1. I recently asked someone young, “When do you feel awe?” I was expecting he would say when he is looking at rainbows at the beach—he lives in Hawaii, after all.
Yes! I am also in awe with chado and found it meditative. But the most transforming insight I came to realize this year is the practice of bringing a sense of awe and spirituality to our everyday life - doing the cooking, child caring, housework or responsibilities that we cannot shrink away from. These tasks are lonely, heavy, unglamorous, sadly not highly regarded by our society but the power lies in bringing lightness to them.
I agree with you completely--there is a real reason why religious orders and practices stress these kinds of manual body-know-how kinds of tasks. And parents do a disservice to their kids, in my opinion, when they are not valued as part of their upbringing. In California especially tasks like housework and gardening are not valued as much--at least I felt it was valued in Japan, even in public schools. And I definitely think it is a strong message I learned from tea!!
All very interesting! I like how in Japan they manage to fold in these spiritual/ religious concepts into culture to become second nature. Most Japanese don’t even identify themselves as religious or spiritual. Love your Substack writings. Looking forward to more!
A personal note from Joyce Carol Oates! So wonderful, Leanne! This is a marvelous piece. The discussion of AWE reminds me of William Blake's invocation of "radical innocence". And laundry on the line: the people version of "birds on a wire"!
Her note was so exciting for me!!! I could not believe it and thought it was spam at first. And I really need to re-read Blake... and yes, yes, birds on a wire, skirts on a line :)
Great piece! Reminded me of the idea of "beginner's mind," which is something I always find myself coming back to (I've been reading "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" on and off, a few pages every now and then, by Shunryu Suzuki). Also was thinking of the sublime, and then you had that quote from Melville at the end!
Thank you so much for reading this and commenting-- the sublime is also a great word... and I agree with the beginner's mind connection exactly as you said. Kenko, somewhere in Essays in Idleness, spoke about the goal of swimming out into deep waters during a lifetime of spiritual practice, with the goal of ending right back up where you started in the shallows (of beginner's mind).... but you are there with new eyes and ears...? xoxoxox
The hanging of laundry! Thank you, Leanne. I’d forgotten all about that. When I was a child, my mother used to set the laundry on a line, a diagonal line across our backyard. And clothespins! I’d forgotten all about clothespins—the wonderful wooden ones, and then the less wonderful plastic variations. I’d forgotten about the slight swaying of a shirt, a pair or pants or a skirt in the breeze.
The first thing I did when I arrived here was buy a pack of WOODEN pins!!! Seeing laundry dancing in the breeze always puts me in the zone :) Leaving today!! More in an email... xo
I loved your picture of the casita in Taos. The clothes on a line are like semaphores--signs of life that are reassuring and touching, as you pointed out--and poetic. You create a lovely aura around the place and your time there. Thanks for sharing it.
What do you mean, you aren't allowed to hang a laundry line?! (I didn't know this was actually forbidden somewhere on this planet. Something so basic!)
Such an intriguing meditation. I've definitely felt it with chanoyu too, when observing certain eminent teachers make tea, those with deep appreciation & understanding of its spirit (not all teachers have it). I've felt it standing on top of mountains. I might have even felt it at rock concerts! However much I hate crowds in almost any other situation, there's something about the shared experience of dissolving into the music that I love... It can be just as profound as making tea.
Right!!!!!!!!??????? In Europe and Japan it is a human right! And it is such a peaceful thing too. But yes, it is forbidden in the neighborhood where I grew up. And yes, rock concerts--the author specifically mentioned it in his book, and so did my "guru" the philosopher Hubert Dreyfus in his book Shining Things.... sometimes the world becomes lit up and you feel yourself dissolving... when I wrote this I was thinking that I have only felt it a few times in tea... and twice was in very ordinary lessons when something magical happened in that room!
Yes! I am also in awe with chado and found it meditative. But the most transforming insight I came to realize this year is the practice of bringing a sense of awe and spirituality to our everyday life - doing the cooking, child caring, housework or responsibilities that we cannot shrink away from. These tasks are lonely, heavy, unglamorous, sadly not highly regarded by our society but the power lies in bringing lightness to them.
I agree with you completely--there is a real reason why religious orders and practices stress these kinds of manual body-know-how kinds of tasks. And parents do a disservice to their kids, in my opinion, when they are not valued as part of their upbringing. In California especially tasks like housework and gardening are not valued as much--at least I felt it was valued in Japan, even in public schools. And I definitely think it is a strong message I learned from tea!!
All very interesting! I like how in Japan they manage to fold in these spiritual/ religious concepts into culture to become second nature. Most Japanese don’t even identify themselves as religious or spiritual. Love your Substack writings. Looking forward to more!
A personal note from Joyce Carol Oates! So wonderful, Leanne! This is a marvelous piece. The discussion of AWE reminds me of William Blake's invocation of "radical innocence". And laundry on the line: the people version of "birds on a wire"!
Her note was so exciting for me!!! I could not believe it and thought it was spam at first. And I really need to re-read Blake... and yes, yes, birds on a wire, skirts on a line :)
Great piece! Reminded me of the idea of "beginner's mind," which is something I always find myself coming back to (I've been reading "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" on and off, a few pages every now and then, by Shunryu Suzuki). Also was thinking of the sublime, and then you had that quote from Melville at the end!
Thank you so much for reading this and commenting-- the sublime is also a great word... and I agree with the beginner's mind connection exactly as you said. Kenko, somewhere in Essays in Idleness, spoke about the goal of swimming out into deep waters during a lifetime of spiritual practice, with the goal of ending right back up where you started in the shallows (of beginner's mind).... but you are there with new eyes and ears...? xoxoxox
The hanging of laundry! Thank you, Leanne. I’d forgotten all about that. When I was a child, my mother used to set the laundry on a line, a diagonal line across our backyard. And clothespins! I’d forgotten all about clothespins—the wonderful wooden ones, and then the less wonderful plastic variations. I’d forgotten about the slight swaying of a shirt, a pair or pants or a skirt in the breeze.
The first thing I did when I arrived here was buy a pack of WOODEN pins!!! Seeing laundry dancing in the breeze always puts me in the zone :) Leaving today!! More in an email... xo
I loved your picture of the casita in Taos. The clothes on a line are like semaphores--signs of life that are reassuring and touching, as you pointed out--and poetic. You create a lovely aura around the place and your time there. Thanks for sharing it.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
What do you mean, you aren't allowed to hang a laundry line?! (I didn't know this was actually forbidden somewhere on this planet. Something so basic!)
Such an intriguing meditation. I've definitely felt it with chanoyu too, when observing certain eminent teachers make tea, those with deep appreciation & understanding of its spirit (not all teachers have it). I've felt it standing on top of mountains. I might have even felt it at rock concerts! However much I hate crowds in almost any other situation, there's something about the shared experience of dissolving into the music that I love... It can be just as profound as making tea.
Right!!!!!!!!??????? In Europe and Japan it is a human right! And it is such a peaceful thing too. But yes, it is forbidden in the neighborhood where I grew up. And yes, rock concerts--the author specifically mentioned it in his book, and so did my "guru" the philosopher Hubert Dreyfus in his book Shining Things.... sometimes the world becomes lit up and you feel yourself dissolving... when I wrote this I was thinking that I have only felt it a few times in tea... and twice was in very ordinary lessons when something magical happened in that room!
I know this feeling: "the wheels of the world seems to just stop, upending my limited of understanding of being." Well said. Lovely post.