Today’s senryu: Time as a Sacrament
one moment with you
relative and ultimate
love in an eye blink
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Two references inform today’s love poem, Sister Joan Chittister and Thich Nhat Hanh:
https://monasteriesoftheheart.org/
Definition of contemplative – a person who seeks to remove distractions to focus on essentials, fond of silence and solitude, thoughtful and prudent, suspicious of ego, and full of praise for the feeling of divine presence (https://catholicstand.com/five-traits-for-a-contemplative-life/)
Definition of time – the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time)
Definition of sacrament – the sacred nature of things (https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-a-sacrament)
Definition of God – the supreme or ultimate reality (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/god)
Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of relative and ultimate truth which elaborates on a moment of time and eternity:
“When we look at the ocean, we see that each wave has a beginning and an end. A wave can be compared with other waves, and we can call it more or less beautiful, higher or lower, longer lasting or less long lasting. But if we look more deeply, we see that a wave is made of water. While living the life of a wave, it also lives the life of water. It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water. It would think, “Someday, I will have to die. This period of time is my life span, and when I arrive at the shore, I will return to nonbeing.” These notions will cause the wave fear and anguish. We have to help it remove the notions of self, person, living being, and life span if we want the wave to be free and happy.
A wave can be recognized by signs—high or low, beginning or ending, beautiful or ugly. But in the world of the water, there are no signs. In the world of relative truth, the wave feels happy as she swells, and she feels sad when she falls. She may think, “I am high,” or “I am low,” and develop a superiority or inferiority complex. But when the wave touches her true nature—which is water—all her complexes will cease, and she will transcend birth and death.
We become arrogant when things go well, and we are afraid of falling, or being low or inadequate. But these are relative ideas, and when they end, a feeling of completeness and satisfaction arises. Liberation is the ability to go from the world of signs to the world of true nature. We need the relative world of the wave [emphasis mine], but we also need to touch the water, the ground of our being, to have real peace and joy [and this is what so many contemporary people lack]. We shouldn’t allow relative truth to imprison us and keep us from touching absolute truth. Looking deeply into relative truth, we penetrate the absolute. Relative and absolute truths inter-embrace. Both truths, relative and absolute, have a value.” from Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (Broadway Books: 1998), 124-125.
Life Matters 