Thunder breaks my sleep. Night falls away to water dripping, clinging, and coursing. I don't know if my eyes are open.
Sounds, smells, and bright flashes carry me into the sharpness of my senses.
| the moon is fleet |
| while branches clasp |
| to the rain |
| -Matsuo Bashō (1644-94) |
Alan Watts wrote,
In Zen a man has no mind apart from what he knows and sees.
I notice my mind begins floating on the sounds of water. Water is not aware of the passing of the night, or of itself.
| the long night; |
| the sound of water |
| says what I think |
| -Gochiku (1699-1781) |
Water flows with purpose around obstacles. It has no commentary, no forethought, only purpose. Rain flows in a course like our deepest and most lasting knowledge is confined by experience.
We are often flooded by forethought or inundated by memories. Yet when an earthworm surfaces after a rain to move overland, it has no forethought of air travel. An earthworm never knows it will be plucked from the ground by a robin to be flown off to feed her hungry brood.
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