Twining Vines = Life And Death

I’m reflecting this morning on how our lives entwine, so much so that it’s clear that our lives are not our lives at all. Mist makes lake.

In the Monday night study group, we’re looking at Dogen’s “Thirty-Seven Wingsof Enlightenment.” The thirty-seven wings are the four foundations of mindfulness, the four proper exertions, the four steps to magical powers, the five roots, the five powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the noble eightfold path. Here’s the detail: click.

Zen teachers in Dogen’s day usually didn’t take up commenting on the elements of the Buddha’s original teaching so this fascicle is quite odd – even before he gets rolling.

In the first paragraph of the Tanahashi and Levitt translation we find this sentence tucked in the middle:

Climbing and descending [the thirty-seven wings of enlightenment is] like twining vines is furthertwining vines of the fundamental point.

The fundamental point, the so-called genjokoan, is the real deal. The truth of our lives. This truth gushes forth through our alive engagement with the dharma in all it’s particulars. Up and down, back and forth, high and low, grasping and letting go. Body. Breath. Mist.

By twining with it we bring it forth. By its twining with us, we sip tea made from yesterday’s strainer.

Here’s a recent blog post by David Rynick that beautifully makes this point in a dharma way. Click.

Here’s a TED talk that makes this point in a “where-the-hell-did-we-come-from?” way. I’m facinated by the DNA evidence that blows the old “out of Africa” theories all the way to the Australian out-back.http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

And here’s a YouTube that I found on Monkey Mind that makes the point in a political way (and gives hope to the discouraged that someone might speak the truth in this bizarre American landscape).

Twining Vines = Life and Death