2 Heidegger&Zen

[Guest guest]

To continue with selections from Robert Carter's essay

entitled "Zen and Ontotheology via Heidegger,"

 

"Heidegger is now able to translate 'Iki;

and the project has been years long in its development.

[Heidegger is trying to 'truly understand' certain

Japanese words as used by Zennists; in this case

the word 'iki' which a Japanese student had tried

to explain to Heidegger as meaning 'the suprasensuous

that lay behind the sensuous radiance of things']

'Iki' is 'the gracious', the 'breath of the stillness

of luminous delight', or better yet says Heidegger

(because less Western in orientation), 'all presence

would have its source in grace, in the sense of

the pure delight of the beckoning stillness.'"

 

"Now the Japanese word for language can be listened for,

and its hints/gestures taken in.

'Kota ba' is the term, with 'ba' meaning the petals of

a blossom, and 'koto, like the elusive 'iki',

means 'beckoning delight', the breath of stillness

'that makes this beckoning delight come into its own'

as the unique in each moment, unrepeatable,

yet what it is 'in the fullness of its grace.'

Language, then, is to be thought of -- or grasped --

as the petals of distinctness

that arise out of and point back to

the empty yet creative grace of 'Koto'.

When language is understood as gesture,

it hints at, even beckons to

the emptiness as formlessness that gives rise,

through the grace of creative unfolding,

to the formed.

But now, when one looks at the formed,

one also sees the formless,

in the way that one sees the lining of the kimono,

by the way the garment hangs and shapes,

yet without actually seeing the garment itself.

Language, the distinctly human tool,

is the message-bearer,

for it not only refers to the formed,

but even hints at, or gestures toward,

the formless.

This is the nature of 'Saying',

and Saying takes us along a path

to the Being behind beings,

and even to the Nothingness behind Being

and to God himself."

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Hi Max,

 

I'm so glad you posted the Carter selections.

>"Now the Japanese word for language can be listened for,

>and its hints/gestures taken in.

>'Kota ba' is the term, with 'ba' meaning the petals of

>a blossom, and 'koto, like the elusive 'iki',

>means 'beckoning delight', the breath of stillness

>'that makes this beckoning delight come into its own'

>as the unique in each moment, unrepeatable,

>yet what it is 'in the fullness of its grace.'

>Language, then, is to be thought of -- or grasped --

>as the petals of distinctness

>that arise out of and point back to

>the empty yet creative grace of 'Koto'.

 

Such a beautiful word and concept! It recalls to me the Kabbalah's

teaching that the letters of the alphabet (which are also numbers) are the

archetypes through which the world was created. (Or should I say "is

created"?)

> the grace of creative unfolding,

 

Beautiful!

 

Love,

Dharma