solitude

in continuing with my supposition that an important, perhaps the most important, aspect of culture is religion, i wish to begin to look at, for ease's sake, some differ- ences between christianity and buddhism. it's clear that i'm not a scholar on this subject, and i know that some of you are, so please add your knowledge, and please don't judge me too harshly for my inevitable errors.

while both religious traditions have some form of simplicity at heart, both have their garish elements as well. but this will not be a discussion of externals, but rather a discussion of how both deal with the internal reaches of the spirit.

let us look first at solitude, at our percep- tions, and at "realities." when a solitary figure is featured, what is your reaction, and what does that depend on? are different internal processes inferred for a woman than for a man?

i find one of my own internal prejudices in noting that she looks dejected while he looks creative. is the difference in the images or in myself?

while both of these images are by west- erners, one is of a monk in japan by an artist (orlik) who spent much time there. by my perception, i see him as walking in contemplation, while in the other i imagine someone returning home with the groceries, hurrying because of the cold.

why the differences? again, are they inherent in the images or in me?

(though this next might seem like a change of subject, i think this will all tie together in the end.)

so then let us look at the simi- larities in the origins of the two religions. i find it striking how similar these sound.

At the beginning of his public ministry Jesus of Nazareth subjected himself for forty days to physical and spiritual testing in the desert; and the Gospels record other times in which he retired for periods of solitary prayer. In the early church, individuals would live ascetic lives, though usually on the outskirts of civilization. 1

jesus said, "Don't go into fear; don't get overly stuck in the judgmental functioning of the mind; consider the lilies; learn to love your neighbor with the same love as you give yourself; love one another as I have loved you; know the truth, and the truth will set you free; be perfect, just as God is perfect... be still ... and know ...." 2

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” 3

the buddha as well fasted in the desert "at the beginning of his public ministry." the buddhist temples were, and continue to be, on the edges of town.

the buddha said, "Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind." 4

"Consider others as yourself." 5

"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without." 6

in fact, perhaps the only disagreement in the origins of the beginnings was that in buddhism we are taught to look inward, and in christianity we are taught to look outward, to god. the irony is that both are talking about the same thing.

another difference, in practice, is the reason for that practice. christians' goal is the sweet hereafter. buddhists are more interested in the sweet now.

fascinatingly, there are websites and books galore on all of the parallels between the two men, the two traditions. thai buddhist monk and teacher thich nhat hanh has written and edited several himself. just google jesus and buddha and you will have days of reading at your fingertips.

so it seems that the differences began to occur as christianity began to change in the centuries after christ's death. (i know -- this isn't news -- but it seemed important to mention at this point of the explor- ation.) eventually, churches were moved to the center of town. eventually, wars were fought in christ's name. eventually, people were scorned or banished for any number of "sins" that had developed in those centuries.

these changes never developed in buddhism.

so what of solitude? while buddhism continued its embrace of the practice, christianity became more "community oriented." the practices following the buddha's teachings remained pretty much the same, but the concept of finding god, and truth, and be set free by it has turned, all too often, into an iron-clad institution: find our god, our truth, or we will see to it that you have no freedom.

the externalizing of god, in the west, led to a certainty that god was "out there," which was never what jesus really taught. yes, things are changing. meditation has become in important part of the religious traditions of the west. and there wouldn't be a market for all those books if people were not now recognizing their needs in a new way. but how did the divergence happen, the one that i'm positing is the reason for the divergence in the arts. i'll try to take that on next.

cross-cultural studies II

Queen Victoria said: "I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Women's Rights', with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety.

"Feminists ought to get a good whipping.

"Were woman to 'unsex' them- selves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection." 1

During the Edo and Meiji (1868-1912 A.D.) periods, women were considered worthy of a certain amount of education.

Every girl, except those in the lower classes, was trained in the domestic and aesthetic arts.

This education included learning the Japanese written language, the Chinese classics, poetry, music, etiquette, flower arrangement, tea ceremony, calligraphy and painting, and in some areas, dancing.

