Ryokan (Japanese Zen monk and recluse, b. 1758-1831) -
I hold up in my hands The seven pink pomegranates Bowing low before them The gifts from the warmth within.
*Misao Kodama, Hikosaku Yanagishima, Trans. Zen Fool Ryokan.
In everything give thanks.
*Christian New Testament
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Ryokan is giving thanks. He is not thanking an object called "God" or something else. Not bowing before a god or a buddha. He is just giving thanks. He needs no object called anything. Or is he thanking the pomegranates for the pomegranates? I read this as thanking no one or nothing specific.
Ryokan is one with the thanksgiving; he is the thanksgiving. Spontaneous gesture arises naturally, just as and with pomegranates, hands, and bowing.
As Buddhism has taught him, Ryokan knows that a pink pomegranate arises with the whole universe. He knows his hands and bowing also do. He knows the wish to give thanks does not belong to "Ryokan."
“The gifts from the warmth within.” Warm soil brings pomegranates. Sun warms the soil. Rain waters. Did someone plant the pomegranate tree? How did the seed take root? Did it grow in a garden or the wild? Pomegranates are pomegranates, regardless.
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Ryokan knows whatever life gives him, it is a gift. When we realize this, not merely theoretically, we unite with gratitude. We, practicing gratitude, become gratitude. For some, having an object to give thanks to may help; for others, a gesture to no one specific anywhere is enough.
A grateful person is a joyful person. We can slow down, relax, and feel this joy that arises with gratitude -
What is it that opens the gate to joy in our ordinary, day-to-day lives? I've been calling it awakeness and awareness: the simple practice of sitting quietly, breathing in and out, dropping our obsessive thoughts and resistance to the freshness of the moment that is exactly here. It is amazing, our resistance to tapping into the joy that is like the blue sky surrounding this earth. Joy is always here if we can just for a few moments stop our constant ruminating and grasping for what is not here. Breathing in, we drop our preoccupations and thoughts, and we simply breathe in, enjoying that in-breath. Breathing out, we again simply enjoy that out-breath. In this way, we experience things as they are. Appreciation and gratitude suffuse our whole being, and joy arises.
*Pat Enkyo O'Hara. Most Intimate: A Zen Approach to Life's Challenges.
