Taoism alike, this is the very life of the universe, which is complete at every moment and does not need to justify itself by aiming at something beyond.
In the words of a Zenrin poem:
"If you don't believe, just look at September, look at October!
The yellow leaves falling, falling, to fill both mountain and river!"
To see this is to be like the two friends of whom another Zenrin poem says:
"Meeting, they laugh and laugh-
The forest grove, the many fallen leaves!"
To the Taoist mentality, the aimless empty life does not suggest anything depressing. On the contrary, it suggests the freedom of clouds and mountain streams, wandering nowhere, of flowers in impenetrable canyons, beautiful for no one to see, and of the ocean surf forever washing the sand, to no end."
Page 146, 'The Way of Zen', by Alan Watts
No comments:
Post a Comment