On the eve of “Priss” Day in Japan, we wear old clothing to remind us or repairing the old, plus one frilly thing, like ruffled underpants. I worship this Day as it oprns us up to repairing what is old in us and what is not so worshiped and not so kindly felt. Lke when pressing his clothes for the Day, the existant Emperor, who kept all ancient Holidays, would handle (worship in Ancient Japanese) the worm spots and remember or try to, the place where it got worn: on a bicycle path once it ripped and he remembered his executed son’t smile and the existant Emperor wept while the existing one smiled at the memory.
The existant is torn between modern and old and the existing worships anew the old, ancient patterns in the present and future modern-day Japan. Like when at Shinto, he takes his hand dips it in the stone basin of water with the wooden spigot and sprinkes it over his clothing, ancient patterning of time on the expression of delight that we should be so topped as they say in Japan, my translation, in clothing. The existant emperor weeps and the existing one puts water under his lids from the similar wet hand. An expression of oddness you think with newness, except that tears were once shed at ceremonies by men only–women were removed if they cried, curious huh !!!???!!!–for it was a time of struggle in ancient China for ceremonies of Shinto were shunned by the then Nobles who wanted Buddhist only. Buddhism is now a part of Shinto but it remained separate until McArthur put them together in his “Ancient Brief” as he called it that Buddhist Patterns should be merged with Shinto and not separated out or militaristic patterns might emerge. Shinto has always been anti-military and Buddhist is naturally or regularly. Why separate them. Men wept and women were removed but to this Day, they have been separate since McArthur left and I don’t know the difference said the Mother of Japan, the Emperor’s Wife when asked thirteen years after the last presence of American’s in Japanese Governmetnt separated and removed themselves. Shinto separated and Buddhism replaced the state religion. (If she doesn’t know or if it’s a secret then what of the ancient shrines of Japann–Buddhist or Shinto?)
Celebrate “Priss” Day in this way: bring an old piece of clothing to the shrine of your choice, church, synagogue or ancient hirstorical spot and lay it our for ten or twenty days. Lay it there and weep for what’s been lost in your culture. What’s ancient, what’s old and what’s forlorn about it all, the separation and the loss if there was or is one. I weep for I am Buddhist and find no lineage I accept as it is too prestigious for me, when of the mind or in the thought always, I lack the experiential aspect. Like separating Shinto, experience of presence of mind, like when deliberating on a spot of the past (experience) then celebrate it’s worth in the presece of recreating the moment in residue of worthwhileness, from Buddhist, which is experience of lineage of thought, presence–experience of place, moment or thought (lineage again, not to be repitious), or/and place. I worship these two together and try to place them side by side so my new ritual, the one above was given as an aspect of tradition in Japan (Good Housekeeping, See Mother of Japan, The Emperor’s Wife and Mother or Mother and Wife, differs on the coasts, west and east, Spring of 1945; the Virginia State Library has one on call that you can only look at in the library; they had a press of 80 then the atomic bomb dropped and they left the printing press as is and left the spot. It still exists and they may print it next month.) and mine is to tear a piece of old clothing and put a new swatch in and bring it with your for ten or twenty days–ancients use to spell out numbers thinking it was superstious for the fight not to–same Good Housekeeping Article). When you carry old with new you bring or represent the way of passage to the future of mindspring or timespring as the Japanese say) of the culumination of all possiblitlies to the breathe or moment. Much thought has been gven to this moment (of “Priss Day) and yet it swells forth to bring the future into the presence of mindful eterit experience, Shinto with Zen or Buddhist Thought? I think McArthur was helped by someone in Japan who thought if they were combined then maybe a new culture for the future of the world, transculture, would emerge and has in ancient springs of Bemen, in southern Japan, where Shinto is once again celebrated with Buddhist, not Zen but emerging Japanese Buddhism with connections to spirit. These thoughts on Buddhism, reign with “Priss” Day and me as they are new and are formed on ancient patterns of place, thought, and experience of walking, reading, and relieving the old ancient ways of thought, life, and breathe. Is our breathe different, I thought of that once with global warming and all and I hear that it is if we listen to the brook and cows of ancient times and what they whisper. Listen carefully for your wakefulness and thoroughly regain in the moment the preciousness of what remains in the cultural fixtures and foundations of your society, place, thought, or emotion. All ridden by past, family, culture, society, and rich, what we have read. All past bearing down on the moment and expressing the future. What do we make of the occasion, holidays like “Priss”, old with new. Celebrate a new but regulate the new with out the old and we have precision, regulate the old with out the new and we have thought and society, but regulate both, or exerate with the new and old and we have a new pattern, like Shinto with Buddhism in Bemen. I look forward to that day, worship that time when it exists and we are found with new prescients of thought, emotion, and especially instinctual living patterns, like I am trying to create. In other words, what do we do with the past, the future and with the essence of the moment which is the prior distilled to one asperessence. Moment, breathe with all we have experienced and look forward to, all sentient beings? Not in the ancient way but in the way of current Tibetan Thought when or was with everything that existed in their culture. Is Dharmasala that way? I don’t know but if I read correctly it was that way in the twenties of Tibet.
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