Basho's Quail
Now, as soon as eyes
Of the hawk, too, darken,
Quail chirp.
Sitting in the dojo and allowing it gradually to become dark before turning on the lights is an important device in our practice. Leaders in Rinzai-Zen monasteries make the most of it. At sunset, monks gather in the zendo while one of their brothers strikes the great temple bell outside to punctuate his reading of the Kannongyo (Avalokiteshvara Sutra). As it gradually gets darker, they sit silently in zazen, and when the head monk can no longer discern the lines in the palm of his hand, he signals for kinhin, formal walking in line around the dojo, which begins the evening program.
As the sun changes to the lamp, zazen changes to kinhin, the eyes of the hawk change to the chirping of the quail. Step by minute step, the universe changes. Now light, now dark, now hawk, now quail, now sea, now land. It is at the edge of transition that we find experience.
- Robert Aitken Roshi, A Zen Wave
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