Matsuo Basho -3- Wabi

◎Jade Tablet -05-19

◎The Horizontal Path of Youth -18

◎Matsuo Basho -3- Wabi, Sabi, Aware -1

◎Wabi

 

Wabi, sabi, and aware are qualities that ordinary, unenlightened people possess, but they manifest more profoundly in the enlightened.

First, Basho's wabi. An enlightened person, having seen through worldly desires such as wealth, is invariably impoverished. This naturally occurs because they occasionally yield to others and do not seek personal gain.

However, actually struggling with basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter is not easy, even for the enlightened, and the state of being in such circumstances is called "wabu." The enlightened live a life turned upside down, so they are inevitably socially maladjusted and therefore poor. Yet, "wabu" is neither negative nor positive.

Furthermore,

"Tsuki wo wabi, mi wo wabi, tsutanaki wo wabite, wabu to kotaemu to suredo, tou hito mo nashi. Nao wabi wabite,

Wabite sume tsuki wabisai ga nara chauta" (Basho)

(Approximate meaning:

I spend my days lamenting the moon, lamenting myself, and lamenting my own inadequacy. If someone were to ask, I would answer, "I am lamenting," but there is no one to ask. Still, unable to bear the penetrating solitude of wabi,

While admiring the moon, I hum a Nara tea song as I eat Nara tea rice, and my wabi becomes clear.)

(Poetry collection: Musashiburi)

Wabi is valued not only in haikai but also in the tea ceremony.

Sen no Rikyu, though not enlightened, states that the true meaning of wabi lies in the manifestation of the Buddha's mind (Namboroku).

In the Twelve Hours Song of the Zen monk Joshu, the feeling of a wabi-filled life is expressed relentlessly. Wabi is a world far removed from the brand-loving super-rich who are so popular today.

In addition,

"Kasa wa choto no ame ni hokorobi, kamiko wa tomari tomari no arashi ni mometari. Wabitsukushitaru wabibito, ware sae aware ni oboekeru. Mukashi kyoka no saishi, kono kuni ni tadorishi koto wo, futo omoiidete moshi haberi.

Kyoku kogarashi no mi wa chikuzai ni nitaru kana" (Basho)

(Approximate meaning: My hat is tattered from the long journey's rain, and my paper coat is similarly worn from the storms along the way. I, a person utterly wabi, even feel pity for myself. Suddenly, I recall that long ago, Chikusai, a talented kyoka poet, also traveled to this country, so...)

*Chikusai: The protagonist of a humorous and rambling kyoka tale about a quack doctor, Chikusai, who, after running out of money in Kyoto, travels down the Tokaido to Edo with his servant, Nirami no Suke. (Poetry collection: Fuyu no Hi)

Sages often emerge from the literate class, entering meditation practice with intellectual refinement. Although it is difficult to achieve enlightenment in poverty from the outset, they "wabu" after attaining enlightenment.

Thus, as stated in Zuimonki of Shomon Hidan, "To find interest in wabi is the reward of entering the path," and the way of life of an awakened person is the essence of wabi.

Matsuo Basho -2- The Present Moment

◎Jade Tablet -05-18

◎The Horizontal Path of Youth -17

 

"The present moment" signifies the unification of oneself with the entire world, the entire universe. In that state, past, present, and future merge, transcending time. Words arising from this experiential situation belong to the enlightened, who have achieved enlightenment through "jijo maren" (磨錬), the horizontal path of diligently performing daily and momentary tasks.

(1) Yesterday's Haiku is Today's Death Poem, Today's Haiku is Tomorrow's Death Poem

One day, when Basho was near death, his disciples, including Shikō and Otoshū, gathered to visit him. Kyorai, concerned about Basho's condition, said to him, "Historically, famous masters often leave a death poem on their deathbed. There are those who say, 'There has never been a master as renowned as this without a death poem.' If you, Master, could leave a splendid verse, it would fulfill the wishes of all your disciples."

Hearing this, Basho replied, "Yesterday's haiku is today's death poem, today's haiku is tomorrow's death poem. Every verse I have uttered in my life is a death poem."

He further stated, "'All existence, from its origin, constantly manifests the aspect of tranquil extinction.' This is Shakyamuni's death poem, and his entire Buddhist teaching is contained within this single verse."

"An old pond, a frog jumps in, the sound of water."

"It was with this verse that I established my own style, and thus, I have a death poem. I have composed hundreds and thousands of verses since then, and none of them were without this intention. Therefore, every verse is a death poem." (From the Hanaya Diary)

Looking at it this way, there is a tremendous gap between Basho and his disciples gathered there. Kyorai also failed to grasp his meaning. Perhaps Morikawa Kyoriku came somewhat close.

