You are hereForums / Poetry Corner / HONORED GUESTS
HONORED GUESTS
HONORED GUESTS
Yoda's on my lap,
While Wazi's on the floor.
Then Wazi's on my lap,
And Yoda's near the door.
Then Wazi wants some water,
And Yoda wants to roar,
Someone stole his squeaky toy
And you needn't tell him more.
It could have been Stinky Skunk,
It couldn’t have been his brother.
But it must have been Slinky Squirrel
And not any other. And Wazi laughs
In Near-English, but Yoda in Canine Lore
Growls darkly of conspiracies
Hidden behind the door.
But Uncle Ed! holds behind his back
A donut of rubber and mouse.
And Yoda knows exactly what it is
As soon as he walks into the house.
It causes Yoda to levitate,
That familiar sound;
And in his joyous leaping
Forgets he's off the ground!
But Wazi’s never satisfied
With the obvious evidence.
He wants to know
What’s beneath the snow.
And what’s beyond the fence.
................................................................................
Wazi(Wazowsky)and Yoda(Piccolino Fagiolino)are brothers whom I cared for as their
owners got settled in Italy. Now they reside near Solerno.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Gateless Gate, by Ekai, called Mu-mon, tr. Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps [1934], at sacred-texts.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Joshu's Dog
A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master: "Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?"
Joshu answered: "Mu." [Mu is the negative symbol in Chinese, meaning "No thing" or "Nay."]
Mumon's comment: To realize Zen one has to pass through the barrier of the patriarchs. Enlightenment always comes after the road of thinking is blocked. If you do not pass the barrier of the patriarchs or if your thinking road is not blocked, whatever you think, whatever you do, is like a tangling ghost. You may ask: What is a barrier of a patriarch? This one word, Mu, is it.
This is the barrier of Zen. If you pass through it you will see Joshu face to face. Then you can work hand in hand with the whole line of patriarchs. Is this not a pleasant thing to do?
If you want to pass this barrier, you must work through every bone in your body, through every pore of your skin, filled with this question: What is Mu? and carry it day and night. Do not believe it is the common negative symbol meaning nothing. It is not nothingness, the opposite of existence. If you really want to pass this barrier, you should feel like drinking a hot iron ball that you can neither swallow nor spit out.
Then your previous lesser knowledge disappears. As a fruit ripening in season, your subjectivity and objectivity naturally become one. It is like a dumb man who has had a dream. He knows about it but he cannot tell it.
When he enters this condition his ego-shell is crushed and he can shake the heaven and move the earth. He is like a great warrior with a sharp sword. If a Buddha stands in his way, he will cut him down; if a patriarch offers him any obstacle, he will kill him; and he will be free in his way of birth and death. He can enter any world as if it were his own playground. I will tell you how to do this with this koan:
Just concentrate your whole energy into this Mu, and do not allow any discontinuation. When you enter this Mu and there is no discontinuation, your attainment will be as a candle burning and illuminating the whole universe.
Has a dog Buddha-nature?
This is the most serious question of all.
If you say yes or no,
You lose your own Buddha-nature.
Salerno is right. I mis-spelled it, and probably on a package I sent them (you may guess)a pair of chew toys.
Apparently Italian customs weren't concerned, wereas in the insecurity protocol in Canada they would not be amused.
I
appreciate your response. The dogs are fine. They are in the hills surrounding the actual city. Wazi has cataracts, and he can hardly see, his brother Yoda protects him. They had to learn a new language, too. While still a puppy Yoda had injured an eye badly while playing in the snow. I applied the Reiki #2 I knew, and it cleared within hours.
But I wasn't able to help Wazi, maybe because it developed gradually. He doesn't feel anything is wrong with him, but the world is going vague. It doesn't stop him from taking cues from Yoda, and in sounds and scents.
They are quite telepathic, and sometimes seem like one soul in two bodies. There is a mysticism with dogs,
and many ancient cultures understood this; as well with felines.
Their leaving was wrenching for me, of course. Couldn't be helped. Our hierachy of life may be inverse to "reality."
A mind like humans is a good question, if we could find one.
The dogs feel with their minds, and think with their hearts.
Their sense of delayed reward, and of time, is not ours.
They were/are always present.
I have a chapbook of poetry called "Wazowski Himself",
if you'd like a copy.
There is a great deal more. I have another two finished manuscripts I haven't been able to publish, yet:
"Piccolino Fagiolino" (for Yoda, AKA "Little Bean"), and
"Carmen's World" (a ringed neck mourning dove, that lived with them for awhile).
Carmen and Wazi got along very well, she
even rode on his back. Yoda didn't like her much, and she
did rule the roost. Slapping with her wings if she
disapproved.
She used to fly in when her owner was playing her cello, and land on the bow, which got heavier with each stroke...
Thanks
;-)
ed
PS
The dogs are Jack-Russel/Boston Terrier cross, same litter.
There were other siblings which they met occasionally in
Toronto as they grew older.
Hi Ed!
Although this topic has now been kind of buried in oblivion I`d like to add some words to thank you for your long reply.
It is really touching to read about this dogs. Their story is just like our stories, where there is happiness, sorrow, disease,suffering...I know what they feel and I feel with them. Mostly they give more than they get from us.
I understand what you mean saying there is a mysticism with dogs, I feel that too.
