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#2164 -
“I have always noticed that
deeply and truly religious persons are fond of a joke, and I am
suspicious of those who aren't.”
Alfred North Whitehead, (1861-1947).
In this issue we are bringing you a joke so old it
was actually made by God. Folks, these are hard to
come by, so I'll tell you it was found (where else?), right
in our own archives. If you are fairly new to the highlights, say
in the last four years, you might check out that first year
when the highlights were undated and the editors unnamed (unless
you peek on the yahoo list and see it was 1999), just to see how
we have evolved. From the early days, issue 257: http://www.nonduality.com/hl257.htm
(Okay, we know you are busy and or lazy like
us, so this one is from
THE Definitive Historical, Biblical
and Literary Explanation of the Origin of the Saying "I AM
What I AM" as told by Laura Olshansky:
The answer finally became clear to me after
I read Harold Rosenberg's wonderful volume, "The Book of
J," a translation and interpretation of the children's
stories in the Old Testament.
Yes, I said "children's stories."
Rosenberg suggests -- and once you read what he says and take a
fresh look at Genesis and Exodus, you realize that of course he's
right -- that all those wonderful weird stories about Adam, Eve,
Sarah, Jacob, Isaac, Rebecca, Joseph, Moses, etc., are being told
by an adult to a child.
Moreover, the adult is telling those
children's stories in the special way a person uses when another
adult is in the room listening. The teller puts in jokes that go
over the child's head, but make the other adult smile.
The reason hardly anybody notices this is
because most of the jokes in these stories are puns. Word play.
The author of these stories was crazy about puns. And
unfortunately, puns don't translate. So when the Old Testament
went from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to modern languages, the jokes
were lost. (Also, people don't expect a religious book to have
jokes in it. But when these stories were written, they weren't
"religious" in the modern sense.)
This is exactly what happened with "I
Am What I Am." It's a joke, a kind of pun, for an adult who
is overhearing a story being told to a child. And the joke got
lost because you only hear it if you know the original Hebrew.
But if you look at the place where it occurs in the Bible, Exodus
3.13, and you know the original Hebrew words, you can hear the
joke for yourself. It goes like this:
God tells Moses to inform the other
Israelites that Moses has been sent to them by God to free them
from bondage.
Naturally, Moses is worried that the other
people won't believe him. Why should they? It sounds a little
grandiose, don't you think? So Moses asks God, "If they ask
me your name, to prove I really talked to you, what should I tell
them?"
This already is a kind of joke, because the
ancient Israelites thought it was wrong to say God's name.
So even if God were to answer Moses's
question, what good would it do Moses? He wouldn't be allowed to
go back to his people and tell it to them!
You see, it's the setup for a joke.
But in this story, God is a great comedian.
Here's how he answers Moses's question.
Instead of saying his name, God says in
Hebrew, "Ehyeh-asher-ehyeh," meaning, "I am that
which I am." Meaning, in other words, "I'm just
whatever I am." (You could also translate it, "I will
be what I will be," etc.)
Imagine God saying this with a shrug. Moses
asks, "What's your name?" God shrugs and says,
"I'm whatever I am." He's avoiding the question, saying
he doesn't need a name.
Now here's the punchline.
God then says, "So if they ask you my
name, just say, 'Ehyeh.'" In other words, say the first part
of the sentence "I am what I am." As if God's first
name is "Ehyeh," meaning, "I am."
This is a joke because in the language that
God and Moses were speaking, and the language the story is
written in, "Ehyeh" is very close to "YHWH,"
which is the *real* name of God that nobody was allowed to say!
(The root of the verb form "ehyeh" is
"hayah," "to be." The author here is giving a
jocular folk etymology for "YHWH.")
It's a joke! God is finding a way for Moses
to say "YHWH" without anybody getting mad at him.
Imagine you are an adult in a room while
another adult tells this story to a child. Both adults know God's
real name is YHWH, but the child does not. From the child's point
of view, it's just a story about God's name being
"Ehyeh."
Because the author of this story was a
literary genius, it's not only a joke, it's a joke that carries
some real spiritual weight: Ramana Maharshi said this one little
joke is all you need to get enlightened.
