Dogen.... er.... Emerson?

[Yugen]

During a snowstorm in Maine, the last lines of Emerson's essay "The Poet" brings Dogen into stark relief and I am awestruck:

"Wherever snow falls or water flows or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble."

.... "forms with transparent boundaries!" .... is this cool or what? This is the uptight New England way of saying form is formless and formlessness is form!

"wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds..." - my heart quickens a beat - think Uchiyama (paraphrasing the old master Shitou) and "the boundless sky does not hinder the floating white clouds"..... there is so much to learn from nature, and the observations of poets.....

(PS - it is no coincidence that Emerson read Buddhist scriptures)

Poets see the world as it is.... even they be called fools..... we give expression to the world in the manner by which we interpret things around us. The stars and mountains and clouds are.... well.... stars and mountains and clouds..... and we choose the fashion by which we interpret our experience.

Deep bows
Yugen