Buddhist Tensions: the Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong
Picking Flowers
If we wish to collect flowers, we have to hike.
Climbing up, don't worry about your weary bones.
Pluck the low branches, pull down the high.
Enjoy alike the spent blossoms, the tight buds.
Ho Xuan Huong (1772-1822 / Vietnam)
Vietnamese poet Ho Xuan Huong was the strenuously independent as well as outspoken lady vital during the time, as well as place, where that was very rare. The appetite as well as mastery of her poetry was such that it helped rouse the standing of Vietnamese as the well read language. And although she had the defiant, highly critical relationship with the Buddhism of her local Vietnam, we hold her poetry, similar to the square above, flows with dharma.
One of the tension points present in her work revolves around sex as well as sexuality. She was the visit critic of pious sounding Vietnamese monks who scoffed during women expressing themselves sexually, though afterwards courted as well as slept with womanlike devotees as well as concubines. In addition, she fiercely questioned the stand in standards of the patriarchal multitude where group did as they pleased when it came to regretful relationships, whereas women were confined to roles of responsible quietude.
Ho Xuan Huong was anything though still about sexuality, as the following poem attests.
Swinging
Praise whoever lifted these poles
for the little to pitch while others watch.
A child pumps, afterwards arcs his back.
The comely girl shoves up her hips.
Four pink trousers waving hard,
two pairs of legs spread out side by side.
Spring games. Who hasn't well known them?
Swingposts removed, the holes distortion empty.
The longer we have practiced, the some-more transparent it has turn to me that Buddhism, similar to most religious traditions, has the pretty perplexed jot down when comes to working with sexuality. Renunciati! on pract ice, as found in monastic communities, is the powerful approach of being. In fact, we consider it can be extremely useful for shorter durations of time for those of us vital lay lives. However, it's not the usually highway to liberation, or even the most sublime for most of us.
When we scour the chronological jot down of teachings around sex, it's transparent that women have often gotten the shaft, as well as that even the little of the worshiped male masters appear to have not broken through the gate of sexuality. Repression or misuse of sex as well as passionate appetite are commonplace, that Buddha patently recognized when laying out the third precept.
And yet, passionate appetite can turn the gateway to liberation, an countenance of an awakened life.
The Jackfruit
I am similar to the jackfruit on the tree.
To ambience we contingency block me quick, while fresh:
the skin rough, the pulp thick, yes,
but oh, we warn we opposite in contact with --
the abounding juice will gush as well as mark your hands
There's something in her notice that reminds me of something we hold Katagiri Roshi once told his sangha. Which was something to the outcome of "If we wish to avoid your life, don't drop the foot in to this practice." That's not quite it, though close enough. Here, we can see that. If we touch this hold up as it is, there's no approach to come away clean. In alternative words, we won't travel out being who we were when we entered.
And finally, there's this pleasing sign of the energy of the healthy world, as well as how the lives cannot, as well as should not be distant from it.
Spring-Watching Pavilion
A peaceful spring evening arrives
airily, unclouded by secular dust.
Three times the bell tolls echoes similar to the wave.
We see heaven inverted in sad puddles.
Love's vast sea cannot be emptied.
And springs of beauty flow simply everywhere.
Where is nirvana?
Nirvana is here, nine times out of! ten
