Oneness and Difference -- Ms. Carter
Oneness and Difference
A tall bamboo and a plantain enter the painting
One long and narrow, one short and broad
Perfectly matched to absorb the canvas.
A tall bamboo and a plantain enter a bar
One willowy blonde streaked with green
One jolly brunette in a black hat
Perfectly matched to turn heads.
One measured in space, the other time
Both measured, both beyond measure
The tall one expands across the landscape
The short one grows to great heights.
Whether growing to heaven or expanding on earth
Blown by yin and yang, or moving it
Wearing the autumn wind or torn by it
Separateness meets in that place
Between heaven and earth,
The ordinary and the sacred
The painting or the bar.
There is no distinction
in the Land of the Painted Rice Cakes.
Dogen beautifully beckons us to stand firmly in the ephemera, the transient, the world of phenomena in all its majesty, as well as its tragedy. I loved our discussion of the tall bamboo and the plantain, especially Mr. Anderson’s eloquent explanation that yin and yang are actually in the world, within materiality, and that they are the tall bamboo; that we make a mistake in seeing distinctions as separate or something other than the world; that the Buddha dharma is some elevated metaphysical construct and enlightenment is anything other than the world of the bamboo.
As I thought more about the sameness of the bamboo and the plantain, both tropical plants, I began to realize that they are entirely different. Don’t plant bamboo in your yard, because it sends a myriad of shoots out from the roots and can cover your entire yard in no time. On the other hand plantains grow to great heights. Both together cover all that there is, the vertical and the horizontal, the entire canvas of the world of materiality.
By standing firmly in the world, planting yourself in the emphera, you can be buffeted by it all or find treasure right in front of you, in the “earth, water, fire, air, and emptiness, as well as mind, consciousness, and wisdom as its roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, colors, and forms.” If you look out from it, you cannot see the phenomena you’re in; you are just turned by it. But if you look at what you’re standing in and really study it, just as you would look deeply at a painting, an unmoving, apparently static, two-dimensional material representation of a still life, say a rice cake, you begin to notice more. You begin to feel more and somehow you’re emotionally moved by the painting, just as you would be moved by fluctuations in the elements. Nuances become apparent as you stand firmly planted right where you are. And, in that moment you see all that there is through the distinction, beyond measure, with the myriad of opposites and including the relative. “Do not use the measure of oneness or difference as the criterion of your study. Thus, it is said, ‘To reach one thing is to reach myriad things.’”
4/2/2021 Blogpost
I love your poem! It's great that you incorporated the "a tall bamboo and a plantain walk into a bar" joke into it. But I particularly love the fourth stanza, and that "separateness meets."
ReplyDeleteI also liked Mr. Anderson's comment. It reminds me of a line by Wallace Stevens, where he says: Today the mind is not a part of the weather. That when we paint the world we not only paint the stems and leaves, so to speak, but also our own minds into it - together but separate.
The idea of painting our own minds into the world is such a compelling thought. It reminds me of Buber's I-Thou, or the meeting of the sacred and ordinary. But, painting our mind into the world brings a much more inclusive aspect than seeing or witnessing; it's a more intimate relationship, as though my mind is a dancing partner with all that is. Thank you.
DeleteI really enjoyed reading this, both the poem and the following paragraphs. "Both together cover all that there is, the vertical and the horizontal, the entire canvas of the world of materiality." I can now better appreciate the combination of bamboo and plantain as a theme both in Ink wash painting and in classical gardens.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this, both the poem and the following paragraphs. "Both together cover all that there is, the vertical and the horizontal, the entire canvas of the world of materiality." I can now better appreciate the combination of bamboo and plantain as a theme both in Ink wash painting and in classical gardens.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure you were the one who gave me the idea of the bamboo and plantain filling the canvas with their horizontal and vertical, thank you, Ms. Yang. As usual, I just lean in to the screen when you speak!
DeleteThe bamboo stem is hard and hollow, while the plantain trunk is squishy and porous. Majuscule and minuscule emptinesses.
ReplyDeleteOoooh, I didn't know that about the plantain trunk, so appropriate. It's all there in it's particularity, isn't it? Just adds to the images, thank you.
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