Cherry blossom

[wongkk]

When I visited Japan in late March 2009, I was fascinated by the cherry blossoms and the habit of hanami (friends and family meeting to look at the blossom and to eat and drink beneath the cherry trees as they flowered and shed petals over the food).  It was a very metaphorical experience.

Comments

[wongkk]

Hmm - I can see that you and trees don't have the easiest of relationships if they drop all that stuff on you! Cherry petals and plum blossom blowing across your path in the wind is a strange experience. Like dry snowflakes.

I know what you mean about animes. One of my favourite screen caps is of hijikata toshizo lying in a pile of cherry petals - snitched from bugackt's old layout:

[brotherskeeper1]

That green double pod looks like the whirly-jiggers that are currently on our maple trees except there is only one pod. And each one is capable of being a new tree. They are a massive nuisance each spring.

[wongkk]

In the UK, ours are usually sycamore and, yes, I know the shape of the seed leaves and pull them up by the handful before they reach 2 inches tall. I don't want to lose my house in a sycamore forest!

[csg_dear4life]

Next time I go to Japan, it's going to be during the cherry blossom festivals.

[wongkk]

Yes - please do that. It is completely remarkable - both visually and as a marker for the end of their school year and for (consequently) life moving on.

[brotherskeeper1]

Your photos are beautiful! I like the Sakura poem.

[wongkk]

Thank you. I always find that even having the camera in my pocket makes me SEE more widely and deeply and carefully. The camera lens is a place where mind and soul and body can come together.

[wongkk]

It is sort of sad. And sort of a satire on sad (what do the trees care, however much we cry?). Yes, I wrote it to organize my thoughts about debating this topic with a Japanese friend

[wongkk]

I know more about plum blossom than cherry blossom! The plum blossom is much more common in the UK (it's an easier and a more long-lived tree to grow) so maybe what you are remembering is the effect of the lighter weight plum petals (they blow more easily than the cherry).

Also, plum blossom is one of the three Chinese winter friends (with pine and bamboo) - it flowers earlier in the year than the cherry so is definitely more of a winter plant (in the UK, it shows the END of winter).

AND - importantly for me! - plum blossom is the name of a kung fu technique which (the legends says) the monks used to practise (for precision) by using the plum blossom as a target - first a low flower, then a higher flower.

I have both a cherry tree and a plum tree in my garden. The cherry is flowering now but the plum finished about 3 weeks ago. However, I took a photo in early March - a gift for you (sorry there is no scent):

[excused_early]

Oh, such a brilliant poem, KK!! It's whimsical and yet points to the truth. I love it!
Especially the last verse..., it's so beautiful and graceful that it brings tears to my eyes.... ;_____;

How I long to be like a sakura blossom.....

Thank you, KK, so much, it means a lot to me♥♥♥

[wongkk]

Thank you. I used the act of composing the poem to organize my thoughts after our conversation. (is that bad?? To use poetry for this functional purpose?!)

Also, in the area near me, there a few (not a mass, as in Japan!) beautiful cherry trees. Sadly, the small one in my own garden is only partly alive - it is just very old (more than 50 years) and the cherry is not, here, a long-lived tree. Another lesson in muichimotsu.

In both Christian and Buddhist traditions there is an ideal of "unattachedness" (er - is that muichimotsu in "Japanese sounds"? In Christianity it is often referred to as "dying to self"). Cherry blossom is a good symbol for this, no? I genuinely do not know if we can attain this to be like a sakura blossom; I will let you know after I have finished living ;=)

I'm pleased that you liked the poem. Our earlier conversation on the topic meant a lot to me too.

[excused_early]

Yes, muichimotsu 無一物. That's exactly it.
And yes, I also know it's "dying to self" in Christianity. Same principle, indeed. An essential element of pure grace.

I sometimes feel so foolish struggling with my "self", my mind-made self, when the truth is all around me as well as right within myself. And yet, I struggle.

<3

[wongkk]

I wasn't too sure about the Japanese but now I can see the kanji I know that it is "mo yat mat" (Cantonese) or "not one thing".

Yes, not one thing - but one same principle!

We all seem to have more "self" as we grow older, so even struggling to keep as little self as we one had is a big achievement. To stay free of the baggage of our accumulating experiences and likes and dislikes and victories and failures, yes, this is a struggle.

♥♥