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The Goi

A flash of lightening;
Through the darkness goes
The scream of a night heron.

In Christianity, darkness denotes sin and error, but for the poet and the student of religion in Asia, darkness is an organic metaphor of the undifferentiated absolute, while light is the experience of the immediate, phenomenal world. Absorbed in the darkness, Bashō is absorbed in the universe, timeless, without bounds. Suddenly, out of the blackest depths comes that extraordinary blaze of light, and the whole world of particulars is etched at once, chillingly, in his mind. Then darkness returns, and from that absolute vacancy again there is vivid eruption, this time an eerie scream.

Such is the nature of our deepest experience. Calling and answering may be seen superficially as cause and effect, but when I say "How are you?" there is only that question, emerging from the darkest unknown. When you reply "Pretty well," there is only that response, appearing from the void. Out of silence comes sound; out of darkness comes light. The silence charges the sound; the darkness charges the light.

Integration of the universal and the particular is essental to finding fulfillment in our lives. The great challenge to humanity is how to deal with particulars in view of the universal - in view of the fact of essential nature - and this is why Zen has so much to teach us. Formal Zen practice is taken up entirely with experiences of the universal and the particular, with the recognition of their interpenetration, and with the application of such experiences and insights in everyday life.

- Robert Aitken Roshi, A Zen Wave

Filed in Buddhism on August 5, 2011. 0 comments. Edit.