This reminds me of the scene where the Zen monk Rinzai lamented his disciple, the Zen monk Sanshō, on his deathbed.

However, there is a common saying that "all arts are merely imitations of 'that,'" but conversely, in terms of work, there is also a path to reaching "that" through diligent and precise work as "jijo maren." Therefore, it is not true that arts are inherently flawed.

(2) Kyoriku Attains Great Enlightenment with a Single Word from Basho

Morikawa Kyoriku was one of Basho's top disciples. He deeply contemplated Basho's haiku.

His representative work is, "Ten dango mo kotsubu ni narinu aki no kaze" (Even the ten dumplings have become small, in the autumn wind.)

Ten dumplings are a specialty of Utsunoya Pass in Suruga Province, but the ten linked dumplings seemed smaller than before. The autumn wind.

One day, Kyoriku asked Basho, "Master, are there any haiku that you consider failures?"

Basho replied, "Every verse."

Upon hearing this single word, Kyoriku is said to have instantly attained great enlightenment.

["I asked, 'Does even a master have failures?'

He replied, 'Every verse.'

Hearing this single word, I instantly attained great enlightenment." (Haikai Mondo)]

As long as humans have a physical body, there is nothing immortal or eternally indestructible. Only despair stands before the irrationality of losing everything upon death. How much more so the haiku of such humans?

Basho was, at the very least, a person who had attained "kensho" (見性, seeing one's true nature).

Haiku must emerge from the "mihatsu" (未発, the state before arising) to avoid wavering, losing balance, and lacking completeness.

Being in the "mihatsu," one can then compose verses about phenomena that are "shohou mugo" (諸法無我, all things are without a permanent self). Therefore, there is nothing but failure.

Haiku is an intermediate form, but there are things to be seen by pursuing its delicacy to the utmost.

Matsuo Basho -1- The Way of Seeking Truth

◎Jade Tablet -05-17

◎The Horizontal Path of Youth -16

 

Matsuo Basho, originally a samurai from Iga Ueno, became a haiku master and later delved into Zen, even achieving enlightenment. Although there is no specific anecdote of him entering "Daishi Ichiban" (complete enlightenment), some of his remaining haiku convey the unique aura of an enlightened person who has experienced this state. These can be categorized into solitude, the present moment, "wabi-sabi" (austere beauty), "aware" (pathos), impermanence, and the moment of death. He was a dedicated follower of the path of haiku, and he transcended haiku itself.

(1) Matsuo Basho's Origins

Matsuo Basho was born in 1644 into the Matsuo family, local samurai in Iga Ueno, descendants of the Taira clan. Renowned as a prodigy from childhood, he was employed as a page and cook for Todo Yoshitada, the eldest son of a 5,000-koku samurai general in Iga Ueno.

After Todo Yoshitada passed away in 1666, Basho remained in Iga Ueno for six years. In 1672, at the age of 29, he decided to make a living through haikai (linked verse) and moved to Edo (present-day Tokyo). Iga Ueno is also known as the home of ninja.

After moving to Edo, he was recognized for his contribution to the design of the Koishikawa aqueduct project and was granted permission to become a townsperson (despite being a samurai). In 1680, he was allowed to reside in Fukagawa Rokkenbori.

Basho abruptly quit his four-year involvement in the Koishikawa aqueduct project and went into seclusion in Fukagawa, possibly due to the change of shogun to Tsunayoshi. His life as a haikai critic at a koi pond guardhouse in Fukagawa must have been quite dull.

(2) Basho's Enlightenment (Furuike Shinden)

At the age of 37, Matsuo Basho became a monk at the Fukagawa Basho Hermitage and received "inka" (proof of enlightenment) from the Zen master Buccho Oshō. The practice of composing haiku might seem incompatible with the Zen approach of facing harsh reality head-on. It requires a certain composure, a poetic spirit, to compose haiku in such a state of mind.

Buccho Oshō, accompanied by the Zen-keen layman Rikuso　Gohei, who was illiterate, visited the Basho Hermitage in Fukagawa.

Upon entering the gate and seeing Basho's face, Rikuso　Gohei asked, "Is the Buddha's teaching present in the plants and trees of this garden?"

Basho immediately replied, "The leaves, the large ones are large, and the small ones are small."

Then Buccho Oshō asked, "How is your condition these days?"

Basho responded, "The rain has passed, washing over the green moss."

Buccho Oshō pressed further, "What about when the green moss has not yet grown, and the spring rain has not yet come?"

At that moment, a frog jumped into the old pond in the garden.

Basho answered, "A frog jumps in, the sound of water."

