World Beyond

Inspiration

Through the years, I have learned there's no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.  -- Steve Martin

Cold Snap

dark clouds, bitter winds
winter slays a surprised spring
hearts grow cold, forlorn

Inverted

god speaks to hearts silently
to communicate
quiet your feelings - listen

    

Four Little Words

The following thought struck me pretty hard this morning while I was lying on the floor, so I thought I'd share: 

Never presume to know.

In a world where you can't seem to swing a cat without hitting a know-it-all, I think we could all use a little less certainty in our lives.

I googled the phrase and found this interesting photo, by Jonathan Kane.  Hope you enjoy it. 

Beginnings

recall quiet times
hearts open - melancholy
endings, beginnings

Life

Like sunshine and rain
happiness and suffering
nourish life, beauty

 

Poetry and Ancient Life in Japan

I just finished a wonderful book, “The Ink Dark Moon – Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan” translated by Jane Hirshfield.  The poetry is excellent and the translation work is outstanding.  There is also a great deal of background information describing what life was like for Japan's aristocracy during this era.  Find this book and read it!  I guarantee you'll learn something you didn't know about world culture and you'll be impressed with the beauty of these poems written over 1000 years ago.  The following description is taken from the introduction: 

“One thousand years ago, Heian-kyo (modern day Kyoto), the capital city during Japan’s Heian era, 794 AD – 1185 AD) was more populous than any European city, one of the very few centers of high civilization anywhere in the world.  Male members of the aristocracy vied for political favor and positions of power; daughters of aristocratic families were sent at about age fourteen to serve as companions to members of the imperial household.  Because it was solely by a daughter’s marriage that a family’s status might be permanently advanced, the women serving in the imperial retinue were highly cultured and carefully educated, and they were considered aesthetic equals by the men. Once ensconced in their separate living quarters, the women had a few official duties, but for the most part they were left to their own devices.  They read and exchanged copies of anthologies, prepared themselves with the help of their maids for the excitement of outings, played musical instruments or wrote for their own and each other’s entertainment, and generally kept one another and the empress they served amused.  But the greatest part of their attention, it seems, was devoted to affairs of the heart: love affairs were an accepted part of courtship for unmarried women, and polygamy was the usual arrangement for men.  Thus erotic love and its consequences were perennial conversational and literary topics. 

 

For a high ranking member of the Heian court, relations with the opposite sex presented a larger range of possible outcomes and a greater flexibility than in most cultures.  Although a primary marriage at an early age was often arranged by the family, a man could take as many secondary wives of official mistresses as he wished, and as many secret lovers as would accommodate him.  A man might install a number of secondary wives in his home—most Heian dwellings contained several wings or compounds—or he could have several wives living in different locations.  An unmarried woman might also have multiple lovers, if perhaps with greater discretion; a wife, by contrast, was confined to a single husband and was expected to remain faithful after marriage, although, as can be seen in the life of Izumi Shikibu, this was not always the case.  Despite this mild double standard, Heian women were accorded a great deal of independence in romantic matters: able to own property and receive income in her own name, a woman could refuse a suitor’s advances, or, should a marriage or her position as an official “second wife” no longer suit her, end a relationship entirely through divorce or by moving away.  Furthermore, since nearly all encounters between members of the opposite sexes took place within a convention of secrecy, the opinions of family or friends about one’s choices in the realm of eros might be avoided for quite a long time. 

 

The first intimation of a new romance for a woman of the court was the arrival at her door of a messenger bearing a five-line poem in an unfamiliar hand.  If the woman found the poem sufficiently intriguing, the paper it was written on suitable for its contents and mood, and the calligraphy acceptably graceful, her encouraging reply—itself in the form of a poem—would set in motion a clandestine, late-night visit from her suitor.  The first night together was, according to established etiquette, sleepless; lovemaking and talk were expected to continue without pause until the man, protesting the night’s brevity, departed in the first light of the predawn.  Even then he was not free to turn his thoughts to the day’s official duties: a morning-after poem had to be written and sent off by means of an ever-present messenger page, who would return with the woman’s reply.  Only after this exchange had been completed could the night’s success be fully judged by whether the poems were equally ardent and accomplished, referring in image and nuance to the themes of the night just passed.  Subsequent visits were made on the same clandestine basis and under the same circumstances, until the relationship was either made official by a private ceremony of marriage, or ended. 

