April 2, 2022
Kin-tsugi
We are just three months in and 2022 has already given us “a lot to process,” as Chris Rock would put it. Prices are rocketing all over the world as people emerge from the pandemic and begin to resume normalcy. The Russian armed forces have been battering Ukraine for a good part of a month now. Iran deliberately fired a missile into Iraq. India accidentally fired one into Pakistan. Will Smith, an accomplished artist and a normally well behaved person, lost his cool and slapped a fellow artist on stage live in front of millions of people watching in horror and perplexity. The Cincinnati Bengals found their way back to the Super Bowl after 34 years in the wilderness. The New York Times bought Wordle. And, Kim finally broke up with Ye.
There’s a lot going on. And I have nothing to say about any of it except maybe to say that imperfection is a feature of creation. It’s not a bug or a flaw as we sometimes think it is. Never are things perfect. Never have they been perfect. Never will they be so. It is how it is.
There is an ideal in Zen Buddhism that celebrates the imperfection in creation. They call it wabi sabi. It’s a belief that we can celebrate the passage of time only by observing the damages that accumulate with it. Imperfection is impermanence. And impermanence is imperfection. Sabi evokes a serene and aging elegance. Wabi denotes stillness, a certain silence that evokes melancholy at first but provides comfort if we allow it to embrace us. We find wabi sabi in the silence and serenity of those great old trees or mountains or buildings that have watched hundreds, thousands, or millions of years go by. We find it in the eyes of babies, grandparents and monks. Wabi sabi is everywhere creation is to be found.
When Renyo, the celebrated Zen Buddhist master, was young, he was asked to clear a garden of dead leaves and other debris. Upon finishing his job, it is said that Renyo shook a cherry blossom tree causing it to scatter sakura leaves all over the garden. This is wabi sabi, that touch of imperfection that gives rise to aesthetic, art and beauty in creation and reminds us that creation is ultimately headed to dissolution and sublimation into a more perfect state.
On his wanderings, Renyo was once invited to tea by a host who wished to show off an antique tea cup in his collection. Instead of admiring the ceramic, Renyo chose to dwell on the serenity of the garden. Frustrated, the host smashed the cup to smithereens once Renyo bid his farewell. A wise matron in the household patiently collected the shards and glued them back. Years later, Renyo returned and observed the magnificence of a once shattered teacup, its fault lines now held together by strips of gold. Zen Buddhists call this kin-tsugi, kin for gold and tsugi for joining.
In an age that celebrates youth, opulence and infallibility, and punishes their opposites, the art of kin-tsugi retains a certain wisdom. We are all scarred, broken, vulnerable and damaged when we arrive in this world. Call it karma or what you will. We go through our lives taking great care to hide these scars for fear that consequences will be great and insurmountable. We are but loosely held pieces of pottery in an ancient tea ceremony. Every so often, something happens that breaks us. When we stand up to defend a nation, a cause or a family member, we sometimes fall apart. Grief and joy tear us asunder alternately when they come. These are great moments of spiritual awakening and growth. The kin or gold from the wisdom we gather at such times is what allows the tsugi or the joining back of our shattered selves.
Will Smith strikes me as an old and wise soul that wears its body and mind well. I have watched him over the years and he is exceptionally wise and accomplished. Even old souls can shatter if they are not watchful. The devil, as Denzel said, comes when you are at your highest moment in life. There must and will, of course, be consequences for Smith’s actions in this transactional world. He has resigned his Academy membership. He may be ostracized. He may even lose his Oscar (which I hope does not happen). But I pray he finds his kin at this moment. For, without the kin, there can be no tsugi.
Stay safe. I’ll see you again whenever I see you again.
It is no doubt true that IMPERFECTIONS are part and parcel of our life and we have to take it along in our strides. But what strikes one is the most BIZARRE IMPERFECTIONS that abound the world during the last three months, like the brutal attack of UKRAINE by the Russian OLIGARCH, the outrageous series of attempts and manipulations by IMRAN KHAN, to stay put in power and abysmal sinking of the economy of SRI LANKA, with the PRESIDENT, refusing to concede his GOVT’s part in precipitating it, by borrowing to the hilt from the most obliging Dragon. We have to live with IMPERFECTIONS, but, if it is going to be the order of the day, I would rather prefer a DELUGE OR KALIYUGA PRALAYA , overtaking us, providing scope to the ALMIGHTY to create a NEW WORLD, with IMPERFECTIONS , no doubt, strewn along with an overwhelmingly PERFECT MANIFESTATIONS, in our social, political and day to day life of the common man, who has not bargained for such bizarre oddities, occurring almost simultaneously, throughout the world.