A Cedary Fragrance

Last Thursday evening, I went to a reading by Jane Hirshfield, the well-known poet and translator. Her poems, through their focus on sense perception, deepen the immediacy of experience in all its aspects.

This isn't surprising because, after graduating from college, Hirshfield spent eight years at San Francisco Zen Center, including three years of intensive monastic training at Tassajara. In those days, Tassajara was primitive - unheated rooms, plastic sheet windows, and no hot water.

Although most of Hirshfield's poems avoid reference to Zen, she did read "A Cedary Fragrance," which touches directly on her time at Tassajara.

A Cedary Fragrance

Even now,
decades after,
I wash my face with cold water --

Not for discipline,
nor memory,
nor the icy, awakening slap,

but to practice
choosing
to make the unwanted wanted.

 

How often do we choose to want the unwanted?

Photo by Gian

Comments

[Uku]

Wow, this was great, thank you, Barry!

"but to practice
choosing
to make the unwanted wanted."

Truly magnificent!

[fw]

"to practice choosing to make the unwanted wanted."

This is so totally where I am at right now in my life, and it's hard. Very hard sometimes.

But I've learned it is necessary.

Thanks for this, Barry.

[Molly Brown]

Barry,

Wonderful post. I have just recently discovered Jane Hirschfield. I did not know this about her monastic life. my birthday is later this month and I've asked for one of her books. Looking forward to taking in her words, slowly, over lots of tea.

With Metta,
Molly

[Alice]

Thanks, Barry. As to be expected, you are always a few steps ahead of me. I was planning on writing a post about this very topic soon. This has been an ongoing practice for me - to observe the ways in which I accept, reject, or feel neutral about dharmas - with special attention to the ones that I reject.

Beautiful poem - "choosing" is the key word, indeed. Thank you!

[Puerhan]

Dear Barry,

Thanks for sharing Hirshfield's poem. It must have been quite something to listen to her reading her own words.

I can relate to the cold washing experience. Most days I hop into the shower and turn it on full blast without letting it warm up first... I do this as part of my practice and boy it leads to some interesting observations of the mind going crazy with worry of all sorts of things! (And on a few occasions the realisation that I have run out of gas and there is no hot water coming... Which is a good metaphor for life and a very valuable insight too!) I started this practice following something I read by either Suzuki Roshi or Katagiri Roshi (apologies for not being clear). They also wrote that no matter how often you do it and how 'prepared' you are for it, the shock never decreases. The shock of suddenly being completely in the body and aware of the sensations!

I wrote about it before in fact:
http://puerhan.blogspot.com/2007/11/awake.html
http://puerhan.blogspot.com/2007/11/surrender-awake-2.html

~gassho~

[Barry Briggs]

Thank you, Uku, for your kind comment! This work of choosing the unwanted is surely the hardest and most important work.

FW, surely there's no other work that matters! That's how necessary it is.

Hi Molly, I'm glad that you've discovered Jane Hirshfield. You might check out her book of essays entitled, "Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry." It opens up classic poems, especially from Asia, in refreshing new ways.

Alice, we go forward together hand-in-hand. Thank you.

Puerhan, you're a braver man (you are a man?) than me. Just yesterday I was reading Suzuki Roshi on the "expert mind" that knows only one option. The shock of cold water surely opens up many new options - like, where's the towel? Thanks also for the links to your own writings about this topic.

Thanks again, everyone!