Tuesday 24 June 2008

dew drop!

There is a beautify story about the life of a great Japanese poet, Issa.
When Issa was only thirty he had already lost his five children; five children had died by the time he was thirty. Then his wife died and he was almost completely mad - in anguish, in suffering.
He went to a Zen Master. The Zen Master asked, "What is the problem
Issa said, "My five children are dead and now my wife is dead. Why is there so much suffering? I can't see the reason for it. What is the explanation? I have not done anything wrong to anybody. I have lived a very poor life, but I was happy. Now suddenly my five children are gone, my wife is also gone - why is there so much suffering, and for no reason?"
The Zen Master said, "Life is just like a dew-drop in the morning. It is the nature of life that death happens. There is no explanation; it is the nature of life. There is no need for any special reason to be given. Life's nature is like a dew-drop; it hangs for a while on a leaf of grass; a small breeze and it is gone; the sun rises and it evaporates. That is the nature of life."
Issa was a man of deep intelligence. He is a poet and he understood it. He came back and he wrote a poem. The poem means: 'Life, a dew-drop? Yes, I understand. Life is a dew-drop. Yet ... and yet ... .'
In that 'Yet ... and yet ...', he is saying something superbly human - the wife is gone, the children are gone and the eyes are full of tears: 'Yet ... and yet ... .'