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Back River... Georgetown, Maine
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A meditation student complained of sounds disturbing her during meditation... "Sounds disturb my silence." The Sage replied, "Sounds will always disturb your silence." "What am I to do, then?" she asked. "Keep with your silence." "Until when?" "Until your silence is no more," said the Sage. The bewildered student questioned, "What is there then?" "Silence," replied the Sage.
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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Basho, Japenese Haiku poet, 1600s -
Old pond!
frog jumps in
water's sound
*Robert Aitken translation, in his A Zen Wave: Bashô's Haiku and Zen.
I like to render the above -
An old pond
a frog jumps in
"splash!"
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We tend to divide reality into this or that - ponds, frogs, splashes; stillness and movement, silence and sound, up and down, in and out, ... Reality is this and that for this. Without this, there is no this or that. So, the pond is the beginning, or ground - at least, as to our perception of time. We can call this this the ultimate dimension, or many other words can point to it.
If no pond, no frog, and no splash. A ground must be for unity to rest upon; in other words, nonduality must have some unity for duality to be "non." This this is the ultimate dimension - let us not think ultimate means separate or some other place.
Ultimate is pure intimacy. Pure intimacy is you. So, you are the pond, and so am I - we are. Still, there is no gap between us, cause, and manifestation. While pond, frog, and splash may not be the same, neither are they separate.
Basho sees no conflict between the old pond - stillness and silence - and the frog - causation - and "splash!" - sound. He experiences a higher principle allowing the unity between silence and sound - so among all things. Likely, Basho is an image of the pond. Another person might say, "Gosh! that interrupted me." Not Basho. Basho experiences sound arising in the silence, not diminishing it in any measure.
We can experiment with this unity in and out of meditation. In meditation, we can relax and receive the sounds and sensations that arise; rather than seeing such as a problem, they manifest the underlying silence and stillness. An itch belongs alongside the holiest or most enlightened thoughts or feelings.
While the "splash!" arises in the silence, what happens after the "splash!" Where did the silence go during the "splash!"? Most persons would say the silence was interrupted. No, not Basho. For him, nowhere. The "splash!" does not intrude upon the silence.
Without the silence and stillness, there is no "frog" or "splash!" Knowing this, we can learn the joy of the ease resulting from the truth Basho points us to, to realize for ourselves. Until we realize it for ourselves, it is just words - but words, too, are "splash!"
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*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2022.
*Use of photography is allowed with noted attribution of photographer, Brian K. Wilcox, and notification of such use to him. No photograph is to be used in a context not in agreement with the purpose and spirit of Lotus of the Heart to provide spiritual care and guidance to persons of all faiths or no faith and expression of compassion to and belonging together of all beings.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
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