 

Once she had given her heart, a woman was left to await her lover’s letters and appearances at her door at nightfall.  Should he fail to arrive, there might be many explanations—the darkness of the night, inclement weather, inauspicious omens preventing travel, or other interests.  Many sleepless nights were spent in hope and speculation, and, as evidenced by the poems in this book, in poetic activity.  Throughout the course of a relationship, the exchange of poems served to reassure, remind, rekindle or cool interest, and, in general, to keep the other person aware of a lover’s state of mind.  At the same time, poetry was a means of expressing solely for oneself the uncertainties, hopes, and doubts which inevitably accompanied such a system of courtship, as well as a way of exploring other personal concerns.”

 

“No significant experience was considered complete without its accompanying poem, and conversely, the desire to give an experience formal expression in poetry was itself the mark of the presence of deep emotion for an educated person.”

As one Heian era author explained: “It is poetry which effortlessly moves the heavens and the earth, awakens the world of invisible spirits to deep feeling, softens the relationship between men and women, and consoles the hearts of fierce warriors.”

 

The primary poetry form from this era (and still popular today) was the tanka, 31 syllables in a 5-7-5-7-7 scheme.  Some people wonder why these poems don’t rhyme.  According to Hirshfield: “the fact that all words in Japanese end with one of a relatively small number of vowels [my side-note: here’s a sampling of the Japanese alphabet: a i u e o, ka ki ku ke ko, na ni nu ne no, sa shi su se so…etc] precludes the use of rhyme as it is employed in other languages: only a large variety of possible end sounds allows their duplication to become a source of ingenuity and surprise, and, hence, aesthetic pleasure.”

 

I lived in Japan for several years and really loved their culture.  If you surf around this blog you'll see I've experimented with Tanka, and it's shortened, perhaps more recognizeable to western eyes form: haiku.  I don't want to mislead, not all Tanka were written to describe romantic feelings, however, that is the focus of this book.

 

Here are a couple sample poems from “The Ink Dark Moon” (in the original Japanese these follow the 5-7-5-7-7 format, Hirshfield - wisely I think - did not constrict herself to the syllable count while translating, and I feel she captured the tone and spirit of each poem beautifully):

 

Seeing you is the thread

that ties me to this life—

if that knot

were cut this moment,

I’d have no regret

 

------------------------

 

Awake tonight

with loneliness

I cannot keep myself

from longing

for the handsome moon

 

------------------------

 

The way I must enter

leads through darkness to darkness—

O moon above the mountains’ rim,

please shine a little further

on my path

 

The (Un)American Dream

When I was growing up in the 1970s, the dream of American suburbia seemed to be a new single family home.  Young families were expected to buy a small place, then upgrade, and continue to "flip" homes until they wound up in the home of their dreams.  But this was before the era of McMansions.  At what point is enough enough?  If you already own a 4000 sq ft home, do you really need to upgrade to one with 6000 sq ft? 

In these days of financial crisis, what is status of the American dream?  As the newspaperman Richard O'Mara wrote in The Evolution of the American Dream recently published by the Christian Science Monitor things have changed over the past few decades.  What started out as lofty ideals of hard work and freedom have been reduced to a big house and a fast car.  (Have you seen the pictures of the new Camaro by the way...wow!!)  

I recently had a discussion with my super-intelligent sister, who works in the real estate business, about the root of our current financial mess.  We agreed that like most problems, there is no one single person or group solely accountable for the crisis, but greed on the part of many individuals is a common thread.  From home buyers in search of something bigger and better, even if it might be unaffordable, to investors using fraudulent means to drive up neighborhood prices before selling out and moving on, to bankers lending to increasingly less qualified customers, to financiers packaging these dubious loans as securities, to investors making increasingly riskier moves to maximize profits, greed has led us to the brink of disaster.  

Listen, I'm no communist.  Capitalism works, better than any other system out there, but things can get a little overheated at times.  I'm not an economist, not a banker, hopefully some of the experts will be able to mediate the effects of this current crisis, but as individuals, I believe we all need to curb our greedy tendencies.   