Hearing this, Buccho Oshō smiled, gave him his "nyoi" (a ceremonial baton), and acknowledged Basho's state of enlightenment with a verse:

"Honbun muso" (The original self has no form)

"Ga wa ze nizo sha" (I am that which cannot be expressed in words)

"Moshi mada anata gata ga, mou ikku ni deatte inai nara" (If you have not yet encountered another verse)

"Chotto mite minasai. Isshin wa hokkai (shinri jissou no koto) de ari, hokkai wa isshin de aru" (Take a look. The unified mind is the Dharma realm (truth, reality), and the Dharma realm is the unified mind.)

The disciples who had been watching this scene offered their congratulations, and Ransetsu suggested, "This lacks a crowning phrase. Please add five more syllables."

Basho said, "Let's hear your opinions first. Try composing the first line."

Sampu offered "Yoyami ya" (The evening darkness),

Ransetsu offered "Sabishisa ya" (The loneliness),

Kikaku offered "Yamabuki ya" (The Japanese kerria), but none of them pleased Basho, so he himself decided on:

"Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto" (An old pond, a frog jumps in, the sound of water.)

(Reference: Zenmon Itsuwa Sen / Zen Culture Research Institute)

(3) Basho's Teacher, Buccho Oshō

Just as Ikkyu's "Kyounshu" is a work overflowing with Zen knowledge, Basho's haiku collection requires a considerable understanding of Zen to fully appreciate. This is because Zen stories and concepts are woven into his concise verses.

Basho's teacher, Buccho Oshō, was from Fudamura, Kashima County, Hitachi Province. At the age of 32, he became the chief priest of Kashima Konponji Temple and frequently stayed at Rinsen'an in Fukagawa, Edo, to mediate a territorial dispute with Kashima Shrine. It seems that it was around this time that he formed a teacher-disciple relationship with Matsuo Basho.

In "Oku no Hosomichi" (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), there is a passage where Basho visits the former residence in Kurobane, Shimotsuke Province, where Buccho Oshō lived and practiced asceticism. He heard that Buccho Oshō had written a poem on a nearby rock with charcoal during his time in that small hermitage:

"Tateyoko no gosshaku ni taranu kusa no iori musubu mo kuyashi ame nakariseba" (A thatched hut, less than five feet in length and width, built grudgingly for lack of rain.)

Basho visited this former residence. The hermitage was located deep inside Unganji Temple, far along a valley path, built on a rock with a cliff behind it, which he found from the top of the mountain behind.

Seeing this, Basho was reminded of the Zen master Genmyo of the Southern Song dynasty, who entered Zhanggong Cave in Mt. Tenmoku, Hangzhou, and stayed there for 15 years with a plaque inscribed "Shikan" (Death Seclusion).

"Kitsutsuki mo iori wa yaburazu natsu kodachi" (Even the woodpecker spares the hermitage, in the summer grove.)

Only the sound of the woodpecker echoes in the quiet summer grove. Basho felt a timeless tranquility in the unchanged appearance of the hermitage.

Dogen - 5 - Living in the Secular World After Enlightenment

◎Jade Tablet - 05 - 16

◎Horizontal Path of Youth - 15

Even Dogen, a person who experienced mind-body detachment, was still lacking in terms of personality. This is not just a problem with Dogen; it's that entering Nirvana doesn't necessarily mean a person is perfectly well-rounded and mature. Nirvana and personal maturity are unrelated.

You might hear stories about how amazing a new religious leader is because they are so refined and never get angry, always smiling, but that personal perfection is a separate issue from the core of enlightenment.

I think this background involves the perspective of the depth and height of enlightenment. An enlightened person has cleared both heaven and hell, but among them are those who can calmly deal with hellish things and those who are not good at it. The former are people who have both height and depth, while the latter have only reached height. From that perspective, I think Dogen is the latter.

I think Dogen can be cited as an example of an enlightened person who, despite experiencing mind-body detachment, cannot be called personally mature. There are many people who have matured personally without experiencing Nirvana, but awakening and personal cultivation are separate things.

When his disciple Genmyō received a donation of land from Hōjō Tokiyori and returned to Eiheiji Temple in high spirits, Dogen was furious. He destroyed Genmyō's zazen seat and dug up and threw away the earth where he had been staying, displaying a terrible rage.

Dogen could not tolerate his disciple's desire for fame and fortune, but it was too much. This is a situation where his senior disciple, Koun Ejō, should have stepped in to mediate.

Also, in "Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki," he harshly criticized the monks of Kenninji Temple for talking about sex and other erotic matters after Eisai's death, saying it was utterly unacceptable, and that exposing one's genitals in private or in the dark, without hiding them, was a shameless act before heaven. This is also a bit too neurotic, and he seems so overly sensitive about erotic acts and conversations that one might suspect he has a complex.

The first story shows his inability to control his anger, and the latter shows that he still had some hang-ups about sex, leaving an impression that his personality was somewhat questionable.

