I’m reading a book titled Each Moment is the Universe by Dainin Katagiri. In it Mr. Katagiri tries to explain something of Zen Master Eihei Dogen’s ideas of time, space and being. The subtitle is Zen and the Way of Being Time. Turns out “being time” means exactly that. We are time and space, time and space are us.
This morning as I sat trying to wrap my mind around Dogen’s ideas, thinking about the way things work much the same be they tiny or enormous – everything comes into being, stays awhile, deteriorates and passes out of being. A flower blooms, fades and finally falls in pieces on the ground. In death it serves future flowers by providing mulch and then adding fresh nutrients to the soil as it rots. A nice system. Very natural.
I wonder about us humans and our distaste for change. Particularly change that involves death, rotting and the like.
Then I look down and see Meg the Aussie dog staring at me, reminding me as she does every morning that she’s hungry and wants her breakfast. Suddenly my musings re the workings of time, space and human nature seem not so important. I get up and feed the dogs.
This morning as I sat trying to wrap my mind around Dogen’s ideas, thinking about the way things work much the same be they tiny or enormous – everything comes into being, stays awhile, deteriorates and passes out of being. A flower blooms, fades and finally falls in pieces on the ground. In death it serves future flowers by providing mulch and then adding fresh nutrients to the soil as it rots. A nice system. Very natural.
I wonder about us humans and our distaste for change. Particularly change that involves death, rotting and the like.
Then I look down and see Meg the Aussie dog staring at me, reminding me as she does every morning that she’s hungry and wants her breakfast. Suddenly my musings re the workings of time, space and human nature seem not so important. I get up and feed the dogs.
