Smoke rises
river flows.
Sitting alone
where people once met and smiled
and considered things
hardly to be guessed at now.
Logs crackle.
Shadows still standing between darkness and light
and in the flickering
shifting the soul back to another place.
Where is my life?
Wither does it go?
I sit alone in my hut and meditate quietly.
With all my thinking I know nowhere...
Such is my present
eternally changing, all in emptiness.
Ryokan (1758-1831) Zen monk.
The Heritage Trust
Preserving the Past for the Future
About Me
- Littlestone
- Studied art and design at Swindon School of Art, Wiltshire, England and afterwards Japanese painting and calligraphy at Kyoto University of Fine Arts, Kyoto, Japan. In 1966 I was a lay monk at the Zen Buddhist temple of Ryozen-an in Kyoto and practiced under the guidance of its Director, Ruth Fuller-Sasaki and senior monk Dana R Fraser (co-translator of Layman P'ang: A Ninth Century Zen Classic). Also present at Ryozen-an was the author and poet Gary Snyder. Gary Snyder was one of the first Westerners in Japan to study Zen Buddhism and was the inspiration for Jack Kerouac's book, The Dharma Bums. I was assistant conservator (paintings) at Kyoto National Museum from 1969-1980 and Chief Conservator (Eastern Pictorial Art) at the British Museum from 1980-1986. Japan Foundation Fellow 1973-1974 and Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works since 1985.
No comments:
Post a Comment