Last Saturday WNYC-FM played an hour of John Cage, including a long tape of street noises with Cage reading Zen koans over them. How amazing to realize what a debt Laurie Anderson owes to Cage. (An influence I'm sure she openly acknowledges.)
The koan that stuck with me was a tale of two holy men walking, one a Hindu guru, the other an orange robed Buddhist monk. Coming upon a daunting deep stream , both are initially taken back by the obstacle. After sitting awhile in intense concentration, the guru begins to float up into the air. The Buddhist objects, saying "That's not the solution." Continuing to concentrate, the Hindu levitates above, and across to the other side, coming to a soft landing on the opposite bank. The Buddhist repeats "That's not the solution", and points to a gap he spotted in the stream where he then walks easily across on some rocks.
I was thinking about the Buddhist injunction to "just be" the other day while looking at some worms in a compost bin. From time to time we have to turn over the bin, or dig in the bin, or occasionally, empty out the bin, all of which causes displacement and agitation of the worm environment. I wonder whether I should feel any compassion for the worms feelings at the disruption, which inevitably includes severing them in half or smashing them in the lid sometimes as I snap it tight. And of course, the worms can barely have any feelings on the matter. If you've dissected a worm, you know there aren't a whole lot of neurons up front. And I got to realizing that worms seem to be experts at just being. Bees too. I imagine a bee going about his very focused routine with no conflict, no anxiety, no self-critique about a quota, just a focus on excellence, and an ability to be.
Coming higher up the tree of life complex fauna start to have a certain amount of un-Buddhistic nature. As we go from fish to frog to dog, behavior shows a loss, a lack of desire to be, creeping into the inner dialog. I admire the cat, as opposed to the dog in this regard. Buddhism echoes this progression, saying that the stillness we need is not something we need to go get, its something we had that we lost. Memory of how to "just be" can be rekindled to restore us to the peace we once knew.
Comments