Leave off your mad rush for gold and jewels— I've got something far more precious for you: A bright pearl that sparkles more brilliantly than the sun and moon And illuminates each and every eye. Lose it and you'll wallow in a sea of pain; Find it and you'll safely reach the other shore. I'd freely present this treasure to anyone But hardly anyone asks for it.
*Taigu Ryokan. Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf. Trans. John Stevens.
For a brief biography of Ryokan, see "Drifting Cloud," 4.26.24.
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Below, I share some thoughts Ryokan, as a Zen Buddhist, would be drawing from and how the poem speaks to me. I invite you to consider how the poem speaks to you. It may speak to you in ways I do not share.
Leave off your mad rush for gold and jewels— I've got something far more precious for you:
"Gold and jewels" signify material things—what we can call stuff. Do we see things only bring fleeting satisfaction? Things become addictive, heightening our felt-need for more and more. Consumerism is like purchasing with a credit card when you pay much more than your initial purchase price. When spirituality is fitted to the marketplace, it too yields to the pull of acquisition and profit. Can we see how easily our wisdom path can be lost to the mentality of acquistion—now getting spiritual goods, material and immaterial?
Do we see non-things bring us lasting joy? You cannot buy or get the non-things. What is the "more precious" not sold in the marketplace?
A bright pearl that sparkles more brilliantly than the sun and moon And illuminates each and every eye.
"Bright pearl" and "more precious"... What? God? Wisdom? Love? Great Spirit? Higher Power? Creator? Words, words, words. You can awaken to the non-thing, the "more precious," but you cannot think, speak, or give it to anyone else. Jesus cannot give it to anyone. Buddha cannot share it.
"Illuminates," yes, but do not think this is a light among lights. This brightness is a likeness. Look at any brightness, and you can intuit the light of the "bright pearl." So, it is not "dark pearl." A non-thing that shines, this is.
"Each and every eye" means non-discrimination, equality. The "bright pearl" is non-segregationist. Love, for example, is without segregation. So is hope and faith. One could be a CEO of a major corporation or living unhoused under a bridge, and each share equally in the "more precious." One could be the judge sentencing the defendant to death, and both equally share the "more precious." Whom you most like and most dislike manifests the same sacredness you do. Do not be misled by appearances.
Lose it and you'll wallow in a sea of pain;
"Lose it" means losing connection with it. You cannot lose it. Yet, being separated in consciousness and life from it means losing it. Oddly, it is always there, but we can forget about it, like living in the same house with someone and forgetting they are there, walking about room to room and not recognizing or acknowledging them. How many of us go about our days never looking at the sun and appreciating it? We can lose the sun, but it is never lost.
"Sea of pain" in Buddhism is dukkah, the emotional suffering, dissatisfaction, and discontent in samsara. Metaphorically, this means in a Christian sense, a "burning in hell" or the "lake of fire." "Hell" (Gehenna) in Christian Scriptures is based on a place outside Jerusalem, an always-burning trash dump. Buddhism also teaches of a hell realm, and it is here, not in the future. Buddhists likewise use "fire" as a metaphor for dukkah and samsara. The world is on fire. Why? Living in forgetfulness means ignorance of the "bright pearl." Alienation from Life while existing is living in hell, walking around aflame.
The story is told of a group traveling by bus through a lovely countryside. They all planned the trip for a long time and cherished the thought of it. During the journey, someone gets upset at someone. Others get upset, taking sides with one or the other. They all turn on each other. When the bus stops for them to get off where they boarded, no one had enjoyed the trip. They had all been on fire. Now, they suffered from the knowledge they had missed the beauty they longed for. They had been distracted, forgetting why they boarded the bus in the first place.
Find it and you'll safely reach the other shore.
This is similar to an analogy Jesus taught. He says, "[T]he reign of the skies [or heavens] is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, and finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all his belongings and bought it" (Gospel of Matthew 13.45-46).
"Reach the other shore" refers to the Buddhist teaching that nirvana, enlightenment, or awakening is the other shore. Yet, like the "reign of the skies," nirvana is here, not at another place or time.
Nirvana shines in your eyes and everywhere. Do you not see it? I can enjoy nirvana sitting here in my chair and writing this work. What is the address of the other shore? Buddhism teaches that upon reaching the other shore, you see there was never another shore. Yet, we reach it to know that. So, relatively, there is another shore. That dream urges us to use the raft to row. When reaching the other shore, we wake up from the dream. We find the joke quite humorous. The joke was on us. But it worked. I have often said God is the great jokester. God sure played a joke on Adam and Eve in the Bible story. Sometimes, we need to be tricked to see the truth and wake up from the dream.
I'd freely present this treasure to anyone But hardly anyone asks for it.
People ask for many things. They live in debt. We will work day into night to pay for things we do not need. We will work for more retirement to die before we can use it; then, our relatives can fight over it. We are socialized to grasp for things and live disconnected lives. Capitalism thrives on gluttony. We are harried and hurrying for stuff. We can even keep grasping for the next spiritual trip. The next book. Another teacher. Another way of meditating. It is like having sex with someone, thinking there is going to be someone you will have better sex with later, whenever you finally meet them. Or your eating a meal and looking forward to the same dish better made at another time, hopefully. Drug addiction is an example of this craving. Food addiction another. Attachment to meditation, church, or a spirituality other examples.
We can hurry up a spiritual mountain that was never there in the first place, never realizing the base is the summit. We can gaze on an icon of Jesus for hours, not recognizing Christ is sitting beside us. We can go to worship to meet our God and not recognize God is the Light shining everywhere along the way there. We can plan to go to Holy Communion and not open our heart to the Holy Communion available with the person standing right in front of us.
To "freely present" means one cannot buy it, and one can offer guidance and example out of compassion for others: after all, nothing is a personal possession, certainly not the "more precious." The "pearl" is not a commodity, something among other somethings. Though free, stressed by the word "grace" in Christian teaching, "hardly anyone asks for it." One does not have to be arrogant to see few persons show interest in a genuinely spiritual life, and there are many counterfeits. So many look at the "pearl" but do not recognize its value compared to what they are told to value. So, when the non-thing is available, it is passed up, and possibly for, like the pearl hunter, it is free but costs our own selves.
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Ryokan invites us to the non-thing. This has also been called the non-experience. And interestingly, what he points to is where you are right now. Regardless of what you think or feel, the non-thing is hidden in the present, but it need not be hidden from you. You can see it everywhere, as long as you are out of the way, for there is nothing personal about the "pearl."
To see the pearl is to feel the freedom of not being turned in on oneself. The heart opens. You become a welcoming presence. This does not mean you as a self welcome; you are welcome. You become that you are.
This self-affirmation has nothing to do with affirming our little selves: the costume we mistake for that we are. There is no seam in the Great Fabric. And there is only one "bright pearl." Running around saying, "We have the bright pearl, and you don't," is foolishness. No one can escape from the "more precious." It waits only for our realizing it is there... here. We are waiting for ourselves. The waiting can come to an end... thankfully!
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
