JAPAN: DANCING WITH SUTRA STANDS IN FRONT OF DOGEN'S ASHES
Eihei-ji
Factory for producing priests
time to sell up, move on
I suppose I wanted to say I had no expectations of Eihei-ji. After all, I knew that it is one of the most imporatnt Soto-Zen centres in the world. You just have to do the math. Number of temples in, eg, Kanazawa? Say 67. Multiply that by the number of Japanese towns, villages and cities and you come out with a mega-wattage of temples. Divide by proportion of Soto-Zen temples and you reduce it, sure, but that's still an awful lot of priests to be trained. Someone has to look after them temples, officiate at ceremonies for the dead, polish the Buddha's nose, replenish the incense. But I had to go. This was Eihei-ji, for chrissakes, founded by the chief turkey himself, Dogen, back in 1244 or roundabouts, the initiator of the whole Soto shebang.
The historical Buddha. Dogen. Completely revolutionary thinkers. Revolutionaries. But they spawned Institutions, power structures, hierarchies, systems. The fate of all revolutionaries? Maybe the true revolutionaries just vanish without trace. Tradition, fine. Doing-what-you're-doing, fine. But there's a well-known saying that the line between the sublime and the ridiculous is a very fine one.
At eihei-ji in the Joyoden, the Mausoleum where Dogen's (and his successors) ashes are preserved, two senior monks are teaching the novices the correct way to carry a sutra stand around. You approach it, poise with one foot back, toes arched on the ground, the forward knee bent, so you bend with a straight back; pick up the stand with your left hand about half-way down, fold the other hand just so across your left shoulder blade, elevate your body, swivel on your heel, glide soundlessly towards the door with one foot exactly in line with the other, left turn, glide, put stand down. Two monks with 3 novices each. I come back 1/2 hour later and they're still at it.
It has, perhaps, a certain charm. But did Dogen really come back from China to teach monks how to dance with sutra stands? Undoubtedly I contradict myself. I can be moved to tears by four dancing girls in Takayama, and those intricate, flowing, easy movements will have taken years to learn to such perfection. Still something jars. That's not the same. All has become form. I know that the way of the East is that you first learn The Art, then you transcend The Art. First you learn Zen, then you transcend Zen. But in Zen there is nothing to transcend.
Feel lonely
do zazen
sound of water
Factory for producing priests
time to sell up, move on
I suppose I wanted to say I had no expectations of Eihei-ji. After all, I knew that it is one of the most imporatnt Soto-Zen centres in the world. You just have to do the math. Number of temples in, eg, Kanazawa? Say 67. Multiply that by the number of Japanese towns, villages and cities and you come out with a mega-wattage of temples. Divide by proportion of Soto-Zen temples and you reduce it, sure, but that's still an awful lot of priests to be trained. Someone has to look after them temples, officiate at ceremonies for the dead, polish the Buddha's nose, replenish the incense. But I had to go. This was Eihei-ji, for chrissakes, founded by the chief turkey himself, Dogen, back in 1244 or roundabouts, the initiator of the whole Soto shebang.
The historical Buddha. Dogen. Completely revolutionary thinkers. Revolutionaries. But they spawned Institutions, power structures, hierarchies, systems. The fate of all revolutionaries? Maybe the true revolutionaries just vanish without trace. Tradition, fine. Doing-what-you're-doing, fine. But there's a well-known saying that the line between the sublime and the ridiculous is a very fine one.
At eihei-ji in the Joyoden, the Mausoleum where Dogen's (and his successors) ashes are preserved, two senior monks are teaching the novices the correct way to carry a sutra stand around. You approach it, poise with one foot back, toes arched on the ground, the forward knee bent, so you bend with a straight back; pick up the stand with your left hand about half-way down, fold the other hand just so across your left shoulder blade, elevate your body, swivel on your heel, glide soundlessly towards the door with one foot exactly in line with the other, left turn, glide, put stand down. Two monks with 3 novices each. I come back 1/2 hour later and they're still at it.
It has, perhaps, a certain charm. But did Dogen really come back from China to teach monks how to dance with sutra stands? Undoubtedly I contradict myself. I can be moved to tears by four dancing girls in Takayama, and those intricate, flowing, easy movements will have taken years to learn to such perfection. Still something jars. That's not the same. All has become form. I know that the way of the East is that you first learn The Art, then you transcend The Art. First you learn Zen, then you transcend Zen. But in Zen there is nothing to transcend.
Feel lonely
do zazen
sound of water
posted by waveringbats at 10/18/2005 08:38:00 am
1 Comments:
Actually, the line between the sublime and fine is ridiculous
Post a Comment
<< Home