Today, I am going to do something different. For Wednesday posts I’m going to draw from a book of death poems. Specifically, death poems written by Zen monks, samurai and the everyday merchants that wandered Japan, from the feudal era to the Meiji period. The book I am using is called Japanese Death Poems and it is compiled by a professor named Yoel Hoffman. So what does dying and writing poetry have to do about Taoism? Well, if you’ve been pondering the Taoist works we have shared, then the connection between death and the Tao is one of transition and acceptance; I will only share one poem and describe who wrote it and what it might mean. Remember that we are not scholars, so don’t expect a detailed analysis.
Life is like a cloud of mist
Emerging from a mountain cave
And death
A floating moon
In its celestial course.
If you think too much
About the meaning they may have
You’ll be bound forever
Like an ass to a stake.
This death poem was written by a Zen monk named Mumon Gensen; he died in 1390 ADE. I like the imagery in this poem, this one of the many things I like about this book. Zen Buddhism is the result of the marriage between the Buddhist ideas of India and the rich imagery of the Taoism of China. Over there it was called Ch’an and when those ideas sailed to Japan, it was translated as Zen. The image of “a cloud of mist” is a common theme as life is seen as full of distraction which “clouds your vision” as the Jedi would put it in the Star Wars mythos. And death as a “floating moon” is the specter that follows all your days. The ending of the poem is something of a reminder that pondering about these subjects is useless; Zen Buddhism is known for being a philosophy that looks down on doctrine and metaphysical speculations. Talk of the afterlife is discouraged since we can never really know and that the point is to live within the present moment, an echo of Taoism and Chuang Tzu. There is so much more in this book I would like to bring up, but that’s what the next few weeks are for. So, until next time.
Here is a link to the book on Amazon:
The Armchair of the Socratic Buffoons 