Of course one can transfer this feeling anytime on all nature, but dogs live so close to us so we can get to know them deeper.
"Wazowski Himself" sounds interesting.
Thank you too
Anna
I've been wondering how to get a copy of the book to you without listing my email or address on line.
If you'd like to try, email AHA BOOKS(ahabooks@mcn.org),
and they can give you my email (Jane Reichhold, one of
the editors is a friend;I've published with their magazine
Lynx for about 15 years; she recently published a complete
translation of Basho.
Thanks again.
ed
PS
The AHA website is:
AHA! POETRY
danalomas
(As usual I screwed-up the tech-protocol, so this appears ahead of your comment; sorry I couldn't fix it)
Thanks, I do appreciate the feedback comments;
The poem was only one incident among many.
I feel the common
concept that animals, pets, etc, only mimic human qualities to be false;
One, because it is a short distance to dehumanize people, let alone consider
animals’ conscious-sentience to be “a pathetic fallacy“, and is itself a
fallacy. That Zen takes it much further is not surprising, MU, is the inverse
of OM. What happens is that a harmony develops
in a relationship, a voice of shared consciousness, a dance. That harmony
isn’t ego, but envelops it. Love would be a good term, were it not overlaid
with so much preconception. Real innocence is unexpected.
So, yes. why not cows? especially in India. Though I think that there it is
more tradition, rather than real respect. I have read of a farmer in the US
who raised a calf as a pet, which became like a huge affectionate puppy.
Also there is the question of effort, practice, impeccability There was a TV
comedy in which one woman who inherited a valuable violin thought it was
broken because she couldn’t play it. She had bought into the hippie attitude that
all you had to do was not play the wrong notes; and was startled when a
violinist picked it up and played it easily. Her comment was “Oh, so you fixed it!”
Of course you have to start somewhere, and interim time and effort disappears
in the ultimate engagement. When asked how long it took to make a particular
painting I’m tempted to give my age, though that could sound confrontational.
I do realize that it only matters because I make it matter.
ed
PS
Have a good vacation.
No worries about the protocol. Believe it or not, I normally shun the spotlight, and the microphone, and have no desire for first billing.
On the topic of dogs and Buddha-nature: My guess is that everything has Buddha-nature. Indeed, perhaps animals are actually more in touch with their Buddha-nature than humans generally are. Coincidentally, I came across a youtube video today of a dog dreaming -- quite possibly some sort of nightmare, judging by its agitated state of dream-induced animation. How on earth could that be explained as a dog merely mimicking human behavior, or as being anything other than a kind of self-awareness.
I have also intuited that everything has a propensity to dream ... even in the quantum realm. I understand it as nature's way of exploring the un-manifest MU of infinite probabilities.
And I don't doubt that it takes a lifetime to create a work of art. Hey, if eastern spiritual traditions are to be believed, it may take untold illusory lifetimes.
But that's a whole other dream ;-)
Sleeping dogs, or people...Since you mentioned it, yes they are at least analogous to humans, if not more grounded in
their way. The vow of the Bodhisatva in which one vows not to enter Nirvana until all sentient life has entered is such
a multilayered circle of mirrors when investigated...
First it's a tad arrogant, that we are so sure we will enter Nirvana, and the others haven't yet. How do you know
that they aren't already there and "you're" the odd entity out? In fact I share your thought that all life may already be grounded in their Buddha nature, except humans. But that's just a start. Why wait? is another question. Is the
dream world in need of awakening? and where is it if it does? In what way does Samsara differ from Nirvana, except in awareness? It goes on and on, you can grab the circle anywhere really.
But this is by way of a tribute to the dogs who taught me some pretty basic things, which I had missed before.
And yes they would talk in their sleep, bark, growl, run,
and even sing. When one was apparently tired from running
uphill, he stopped, and I could see him wonder where I was.
So I gently whispered, "There's uncle ed!And he has cookies for you; bring your Frisbee!" Then he went through the motions again of picking something up and running, and munching on a cookie (while salivating on the bed). Why not?
A dream cookie to satisfy a dream puppy? When he awoke he went directly to the water dish, then started looking for his Frisbee. An unbroken train of experience.
Sleeping dogs don't lie. They tell the truth.
;-)
Thanks again.
ed
Perhaps equally as beMUsing: has a cow a Buddha-nature?
Would the answer be Moo?
Perhaps only if a Buddha has a cow-nature ...
just saying ;-)
as usual, enjoyed the post and poem btw.
I liked this topic and all your comments very much, thank you Ed and Dan!
I wonder if Wazi and Yoda are now in Salerno (Italy) or in an other city (Solerno?)...
Dogs are my great passion in life, but I can`t keep any since I`m moving all the time between two countries.
And not only dogs, all animals, plants, trees, nature but specially animals.
When I think about us humans I usually make a distinction between Human-humans and Animal-humans.
Human-humans seem to me being dissociated from the realm of animals treating them more like unsentient things to use or misstreat, to make food of or just kill for fun.
Animal-humans are are compassionate and sympathetic with animals, feeling their pain, are able to communicate with them and fight for their rights.
It is as it is, we are just born with different minds.
Would animals do the same if they had a mind like humans?
In the hyerarchy of systems the lower can survive without the higher, but the opposite is not possible.
Thank you again.
By the way, I also think everything has the s.c. Buddha-nature, I call it Spirit.