Such talents were considered suitable for a proper woman and wife. 2

The Tal- mud- ists aver that teach- ing women to read is tiflut “unbe- coming behavior, sexual license, [and] a waste of time.”

The strictures they instituted blocking women from access to reading literacy, the minimum needed for participation in religious ritual was, until the seventh- century and only in Europe, carefully adhered.

Before that time few women in any Jewish population were reading much less writing literate.

Without the ability to record their lives for posterity, including their very much needed participation in holy days such as Passover, the experiences of half of the Jewish people have been and to a large extent continue to be ignored. 3

Surveys consistently find that women read more books than men, especially fiction. Explanations abound, from the biological differences between the male and female brains, to the way that boys and girls are introduced to reading at a young age. 4

throughout time and cultures, the idea that women should be taught to read has been suspect at best. but once again one thing becomes increasingly clear. in japan you really don't need to have red hair to read.

solstice II

YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ALL

But you can have the fig tree and its fat leaves like clown hands

gloved with green. You can have the touch
of a single eleven-year-old finger

on your cheek, waking you at one a.m.
to say the hamster is back.

You can have the purr of the cat
and the soulful look

of the black dog, the look that says,
If I could I would bite

every sorrow until it fled,
and when it is August,

you can have it August and abundantly so. You can have love,

though often it will be mysterious,
like the white foam

that bubbles up at the top of the bean pot over the red kidneys

until you realize foam's twin is blood.

You can have the skin at the center between a man's legs,

so solid, so doll-like.
You can have the life of the mind,

glowing occasionally in priestly vestments, never admitting pettiness,

never stooping to bribe the sullen guard who'll tell you

all roads narrow at the border.

You can speak a foreign language, sometimes,

and it can mean something. You can visit the marker on the grave

where your father wept openly. You can't bring back the dead,

but you can have the words forgive and forget hold hands

as if they meant to spend a lifetime together. And you can be grateful

for makeup, the way it kisses your face, half spice, half amnesia, grateful

for Mozart, his many notes racing one another towards joy, for towels

sucking up the drops on your clean skin, and for deeper thirsts,

for passion fruit, for saliva.
You can have the dream,

the dream of Egypt, the horses of Egypt and you riding in the hot sand.

You can have your grandfather sitting on the side of your bed,

at least for a while,
you can have clouds and letters, the leaping

of distances, and Indian food
with yellow sauce like sunrise.

You can't count on grace
to pick you out of a crowd

but here is your friend to teach you
how to high jump,

how to throw yourself
over the bar, backwards,

until you learn about love,
about sweet surrender,

and here are periwinkles, buses that kneel, farms in the mind

as real as Africa. And when adulthood fails you,

you can still summon the memory of the black swan on the pond

of your childhood, the rye bread with peanut butter and bananas

your grandmother gave you
while the rest of the family slept.

There is the voice you can still summon
at will, like your mother's,

it will always whisper, you can't have it all,

but there is this.

Barbara Ras

From Bite Every Sorrow by Barbara Ras,
published by Louisiana State University Press, 1998.
Copyright © 1997 by Barbara Ras. All rights reserved.

signals

By the 1880s, interest in Brittany.... was high and Pont-Aven was already an internationally known enclave for artists (and sightseeing city folk).....

Establishing the regional particularities of Brittany, with its special native costumes and customs, terrain and religiosity, is fundamental to an understanding of the iconography of [Nabi] painting[s].... [in which we see] Breton women's homespun costumes with their characteristic stiffly starched white headdresses, or coiffes.

Each headdress design, explicated in terms of how it identified the wearer, indicated locale and status: small headgear was worn by working class women; a widow let the flaps of her headdress hang loose; sous-coiffes were for working; and special, ceremonial coiffes were designated for holidays. 1

The Edo Period was the most gorgeous period in the history of Japanese woman's hairstyles, with hundreds of different styles existed. They differed according to a woman's age, occupation, regional background and social or marital status.

