There is and there is not - it's all the same.
(Based on a haiku (the full poem is here) and including a paraphrasing of Suzuki-Roshi’s talk dated August 15th, 1971 at the Zen Mountain Centre, USA.)
"Kaze yande hana mae otsu.
Kaze [Tori] naitei yama sarani yunari."
“when wind stops, flower still falls.
mountain is more silent when bird sings”
There are a few different translations of this part of the haiku or poem:
"when wind stops, flowers fall.
When a bird sings, mountain become more calm."
"The wind drops but the flowers still fall;
A bird sings, and the mountain holds yet more mystery."
Using this part of the haiku to refer to or our idea of - “there is” and “there isn’t.”: We could think about when the wind stops and there is no wind. This is an actual “there isn’t”. There is no wind. That is reality.
But usually we are involved in our idea of what “there is” or “there is not.”
As meditators, we can look differently at “there is” and “there is not”. Because meditation is all about looking and observing, de-constructing and then re-constructing our way of seeing, with the aim of, in the process, losing our habitual, patterned behaviour.
If a bird sings, there is no silence. It is not silent when the bird sings. But when you hear a bird singing in a remote mountain area, you feel the deep silence of the mountain more than when you did not hear the bird. You hear the bird, then you feel, all of a sudden, "Oh, how quiet the mountain is."
That’s the feeling of there is, there is not.
"There is not," can also mean there is more: When there is not much food, whatever you eat will be delicious. Actually, you feel satisfaction of the things you have, when there is not so much.
So there is, in fact, very often, more when there is not so much.
When you see many stars, you will feel the vast emptiness of the sky. When there is, you also notice what there is not. There is always both.
You may feel this is a paradox, but this description of “there is” and “there is not” is actually much more true than our usual understanding of “there is” or “there is not.”
We are often involved in the life of "there is" or "there isn't," in a way of "enough / not enough", "good / bad", or "right / wrong". If we are always involved with "there is" or "there is not" in this way, we will not feel anything in its true sense. Then we can't appreciate things as they are.
In Zen we practice being satisfied with both the idea of "there is" and the idea of "there is not." Because always both is true and every day includes both "there is" and "there is not."
"There is something" is good;
"there is nothing" is also good.
Shunryu Suzuki talks about good vs. bad, and how every day is a good day if we have the right understanding of our life:
“We can't ignore idea of good and bad, long and short. But we must be able to appreciate things as they are. Bamboo is good, pine tree is good, oak tree is good, grass is good, darkness at night is good, frog is good. Everything should be good. That means: "Every day is good day." And nothing is also good—bare field is good. Dark vast sky is good. That is our actual feeling we should reach.”
Happy is good. Unhappy is good. But that we don’t like unhappy, that’s not good.
"If our life is full of happiness and joy, that is good life; if our life is full of suffering and problem, that is not good life." That is a very superficial understanding of life. And most people's view of life is based on that kind of idea of good or bad, which is not deep enough, which is not real enough." (Suzuki)
If the way of accepting things is simple, you can appreciate the things, and we appreciate the value of each thing, whether there is or whether there is not.
Have a wonderful week
Mx
