UJI Part Sixteen | Uji’s Boundless Transition
“The transiting of time and being is not to be thought of as wind blowing the rain from east to west. And it would be inaccurate to say that the whole world is unchanging, or that it is motionless: it is in transition. The flow of time and being is like spring, for instance. The spring has an appearance of being abundant in its burgeoning, and we refer to this as its ‘passage’. We should consider well that the spring ‘passes’ without excluding anything within it. In other words, the passing of spring is, to be sure, a passing of what we humans call ‘spring’. ‘Passing’ is not what spring is, but refers to the passage of the springtime; hence, it is a transition that is now being actualized during the time of spring.”
Here, the passage of time and being is illustrated by a metaphorical comparison: likening it to the movement of spring. This analogy serves to elucidate the dynamic and ever-changing nature of existence. Dōgen asserts that time and being should not be conceived as a mere directional flow, akin to the wind blowing rain from east to west. Instead, he invites us to contemplate the essence of transition by considering the characteristics of spring.
In this exploration, Dōgen challenges the notion of viewing the world as static or unchanging. Instead, he presents it as perpetually transitioning, akin to spring's vibrant and evolving landscape. This depiction emphasizes the richness and complexity of the passage of time and being, illustrating that it encompasses all phenomena without exclusion.
To delve deeper into the implications of Dogen's metaphor, we can turn to a koan from the Gateless Gate, Case 29:
"The wind was flapping a temple flag, and two monks were having an argument about it. One said, 'The flag is moving.' The other said, 'The wind is moving.' They argued back and forth but could not reach the truth. The sixth patriarch said, 'It is not the wind that moves. It is not the flag that moves. It is your mind that moves.' The two monks were struck with awe."
In the case of the two monks and the temple flag, we witness a stark contrast in their perspectives. One sees the flag moving, and the other sees the wind moving. Their debate, though intense, leads to no resolution (debates seldom do). However, when the sixth patriarch intervenes, he offers a profound insight: 'It is not the wind that moves. It is not the flag that moves. It is your mind that moves.' This teaching is a powerful reminder of the inseparable connection between perceiver and perceived and of the danger of imagining either one as existing independently.
By recognizing the dynamic nature of transition, as Dōgen's portrayal of spring as passage does, we can transcend our reliance on the confines of conceptual thought and embrace the boundlessness of what is. Spring does not move through time as though time were something outside of it. Spring itself is this passage, and nothing is excluded from spring as it passes. In the same way, we do not stand outside uji watching our lives move past us. We are this transition. Only then can we manifest the compassion of uji.