Full disclosure.  I don't own a home, and since a sixth grade math project calculating principle and interest payments over the life of a 30 year loan, I've never really been a big fan of homeownership.  I do have three motorcycles though.  I hear you asking, "why would anyone need three motorcycles, when you can only ride one at a time? "  And even though in my mind I have a perfect explanation as to why they're all necessary, I think I'd have a hard time convincing you.  I obviously have some room to cut back as well.  

So maybe we could all cut back just a little.  When it comes to homes, perhaps we can get by with 3000 sq ft instead of 6000, or 2000 instead of 3500. Just two motorcycles or maybe even (gulp!) only one.  Hopefully this crisis won't lead to a depression where these cutbacks will be forced upon us by outside conditions, and in the coming months we'll be able to make our own decisions and curb our own appetites that in aggregate have led us to this current predicament. 

Let's start now and take the very (un)American step of downsizing.

Osho: True Intimacy

The following Osho quotations come from the book Being in Love: 

If your intimacy is helping you to grow and become mature then it is positive and good and healthy, wholesome. 

Intimacy means that there is no privacy.  You don’t carry anything private now, at least with the person you are intimate with, you drop your privacy.  You are nude and naked--good, bad, whatsoever you are, you open your heart.  And whatever the cost you pay for it; whatever the trouble you go through with it.  That brings growth.

If you are growing more and becoming an individual, if life is happening more to you, if you are becoming more open, if more beauty is felt in existence, if more poetry is arising in your heart, if more love flows through you, more compassion, if you are becoming more aware, then the relationship is good.  Carry on. Then it is not a marriage.  Then it is intimacy.

Relating means you are always starting, you are always trying to become acquainted.  Again and again, you are introducing yourself to each other.  You are trying to see the many facets of the other’s personality.  You are trying to penetrate deeper and deeper into his realm of inner feelings, into the deep recesses of her being.  You are trying to unravel a mystery which cannot be unraveled.  That is the joy of love:  the exploration of consciousness.  And if you relate and don’t reduce it to a relationship, then the other will become a mirror to you.  Exploring the other, unawares you will be exploring yourself too.  Getting deeper into the other, knowing his feelings, his thoughts, his deeper stirrings, you will be knowing your own deeper stirrings too.  Lovers become mirrors to each other, and then love becomes a meditation.

Let your woman be your mirror; let your man be your mirror.  Look into your partner’s eyes and see your face; move into your partner to know yourself. Then one day the mirror will not be needed….then, transcendence happens.

In fact, the more you know, the more mysterious the other becomes.  Then love is a constant adventure.

Osho: Love and Friendliness

It is something to be understood:  the girlfriend you get or the boyfriend you get, you deserve.  You don’t get any boyfriend or girlfriend whom you don’t deserve; those kinds of relationships only last for one or two days.

 

The other person has to be different, distant, a mystery that invites you to explore.  With two mysteries meeting together, once they drop the idea that they have to agree on everything, there is no question of any fight.  The fight arises because you want agreement.

 

Harmony is not something very great, it is boring.  Once in a while, even if you fight, once in a while even if you get really hot, that does not mean that love disappears; that simply means love is capable of absorbing even disagreements, fights, overcoming all these hindrances.

 

Love has to be a friendly affair in which nobody is superior, in which nobody is going to decide about things, in which both are fully aware that they are different, that there approach towards life is different, that they think differently, and still, with all these differences, they love each other.

 

Be human, accept the other person’s humanity with all the frailty humanity is prone to.  Your partner will commit mistakes just as you commit mistakes, and you have to learn.  To be together is a great learning: of forgiving, forgetting, understanding that the other is as human as you are.  Just a little forgiveness.

 

Out of freedom meet with each other, and the moment you feel that you have explored the whole topography of the woman and the woman knows that she has experienced whatever is possible to experience in the man, then it is time to say good-bye to each other in deep friendliness.  There is no need to hang around each other’s neck.  A world completely free from any contracts between man and woman will be immensely lovely, beautiful, unboring, interesting.

 

If you are just friendly and don’t make your friendliness a legal affair of husband and wife, things will be far better because then you are not a burden to anybody, not a bondage.  There will be no question of having to fit with each other.  You can have your individuality totally free from each other, and yet be in love.  And really to be totally different in your individuality creates the best possibility of love.