{"id":4767,"date":"2018-09-10T09:57:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T15:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?p=4767"},"modified":"2022-01-25T19:45:50","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T01:45:50","slug":"hakuin-flies-a-kite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2018\/09\/hakuin-flies-a-kite.html","title":{"rendered":"Hakuin Flies A Kite"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Hakuin<\/a>\u2018s painting, poetry, and Zen teaching were fused in a light-hearted and profound display. See the above image, for example (1). And in my opinion, it isn\u2019t possible to fully appreciate one dimension of his dynamic expression without the others. Often in his art, there is an intricate and overlapping play within and between these three aspects. It is great fun to enter the painting and dig out the meanings.<\/p>\n

In this post, I\u2019ll be looking at these three dimensions through this example.<\/p>\n

Over on the top left is B\u00f9d\u00e0i, also known as Hotei, the fat and happy one that populates Chinese restaurants in the US.\u00a0B\u00f9d\u00e0i\/Hotei may be based on a historical figure who always carried a hemp sack in which, according to The Record of Empty Hall<\/em>, he carried \u201c\u2026his alms bowl, basin, clogs, fish, rice, vegetables, meat, roof tiles, and bricks\u201d (2) \u2013 a Buddhist<\/a> cornucopia with the whole world coming and going.<\/p>\n

The characters for B\u00f9d\u00e0i\/Hotei mean \u201chemp sack\u201d so the person and the sack are not two. Also, in Chinese, B\u00f9d\u00e0i sounds like \u201cgreat buddha,\u201d but wait \u2013 he\u2019s really a hemp sack. Or is he really great buddha?<\/p>\n

Among other themes, like mice doing sumo, Hakuin liked to paint images of kites and also images of Hotei. In this painting he presents them together. Hakuin has the hemp sack as a kite, or perhaps the hemp sack is emerging from the kite, with B\u00f9d\u00e0i\/Hotei emerging from the hemp sack. So not only are things of the world emerging from this hemp sack but so is B\u00f9d\u00e0i\/Hotei (and we too). So another level of play here is about who\u2019s who and what\u2019s what.<\/p>\n

On the bottom right we see several figures hanging on to the kite\u2019s string and in the front is another figure, perhaps the person who thinks he\u2019s doing such a wonderful, great-buddha job of flying the kite. Behind the kite-flying person, though, is a string of kite fliers, representing our sangha and ancestors, who are doing a good part of the work.<\/p>\n

We recently discussed this image on the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>\u00a0and these fine kite-flying practitioners had some lofty interpretations that I\u2019ll borrow from here. One point is how flying a kite is like practice \u2013 it\u2019s a skill that\u2019s dependent on the ephemeral conditions. An annotation in Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn<\/em> for another of Hakuin\u2019s verses about kite flying says, \u201cIt\u2019s that great skill which allows us to walk with the legs we have and holding with the hands we have (3).\u201d<\/p>\n

A Viner noted, \u201cFlying kite acrobatics are very nice, but to be reborn to the wonder of just putting one foot in front of the other \u2013 a great miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another noted that kite flying here as a metaphor for Zen practice seems to be about transcendence, getting way up high and dancing like Hotei, and yet there is this little matter of the kite string tethered through practitioners to the earth, much like the buffalo that passes through the latticed window but their tail just can\u2019t come through (4). The transcendence of transcendence, said yet another Viner.<\/p>\n

The verse on the upper right with distinctively kite-like ideographs says:<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t just do
\nanything you want
\n\u2013 it\u2019s a kite\u2019s life (5)<\/p>\n

Buffeted by the same wind that holds us up and throws us down, the buddha, the hemp sack, all living beings, you and I \u2013 dance for just a brief moment as ordinary and holy, as transcendent and immanent, as deadly-serious and oh-golly-this-is-fun. And all so interconnected that as far as who\u2019s who and what\u2019s what, it just isn\u2019t an idea.<\/p>\n

This kite\u2019s life \u2013 what a great show!<\/p>\n

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(1) The Sound of One Hand: Paintings & Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin<\/em>, Audrey Yoshiko Seo & Stephen Addiss, p. 214.<\/p>\n

(2)\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Record of Empty Hall<\/em>, Case 10, by\u00a0Xutang Zhiyu \u865b\u5802\u77e5\u611a (Empty Hall Wisdom Stupid), translated by the author.<\/span><\/p>\n

(3)\u00a0The Complete Poison Blossoms in a Thicket of Thorn<\/em>, trs., Norman Waddell, #419.<\/p>\n

(4)\u00a0Chan School <\/span>No Gate Barrier<\/span><\/em> (<\/span>W\u00fam\u00e9ngu\u0101n<\/span><\/i>),\u00a0<\/span>CASE 38: A Water Buffalo Passes Through a Latticed Window, translation by the author: \u201c<\/span>W\u01d4<\/span>z\u01d4 said, \u2018<\/span>For example, a water buffalo passes through a latticed window. Head, horns, and four hoofs all cross through. Why can\u2019t the tail pass through?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

(5) Seo and Addiss, p. 213 (modified).<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Hakuin\u2018s painting, poetry, and Zen teaching were fused in a light-hearted and profound display. See the above image, for example (1). And in my opinion, it isn\u2019t possible to fully appreciate one dimension of his dynamic expression without the others. Often in his art, there is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[129,159,156],"class_list":["post-4767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hakuin","tag-hotei","tag-zen-art"],"yoast_head":"\nHakuin Flies A Kite<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"                Hakuin's painting, poetry, and Zen teaching were fused in a light-hearted and profound display.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2018\/09\/hakuin-flies-a-kite.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hakuin Flies A Kite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"                Hakuin's painting, poetry, and Zen teaching were fused in a light-hearted and profound display.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2018\/09\/hakuin-flies-a-kite.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wild Fox Zen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-10T15:57:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-26T01:45:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2018\/09\/Photos-2-300x244.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2018\/09\/hakuin-flies-a-kite.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2018\/09\/hakuin-flies-a-kite.html\",\"name\":\"Hakuin Flies A Kite\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-10T15:57:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-26T01:45:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\"},\"description\":\"                Hakuin's painting, poetry, and Zen teaching were fused in a light-hearted and profound display.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2018\/09\/hakuin-flies-a-kite.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2018\/09\/hakuin-flies-a-kite.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2018\/09\/hakuin-flies-a-kite.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hakuin Flies A Kite\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/\",\"name\":\"Wild Fox Zen\",\"description\":\"Living the Dream\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\",\"name\":\"Dosho Port\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dosho Port\"},\"description\":\"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. 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