One Hand Clapping

I'm reminded as I write for my blog, that I'm doing this for myself first, and then with ego, I'm expecting others to want to read my musings. It's kind of like having your diary that you wrote as a kid, the one you kept very secretively and did not want your parents or nosey siblings to read, except that this one is always open and on the dresser table.

I'm sure others far more clever than me have already ruminated on this phenomenon, with far more clarity. The encouraging thing is that people are putting pen to paper, as it were, and actually using a form of communications that in this day of 'cellphones always in the ear' is a real throwback.

It has to be said though that this is a rather singular form of expression, and because of the anonymity that the Internet gives us, people can project themselves in ways that may not reflect on the true self. Are we just sad individuals sitting at a desk staring at our illuminated screen or are we trying to be profound or funny or obtuse or any of the other actions that we take as communications. I certainly feel more connected reading other's thoughts on life, the mundaneness of it all, or maybe an alternate insight that someone might have about current events.

There are eight million bloggers, I read somewhere, and for those fans of Film Noir, "There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them." Each probably has a story to tell, or possibly they feel that they have something interesting to say, or maybe it's just for a lark. Probably 7,999,000 are pretty mediocre (this blog included), and the others are worth the read. Although I hasten to add that usually there is a kernel of inspiration in most people's rantings, it's just so hard to wade through all the other nonsense.

The sound of one hand clapping can be pretty deafening.

What is the Sound of the Single Hand? When you clap together both hands a sharp sound is heard; when you raise the one hand there is neither sound nor smell. Is this the High Heaven of which Confucius speaks? Or is it the essentials of what Yamamba describes in these words: "The echo of the completely empty valley bears tidings heard from the soundless sound?" This is something that can by no means be heard with the ear. If conceptions and discriminations are not mixed within it and it is quite apart from seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, and if, while walking, standing, sitting, and reclining, you proceed traightforwardly without interruption in the study of this koan, you will suddenly pluck out the karmic root of birth and death and break down the cave of ignorance. Thus you will attain to a peace in which the phoenix has left the golden net and the crane has been set free of the basket. At this time the basis of mind, consciousness, and emotion is suddenly shattered; the realm of illusion with its endless sinking in the cycle of birth and death is overturned. The treasure accumulation of the Three Bodies and the Four Wisdoms is taken away, and the miraculous realms of the Six Supernatural Powers and Three Insights is transcended.

Yabukoji, in The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, Translated by Philip B. Yampolsky, Columbia University Press, New York and London, 1971