(Laura Olshansky) Editor in Chief http://www.realization.org
"There's an old Zen story that I like
very much: A monk comes to the
monastery of the storied Master Zhaozho. Diligent and
serious, the
monk asks for instruction, hoping for some esoteric teaching,
some deep
Buddhist wisdom, or, at the very least, a colorful response that
will
spur him on in his practice. Instead the master asks him,
'Have you
had your brekfast yet?' The monk says that he has.
'Then wash your
bowls,' the master replies. This is the only instruction he
is willing
to offer.
Although the Zen master's response might seem gruff, odd, and
cryptic,
it actually makes a fundamental point. Zhaozho wants to
bring the monk
back to the immediate present. 'Dont look for some profound
Zen
instruction here,' he seems to be saying. 'Open your
eyes. Just be
present with the actual stuff of your ordinary, everyday life' -
in
this case, washing bowls."
Norman Fischer
From the article, "Wash Your Bowls," published in The
Sun magazine,
June 2005.
by W. Kelly on Daily Dharma
Tsutsuizutsu (OoIdo)
Kourai Jawan were used by Korean
people of the Yi dynasty as daily use necessaries originally. Kourai
Jawan were an offering dish which was being used every day as
a rice bowl or a soup bowl.
Ido Jawan (Ido Chawan) was
said to be the most inferior offering dish in many kinds of Kourai
Jawan . It was considered that Kairagi (the shape of
typical shark skin around the foot) of Ido Jawan was a
failure as its glaze did not melt well by a low temperature
firing. However, in
Sen no Rikyuu (1522-1591)
who completed the Wabi-Cha tea ceremony at Azuchi-Momoyama
era, promoted frequently the Japanese or Korean daily use plain
necessaries to be Cha-Dougu (tea-things) in the world of Wabi-Sabi
of the Japanese Sa-Dou (way of tea=the tea ceremony).
Murata Jukou (1442-1502) is the founder of Wabi-Cha
which is different from the gorgeous Shoin-Cha, and
promouted Jukou Seiji Jawan which are yellow-brown celadon
bowl with combed patterns, mass-produced as daily use necessaries
by Dong-an Kilns or related Kilns in south China, , and exported
to many countries.
Jukou Seiji
Till then, gorgeous Karamono Jawan
(chinese teabowl-Tenmoku, Ceradon, etc) were the leading
role in the world of Shoin (living room-cum-study room of
a Shoin-zukuri style samurai residence) of the Muromachi
period. However, Kourai Jawan and Raku Jawan came
to occupy the mainstream as it moved at Momoyama Era and Cha-Kai
(tea party=a tea ceremony) in Sou-An (grass hermitage:
a tea ceremony cell) prospered.
Especially, Kourai Jawan were
equipped with natural beauty of local customs, and indescribable
individual dignity that was not shown in the Karamono Jawan
of Soong , because of the vessel of So (crude; plain;
simple). Its beauty was born since potters were unintentional.
Its beauty could not be expressed if potters are conscious of
beauty.
The hearts of Korean potters had not
separated to beauty and ugliness. Those beauty Kourai
Jawan has were born in a world where there was neither the
aesthetic attachment nor the dislike to ugliness. The Zen
leads to the mind of Sa-dou just in this world of heart,
and this heart gives this unique beauty to Kourai Jawan.
This appearance was called Sabi, and Rikyuu found
out the beauty of "Mushin Musaku" (innocent and
unintentional) which Zen explains in the Kourai Jawan,
and discovered Sabi.
article and more photos at: http://kazegama.hp.infoseek.co.jp/windpotter1.html#ido
Do everything
with a mind
that lets go.
Don't accept praise or gain
or anything else.
If you let go a little you will have a
little peace;
if you let go a lot you will have
a lot of peace;
if you let go completely you will have
complete peace.
Ajahn Chah
Don't
look for peace. Don't look for any other
state than the one you are
in now; otherwise,
you will set up inner
conflict and unconscious
resistance.
Forgive yourself for not
being at peace. The
moment you completely accept
your non-peace,
your non-peace becomes
transmuted into
peace. Anything you
accept fully will get you
there, will take you into
peace. This is the
miracle of surrender.
When you accept what is,
every moment is the
best moment. That is
enlightenment.
- Eckhart Tolle
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Practicing the Power of Now"
Eckhart Tolle
from Along the Way
photo from my rock garden by Gloria Lee
Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana
--
 |
Song
for Nobody By Thomas
Merton A yellow flower
|
