{"id":6399,"date":"2019-03-22T07:03:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T14:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6399"},"modified":"2019-03-22T07:03:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T14:03:06","slug":"izumi-shikibu-watching-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/22\/izumi-shikibu-watching-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Izumi Shikibu – Watching the moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watching the moon
\nby Izumi Shikibu<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Jane Hirshfield<\/font><\/p>\n

Watching the moon
\nat midnight,
\nsolitary, mid-sky,
\nI knew myself completely,
\nno part left out.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women<\/a>, Edited by Jane Hirshfield<\/font><\/p>\n


\n\/ Image by Gautam & Chitrabhanu Chakrabarti<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

We just had an equinox full moon. Did you see it? I watched the luminous orange moon rise through the bare branches of the trees and climb with maternal majesty into the night sky. The full moon, it seems to me, embodies something both earthly and otherworldly, both at the same time. When the world around us takes on a luminosity and reveals new realities interwoven within the neighborhood we walk daily, that\u2019s a good time to encounter ourselves for the first time\u2026.<\/p>\n

Whenever the moon appears in a poem, we can read it as a reference to illuminated awareness \u2014 whether intended or not by the poet \u2014 and the meaning of the poem unwraps itself in fascinating ways\u2026<\/p>\n

The blissful state reveals itself as a shining light, as a luminescence permeating the still field of the mind. There is a sense of light from an undefined \u2018above,\u2019 silence, a fullness of vitality, and deep rest. In sacred poetry, particularly in Zen poetry, this is often expressed as the full moon in the night sky.<\/p>\n

The moon is the individual consciousness that shines only by reflecting the constant light of the sun, which is unbounded awareness. Individual consciousness, like the moon, waxes and wanes, sometimes bright and clear, sometimes dark.<\/p>\n

When the moon, consciousness, is full, it is round, whole, complete, perfectly reflecting the light of divine awareness. The full moon is enlightenment. It is Buddha-mind. It is the soft light that illumines the land below when all is at rest.<\/p>\n

With this understanding, reread Shikibu\u2019s poem. Do you feel the power of the statement beneath its beautiful words?<\/p>\n

When she says she is \u201cWatching the moon,\u201d she can be describing the deep meditation practice of witnessing the radiance of opened awareness. To do so \u201cat midnight\u201d carries the double meaning of a late night meditation (which is often the best time for deep contemplation), but midnight also suggests the depth of the great Void. We perceive the enlightened mind shining quietly within a pregnant emptiness. There is only awareness. (I have read alternate translations of this poem that say \u201cat dawn\u201d rather than midnight, which carry their own meanings.)<\/p>\n

The poet specifically describes the moon as \u201csolitary\u201d and \u201cmid-sky.\u201d In this profound communion, the awareness is recognized as being absolutely alone in the sense that there is no \u2018other,\u2019 nothing outside of its sphere; it is \u201csolitary.\u201d And it is the center point of being; it is the heart, it is the core; the moon is \u201cmid-sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we stand silently bathed by the light of the moonlight, we finally experience our true nature. We know ourselves \u201ccompletely\u201d \u2014 all of the seemingly disjointed and conflicting parts of ourselves are seen to be parts of a unified whole, \u201cno part left out.\u201d We are the wholeness.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Izumi Shikibu<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/small><\/td>\n<\/small><\/td>\n<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\nIzumi Shikibu<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Japan (974? \u2013 1034?) Timeline<\/a>
\nBuddhist<\/a> : Zen \/ Chan<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em><\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Izumi Shikibu is one of the towering figures of Japanese literature. She lived in Kyoto and was an official companion to the empress. She married young, but scandalized the court by abandoning her husband to become the lover of one of the empress\u2019s sons. When the prince died a few years later, she took a series of other lovers before eventually marrying for a second time.<\/p>\n

She was a social rebel, but willing to be fully engaged in her life. And, like her personal life, Shikibu\u2019s poetry mixes elements of eros with the deep awareness that comes from Buddhist meditative practice.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Izumi Shikibu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watching the moon by Izumi Shikibu English version by Jane Hirshfield Watching the moon at midnight, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely, no part left out. \u2014 from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield \/ Image by Gautam & Chitrabhanu Chakrabarti \/ We just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[835,761,2249,418,2248,419,2053,734,118],"class_list":["post-6399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-enlightenment","tag-full-moon","tag-illumination","tag-izumi-shikibu","tag-luminous","tag-moon","tag-self-knowledge","tag-womens-spiritual-poetry","tag-zen-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6400,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399\/revisions\/6400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}