Jun 22
The priest is on time (it has become late)
When you are on time, you are already late. Ribet.
The door opens, she breezes through, books in hand, “osoku narimashita,” (it has become late). She says “it has become late” even though she is not late. She is right on time. But she might have been 10 seconds late. I learned a few things from my Japanese language teachers, dharma is part of language. Do you understand? A courtesy-based culture and language.
She says the magic words, it has become late, an apology of sorts, every time she steps across the threshold. Entering (and departing) must be marked. Understanding the relationship of coming and going is part of zen practice. Listen, can you see it? How much time will it take to learn?
Humility as one crosses a threshold. The coming and going of new forms of knowledge. There is a frog near the door watching, hoping not to get hit by the coming and going of the priest. The frog has been waiting by the door a long time.
The frog heard the priest awakened on hearing about George Floyd and white fragility. The priest has been sleeping for a long time, years, decades, generations.* Oh! But look, now awake! (my apologies to Frantz Fanon). Might this too be a dream? The priest rubs sleepy eyes. There is virtue and ethics in awakening. Thus have I heard. The awakened priest, the one the frog has been watching, insists its always been this way, always awake. Dogen says so. The residue, as Freud calls it, will reappear again tonight, in darkness, while the priest is sleeping.
The priest, ecstatic about her own awakening, wants to share, her intention is to awaken others. She amplifies her awakening on FB. But of course. For the benefit of all beings. The soapbox is wide enough for just one person. Hearing this virtue signaling, the frog wonders if the priest is awake or just sleepwalking?
The frog goes back to listening and singing with other frogs. It could be we’ve lived in the priest’s sleep for centuries. But of course, the priest didn’t see or hear us. There is a whisper, yes, you are on time, but it has become late.
有時. UJI
*The priest has slept through the names… since before and after Mrs. Eula Love was shot and killed by LAPD (1979).