High on the mountain Deep in the trees Flow with the river Fly on the breeze
Sunlight peaking through the rain [chorus] Take the toil and the pain Breathe in Breathe out Find the peace somehow
Spirit is calling through the wind on the pine Heal the heart, free the mind
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letting go of a slanderous heart— while shelling the beans
*Ozaki (1885–1926) was a renowned Japanese haiku poet known for his "free verse" style. He studied law at Tokyo University and joined a company, but he resigned to live as a beggar-monk at temples in Kyoto. Before the publishing of his sole haiku collection, he died of tuberculosis on an island alone in a humble hut.
I, at times, when providing spiritual support for clients in the role of clinical chaplain, refer to "turning to the Light." Ozaki does this. His suffering is taking the form of "a slanderous heart." His "shelling the beans" is working with his suffering in a compassionate way. He applies the wisdom of skillful means. The means is utilizing a wholesome activity as an antidote.
The antidote entails turning his attention away from the inner pain to a wholesome, outer activity. This is not a cure-all. The root of the pain of unspoken slander will not go away that easily. Yet, shelling beans is an effective and wise means of temporary relief and long-term transformation. Possibly, one day that pain may not return, possibly it will always return, but it is less powerful due to not indulging it.
Osaki is not denying the suffering; he is not coddling it. He is not trying to understand it. He is not trying to push it away. He is turning. He turns to the shelling of beans. This turning is a sacramental act. He is wholly shelling beans. That simple, that effective.
Doing battle with the suffering is not helpful. Throwing more mud in the muddy water does not clear the stream. Letting the mud settle by not stirring the water, the mud settles. Clarity was always present. The heart is naturally pure, clear, and refreshing. The heart is the Fount of Life.
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Where we put the attention is important. We can host our inner pain, honor it, befriend it, and turn our attention elsewhere. Awareness is flexible. To host the pain does not mean to keep giving it our attention. The poet turns wholly and hosts the beans and the shelling. He hosts his natural being. He does not beat a pillow or a person. His skillful means is gentle, compassionate, and kind. He manifests the natural warmth.
The commonest of doings can be sacramental, can be an invitation to healing and joy, to oneness and love. Whatever helps us turn from inner pain can be a helpful refuge. Letting go again and again, if we need to, and however many times we need to - this is transforming.
We reclaim energy used by the painful emotion and its narrative. In doing this, we feel more energy, more aliveness, for that potency is now available for love, joy, and peace, including blessing others with our goodwill. In attachment to painful emotions, we constrict. We become claustrophobic. In turning, natural openness arises. In turning away, we are turning toward.
Working-with in this way, we can welcome our suffering and the joy that comes from turning elsewhere. We neither attach to pleasure nor pain. Both come and go. So, we are not happy chasers anymore than misery clingers. Chasing positive feelings becomes another suffering. Welcoming is not merely welcoming pleasing feelings. And joy underlies pleasing feelings. Joy is like the nature of water. Mud cannot alter water. Muddy water is mud and water, not water. There would be no muddy water without water as the foundational element. So, with you and all Qualities of Spirit.
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Turning to the Light is not imposing ourselves but invitational. The invitation arises from the Light. We are not demanding anything. The Light is not insisting we turn to it. When outside, on a lovely, sunny day, to turn your face toward the Sun does not mean demanding anything from the Sun. The Sun naturally gives. The Sun can not not shine on your face. Yet, if you do not turn, the Sun does not shine directly on your face. So, we turn. We feel the natural warmth. This is like turning to our own heart, the point of connection with the Light - the Heart of every being.
If we need to return to the suffering later, we can, so to learn from it what we need to. We may need someone who can listen to our pain narrative. Telling the story can be healing. This may be a friend, a counselor, or a spiritual director. But, for a time, we can turn like the poet did, offering ourselves the natural warmth of intimacy.
Then, we feel the spirit of buoyancy, the natural energies of mind-and-body rejoining us to our natural aliveness and freshness. We invite reconnecting to innocence, our natural being, which is silent, still, spacious bliss.
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It is important not to see a spiritual path as a cure-all for our suffering. We may begin a spiritual path with the naive assumption that it will lead us beyond the suffering common to others. Yet, we learn we may suffer more, at least for a time, for a spiritual practice brings to light our suffering, it makes space for it to come into the open. The path exposes our hideaways - repression, projection, displacement, distraction, addiction ... - and their inefficiency. This is good news. Now, knowing the hiding will not work, we can begin to learn to practice skillful means. Skillful means can be as simple as placing your attention on shelling some beans.
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(C) brian k wilcox, 2025
*Osaki poem and biographical information in Patricia Donegan. Haiku Mind.
