yûgen

Saezuri
takamari owari
shizumarinu

Un canto d’uccello
s’innalza svanisce
silenzio

(Kyôshi, 1874-1959)

nota:
il sentimento espresso è lo yûgen:
lo stupore sacro dinanzi al profondo mistero sottinteso ad ogni cosa e
ad ogni manifestazione della natura

camminerei adagio adagio

"Buon giorno" disse il Piccolo Principe
"Buon giorno" disse il mercante.
Era un mercante di pillole perfezionate che calmavano la sete.
Se ne inghiottiva una alla settimana e non si sentiva più il bisogno di bere.
"Perché vendi questa roba?", disse il Piccolo Principe.
"E’ una grossa economia di tempo", disse il mercante.
"Gli esperti hanno fatto dei calcoli. Si risparmiano cinquantatre minuti alla settimana".
" E cosa se ne fa di questi cinquantatre minuti?"
"Se ne fa quel che si vuole…."
"Io, disse il Piccolo Principe, se avessi cinquantatre minuti da spendere, camminerei adagio adagio verso una fontana….."

(da Il Piccolo Principe, di Antoine Saint-Exupéry)

..Jewish music and Chinese calligraphy

I have made a true passion for Jewish music. It just enters in my bones, gets me up the chair and makes me dance. Which is just what I am doing now. Preparing for the course on Chinese calligraphy, first lesson in 25 minutes. This closes with a twist of the right hand my one-day-off, one-day-on rhythm of the week, meant to revive in me a bodily will :) I get smaller and smaller the more I realize my body is wiser than me, it feels and knows better things I can only try guessing. And the best part is its incredible, unmatchable modesty: it has been silent for years and years! Even better is that there is nothing to teach your body to do, rather, there are things one can drop to uncover others, or mirrors to be polished and undusted, or other metaphors you can think of (Cum spunei tu, Carmen, prin gura lui Tagore, totul vine la noi ce avem deja si ne apartine, doar atunci cand putem primi). Looking down onto me like a little girl deep down at the sparkling water in a well.

..empty boat

There is a (maybe Chinese) story about a person who was resting, meditating on a boat, floating on the sea in a calm night. Suddenly, he was woken by the impact with another boat. He opened his eyes, infuriated, ready to respond to anybody who was so unwise to let his boat collide with his. But the boat was empty. There was no one to argue with.

Kandy is getting fast

My city Kandy in Sri Lanka is getting fast. People are trying to be fast to success their lives but I don't think they are right.

..slow

Circumstances make it that hearing or thinking about the word 'slow' always brings a smile to my lips. There was a particular moment, when me, Patrizia and Sudesh finished the tai-chi and qi-gong course. Because tai-chi is about moving slowly, attentively, letting go, banishing force and acting from the very bodily weakness that incurs. That day, we moved slowly towards the exit, were slow to get to the restaurant, eat a slow pizza..and getting a lot of ideas about how people move and how is this related to time and the rhythm of going through the day, even an idea about a short film about slow and fast people. Since then I had a lot of time to come back to the fast rhythm which gets me through the day and eventually the weeks, the months and has as result premium efficiency in professional life. Once in a while, since my office is at fourth floor and an incidental tree has branches large enough to reach to my window, I get lost in watching pigeons absorbed themslves in the activity of staying on a branch. Then everything gets slow for moments in which my efficiency span lowers dramatically.

Jung and the bucket of water

The bucket of water is a metaphor I have seen or heard used in the writings or sayings of great people, aware of being small no matter their greatness. Jung used this metaphor explicitly in his memorial writings. I took the liberty to agree with him. The most recent to say this, without explicitly making reference to the bucket of water, was my Qi-Gong and Taiji-Quan instructor, Isidoro Li Pira: this knowledge does not belong to us and it is never ours. There are other great stories about buckets of water, calling for apprehension of impermanence and living totally despite time and the craze of being temporary. I just wonder what happens if the bucket is empty.