Satori at Pearl Harbor
by Steven H. Cullinane
December 7, 2002... 2:15 PM
Here are some weblog entries that seem relevantboth to the Zen concept of satori, or "awakening,"
and to Pearl Harbor Day.
Saturday, October 5, 2002... 11:30 PMThe Message from Vega
"Mercilessly tasteful" |
December 7, 2002... 2:12 PM
The appropriate response to Vega's Buddhism todayseems to be the following classic by James Taylor:
"Won't you look down upon me, Jesus?
You've got to help me make a stand..."
Fire and Rain
Saturday, October 5, 2002... 12:00 PM
Zen Holy Day:
Bodhidharma Day
Epigraph to Chapter 23 of Contact, by Carl Sagan:
We have not followed cunningly devised fables....
-- II Peter 1:16
Song lyric:
It's still the same old story....
-- Herman Hupfeld, 1931
From Chapter 23 of Contact, by Carl Sagan:
"You mean you could decode a picture hiding in pi
and it would be a mess of Hebrew letters?"
"Sure. Big black letters, carved in stone."
He looked at her quizzically.
"Forgive me, Eleanor, but don't you think
you're being a mite too... indirect?
You don't belong to a silent order of Buddhist nuns.
Why don't you just tell your story?"
Moonlight and love songs,
never out of date....
See also my journal note
for Michaelmas, 2002,
"Pi in the Sky."
Friday, December 6, 2002... 1:06 PMGreat Simplicity
according to the Zen Calendar. "Daisetsu" is said to mean "Great Simplicity." For those who prefer Harry Potter and
To Have and Have Not Those who prefer traditional Western religions may like a site on the Trinity that contains this: "Zen metaphysics is perhaps most succinctly set forth in the words 'not-two." But even when he uses this expression, Suzuki is quick to assert that it implies no monism. Not-two, it is claimed, is not the same as one.* But when Suzuki discusses the relationship of Zen with Western mysticism, it is more difficult to escape the obvious monistic implications of his thinking. Consider the following:
*See: Daisetz T. Suzuki, 'Basic Thoughts Underlying Eastern Ethical and Social Practice' in Philosophy and Culture — East and West: East-West Philosophy in Practical Perspective, ed. Charles A. Moore (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1968), p. 429 ** Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, Mysticism Christian and Buddhist (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1957, Unwin paperback, 1979), p. 57. Personally, I am reminded by Suzuki's satori on this date that today is the eve of the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. I am also reminded by the rather intolerant tract on the Trinity quoted above that the first atomic bomb was exploded in the New Mexico desert at a test site named Trinity. Of course, sometimes intolerance is justified. Concluding unscientific postscript: On the same day in 1896 that D. T. Suzuki attained satori, Dies irae, dies illa. |
From
St. Nicholas versus Mt. DoomFriday, December 6, 2002... 12:25 AM
Today is the feast day of St. Nicholas,
who is thought to have died on December 6.
For some meditations on time, click here.
A perhaps more pleasant meditation — on eternity:
of lyricist Ira Gershwin.