Chapter 78 of Shobogenzo is called “Hatsu-U” or “The Patra.” A patra is a large bowl. Traditionally, Indian Buddhist monks used a patra to eat their meals from. Nishijima points out that the patra has “been highly revered as a symbol of Buddhist life.” Dogen writes in some detail about differing aspects of the patra corresponding to differing aspects of Buddhist teaching and/or practice. Dogen is keen to point out that learning in practice is an equally important aspect of this too. We could kill ourselves by sitting, or we could use the patra passed from those before us to us, and then on to those who come after us, to eat our meals. Let’s just eat. Let’s just live.
The Buddha’s patra is a net result of and a going beyond of arising and passing, neither coming nor going, without merit or faults, it’s not new or old and “it is not connected with past and present.” It is what it is, come and get it, it’s right here, right now. That’s it. “Do not call it a bit of tile, and do not call it a chunk of wood. We have realized it in experience like this.” (P.63)
Leaving the cinema which had been showing a film called “The Possibilities Are Endless.” The musician Edwyn Collins was in his words a young “androgynous boy” back then. Back then, I had a crush on him. Right now, he has survived a massive stroke which in the words of the film publicity “deleted the contents of his mind.” Restart button. Is he the same person or a different person now who has relearnt who he was then, right now? In the film Edwyn talks about the joy of being alive and in the world, of recovering language and memory – “I’m slow at first and then the words come and it’s wonderful.” Bleeds in the brain. Leaving the cinema having witnessed such frailty and a pulling back from the edge of death. Edwyn’s partner, Grace, refers to the battle that went on inside Collins’ head while he was in a coma – that pulling back, coming back to right now. How does that kind of decision get made? Sitting on the cushions, pulling back from the past and the future to right now. Walking back to the car, my companion says “it’s all so random, why him, and not you or me?” – in this moment right now everything happens. Neurological damage, cognitive loops stuck in a rut, jolted out through sketching. My youth is gone. Edwyn’s bemused face. Memory waterfalls, and our limping, hobbling bodies. Birth, old age, sickness, death. The possibilities are endless.