That said, this is completely separate from the height of his state of mind-body detachment. In a large religious organization, it would be difficult to admit that the founder's personality is somewhat lacking, but in an age like today, when many people should be enlightened, personally, I want to be aware that personal maturity and awakening are separate.

Dantès Daiji, who loved Dogen, praised him as "a person who could not perform a human drama."

It is difficult for unenlightened laypeople to live in the secular world, and it requires wholehearted effort. But even among enlightened people, there are those who can endure living in the secular world full of worldly desires and those who cannot.

From the perspective of an enlightened person, enlightened and unenlightened people are the same, and the differences between enlightened people are expressed so indirectly that they are difficult to understand.

Living in the secular world after enlightenment means living with worldly desires. In Zen, living in the midst of worldly desires after enlightenment is called "nourishing the sacred embryo" or "post-enlightenment training."

Rinzai and Daitō Kokushi Myōchō spent nearly 20 years in post-enlightenment training. Myōchō spent nine years among a group of beggars on the banks of the Kamo River, unable to read. Nine years as a homeless person is tough, but it is even harder for an intellectual with extremely refined sensibilities to live there, without any way to escape the wind and rain.

Such post-enlightenment training, which would seem completely useless and unproductive to a third party, is neither mentioned by the person involved nor written about by later writers. That is why it is even more difficult to understand.

Thus, regarding Dogen, whose post-enlightenment training may have been somewhat lacking, there is a poem left by Dantès Daiji, "Dogen, Who Could Not Become Human."

A part of it reads:

"Now, here, I deeply, deeply, deeply take refuge in Dogen, the old Buddha.

You spent your days in just sitting, trying to become human, and wrote 'Shōbōgenzō.'

I know that the 'Shōbōgenzō' you speak of is none other than humanity itself.

Yet, you could never become human.

Dogen, you were too weak to love the human drama, let alone perform it."

(Quoted from "The Play of Absolute Nothingness" by Dantès Daiji)

Now, I feel like I finally understand the intention of 'Shōbōgenzō.'

Dogen - 4 - Signs of Mind-Body Detachment

◎Jade Tablet - 05 - 15

◎Horizontal Path of Youth - 14

 

While zazen (just sitting) excludes mysticism, Tendō Nyojō generously taught Dogen three signs of mind-body detachment.

The Hōkyōki is a record of Tendō Nyojō's words and actions written by Dogen.

In it, there are passages that seem to describe signs of mind-body detachment.

Nyojō told Dogen:

"In the future, you will surely smell a beautiful and wondrous fragrance, a fragrance incomparable to anything in this world. This is an auspicious sign.

Also, it is an auspicious sign when something like dripping oil appears before your face during zazen.

Or, it is also an auspicious sign when various tactile sensations arise.

Even if such things occur, strive in your zazen as if shaking off fire from your hair."

After receiving such encouraging words from a master, if something similar happens, one tends to cling to that mystical experience, and often progress in practice ceases.

It is unclear whether these mystical experiences always occur before the arising of mind-body detachment, but I believe Tendō Nyojō shared them based on his experience and intuition.

However, it is truly remarkable that he cautioned against clinging to any wonderful or strange mystical experience.

Tendō Nyojō undoubtedly knew the distinction between demonic states and genuine experiences, so it is undeniable that these three examples could be legitimate signposts in the process of mind-body detachment. However, it is also undeniable that there are demonic states that manifest with the same phenomena.

Now, the oil-like substance also appears in the Western alchemical text "The Rosarium Philosophorum," specifically in the eighth illustration, as dew falling from the sky.

In the preceding seventh illustration of "The Rosarium Philosophorum," the final individual ascends towards the eighth illustration, which represents the ultimate, from the hermaphrodite lying in the tomb.

In the subsequent ninth illustration of "The Rosarium Philosophorum," the individual who has already attained the ultimate descends and returns to the hermaphrodite lying in the tomb.

Heavenly dew drips down in the eighth illustration as a sign of great enlightenment or the ultimate.

This confirms that Tendō Nyojō's description of the oil-like dripping as a sign of mind-body detachment is not mere fantasy.

Furthermore, the heavenly dew is also recognized in old Tarot cards (Marseilles edition). The heavenly dew appears in the last three cards of the Major Arcana: The Moon, The Sun, and Judgment.

When I first saw the Tarot cards, I wondered why it was raining, but knowing the origin of the heavenly dew, it becomes clear that the Tarot cards were used as tools to suggest a gateway to another dimension or the ultimate, as indicated by the placement of the heavenly dew.

The Sun and The Moon are two parts for the hermaphrodite. And Judgment is the escape chute to another dimension. The next world (Major Arcana) is a representation of Atman's existence, leading to the Fool (Major Arcana) of Nirvana.