Four hundred years ago, the Zen poet Hung Ying- Ming wrote, "A few fluttering green leaves and fallen red flowers on the doorstep, if they are gathered together, become the subject matter of poetry. A mass of floating cloud and a sweep of glimmering mist before the window, if their meaning is understood, suggest a clue to the wisdom of Zen."
The issue of tax dollars paying for religious displays or activities creates an artificial distraction from observing the beauties of the here and now. If your faith tradition benefits from a tax-supported display, you may feel content and think it is altogether appropriate. However, if someone else's faith is so supported, you may become angry or insulted.
Or, you may be angry that tax dollars are even being used at all. All this mental attachment and suffering for a mere display! Rather than grading a religious representation as good or bad, why not look — really look — at the world around you. If you do, you'll see unimaginable joys in the simplest of things and realize your connection to all that is.
The modernist writer Ezra Pound observed the reality of living in the now with his poem "In a Station of the Metro." In a mere fourteen words, he expressed the observation of being truly aware; "The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough." Ah, now that is a religious experience with no tax dollars needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment