Transcendent Wisdom, Emptiness, Insight

prajnaparamita—the perfection of wisdom, shunyata (emptiness), associated with Tara, Manjusri, the female personification of the perfection of wisdom (to see things as they are instead of to see things as we wish they would be).

Hymn To Prajna Paramita

Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, the Lovely, the Holy.
The Perfection of Wisdom gives light. Unstained, the entire world cannot stain her.
She is a source of light,
And from everyone in the triple world she removes darkness.
Most excellent are her works.
She brings light so that all fear and distress may be forsaken,
And disperses the gloom and darkness of delusion.
She herself is an organ of vision.
She has a clear knowledge of the own-being of all dharmas,
For she does not stray from it.
The Perfection of Wisdom of the Buddhas
Sets in motion the wheel of the dharma.

Metropolitan Museum, NYC, public domain (9th century, Sumatra)

Natto and other acquired tastes

Recently, did a couple of days of Rohatsu at home. Actually, it was more like tangaryo, no toys, sesshin (to gather the mind/heart). Plain sitting. I was the doshi, the tenzo, the ino, the soku. Not the doan….. there were no bells, no toys. No robes.

Ok, there was one embellishment. There was oryoki. Laid out the bowls, changed it up, instead of three bowls, there were four. And there was natto in the fourth bowl.

Natto, according to Wikipedia, was an accidental discovery circa 8th c. Japan. Fermented soybeans was meant to be horse food…. but turned out, when fermented by hay baccilus, to be one of those, “and its good for your gut biome” foods.

Natto is an acquired taste. Ika too is an acquired taste. But natto separates the sheep from the goats. Natto is delicious but uber slimy. Thats the baccilus I guess. Natto in nigiri, natto over rice, natto with soba noodles, natto garnished with mustard, green onions and a raw egg.*

It dawned on me during my rohatsu breakfast that sesame soybeans (which i was introduced to…. at Tassajara) is meant to be the simulacra of natto.

Natto: its for the individual and collective biome.

*(health note here: I might eat a raw egg in Japan but not in the U.S.).