serenity

At Nantai I sit quietly with an incense burning,

One day of rapture, all things are forgotten,

Not that mind is stopped and thoughts are put away,

But that there is really nothing to disturb my serenity.

Shou-an (守安 Shuan) (Essays in Zen Buddhism – First Series 349)

Nan-t'ai (南台 Nantai) ——————————————————————— • my interpretation- clearly, i am that which knows my experience. never have i had the experience of not being aware. but when i look for myself(myself being that which knows my experience) all i find are things that are known, not the knower. if all things that can be found are the known, i can’t find any objective qualities of the knower. but i am undeniably here. this can only mean that this knower has no objective qualities of any kind.

the writer of this poem is standing as this unnamable knower. “there is really nothing to disturb my serenity” even when thoughts are still occurring. these thoughts are known and thus are not the knower. the unnamable knower is intimate with, yet free of all experience and thus it’s(your) serenity can never be disturbed.

Submitted December 15, 2019 at 04:57PM by ha1979 https://ift.tt/35k58Wa