For example, a single woman wore her hair in such styles as the momo-ware or the shimada-mage. After getting married, the maru-mage, ryowa-mage or sakko styles took over, and a widow's hair was cut short to indicate her status (kiri-gami). The most well-known hairstyle for courtesans was the yoko-hyogo style, resembling a butterfly with its wings spread open. The feudal lord's waiting maids used the katahazushi style, synonymous with their position itself. 2

Clothing, hairstyles, hair ornaments, the way the obi was tied on the kimono, the way of walking were all signs of [a courtesan's] rank. 3

At first hair ornaments were luxury items affordable only by ladies of the nobility, affluent townswomen or high-ranking courtesans. By the Meiji Restoration in 1868, hair ornaments of every variety were available to women of all social classes. 4

Apart from being able to dance, sing, and play, the well-trained geisha was expected to know all the latest jokes and stories, to be quick at repartee, and an accomplished conversationist.

Her dress was as beautiful as that of the courtesan, but she wore her obi tied behind, while her head was not adorned with the enormous hair-pins of the latter. 5




A few comments on the geisha vs. prostitute question: Historically, geisha and prostitutes were completely different classes in Japan. The highest-ranking prostitutes still in existence when the first geisha emerged were "oiran", who had evolved from a previous class of very accomplished courtesans called "tayuu". These women were often quite brilliant artists and poets, and these talents were often considered much more important than sexual prowess. While tayuu were usually very beautiful, they were valued as much for their brains as their bodies. Lower-ranking prostitutes also existed--there were several ranks, arranged according to artistic accomplishment and beauty. (There is a lot of information on this in "Yoshiwara: The Nightless City", which has recently been reprinted.)

The meaning of the word "geiko" (a more recent and specific term for "geisha") is "woman of the arts". When geisha districts were first established, there were very strict rules to keep the geisha from interfering with the customers of the oiran. They had to wear less vibrant colours, and smaller and fewer hair ornaments. The pictures one sees of Japanese women wearing many large ornaments in their hair and very bright many-layered kimono are oiran or tayuu, not geisha. Geisha were not intended to take money for sex (although it was known to happen). But a very successful geisha would not really need to do that. She would earn a great deal of money just for entertaining. 6

You know how Utamaro's beauties sought
The end of love in their all-speaking braids
-- Wallace Stevens

oranges

THE RAT OF FAITH

A blue jay poses on a stake
meant to support an
apple tree
newly planted.
A strong wind
on this clear cold morning
barely ruffles his
tail feathers.
When he turns his attention
toward me, I face his eyes
without blinking.
A week ago
my wife called me to come see

this same bird chase a rat
into the thick leaves
of an orange tree. We came as
close as we could and watched
the rat dig his way
into an orange,
claws working meticulously.
Then he feasted, face deep
into the meal, and after- wards
washed himself in juice, paws
scrubbing soberly. Surprised
by the whiteness of the belly,
how open it was and vulnerable,
I suggested I fetch my .22.
She said, "Do you want to kill him?"
I didn't. There are oranges
enough for him, the jays, and us,
across the fence in the yard
next door oranges rotting
on the ground. There is power
in the name rat, a horror
that may be private. When I
was a boy and heir to tales
of savagery, of sleeping men
and kids eaten half away before
they could wake, I came to know
that horror. I was afraid
that left alive the animal
would invade my sleep, grown
immense now and powerful
with the need to eat flesh.
I was wrong. Night after night
I wake from dreams of a city
like no other, the bright city
of beauty I thought I'd lost
when I lost my faith that one day
we would come into our lives.
The wind gusts and calms
shaking this miniature budding
apple tree that in three months
has taken to the hard clay
of our front yard. In one hop
the jay turns his back on me,
dips as though about to drink
the air itself, and flies.

Philip Levine

(from A Walk with Tom Jefferson
© 1988 Philip Levine)