komorebi: a meditation on perfect days
in a perfect daze
Hello everyone,
the ship keeps sailing
there’s water (there’s wood) there’s wind
the whites on the waves
(leave)
ever fading trails
…
…
this meditation
from
some time ago
is a meditation on
komorebi :
-
komorebi
is the Japanese word for
the shimmering of
light & shadows that is created by leaves swaying in the wind
it only exists once,
at that moment
-
-
listen to the meditation and ensuing story time above (or go here to listen to (all) the recorded meditations), and,
if you want to read the meditation and follow along links and alleyways, uncalled-for-connections and segues, this here stream of unconsciousness might just be the thing for
you.
a meditation on a meditation,
why not
?
perfect daze
perfect days it is, not perfect daze, which, unfortunately, is what it sounds like when i pronounce it and so perfect days becomes perfect daze, which, coincidentally, might just be the perfect description of high maintenance, a series i’m watching in which a new york bike-riding pot dealer weaves in and out of lives and we weave with him, witnessing snapshots and miniatures of NY lives, city lives, human lives, deeply interconnected through many invisible ties, the pot dealer (‘the guy’) one of them: open, friendly, very much letting everything happen and be, very much easing in and out of lives and very much breezing through his own, in a perfect daze having perfect days… perfect days - perfect days (also) is a japanese film you might want to watch; another man another city - tokyo this time - again, a man weaves through it, no pot dealing but toilet cleaning, but weaving it is and easing it is and wherever he appears life gets cleaner (inversely mirroring the pot dealer), and equanimously observing it all, the zen master would be proud, perfect days… perfect days - like he says:
next time is next time… now is now…
be a part of the days and the days become you; sit down and watch the fluttering light through the leaves and flutter along with the light, with the wind, the wood… i sit down and watch the film and it’s a meditation itself so i stay still and seated as the credits roll and the credits roll and the last credit leaves the screen and then there it is, the whole film captured in those four syllables:
komorebi -
a meditation;
a haiku even
or the place from which a haiku is born
-
some time ago in a rituelen session we examined the sun-day-of-rest, the sabbath and all those cultures that understand and understood the absolute importance (not a luxury!) of building rest and stillness into our lives (a wisdom somewhat lost in current times) and throughout the hour we interwove a few haiku; tiny moments of stillness that help punctuate the never-ending flow and re-establish and revitalize the ever-changing order of things -
a current favorite of mine (in dutch and english ) softly echoes komorebi:
-
De klokkentoon zweeg
maar avondbloesemgeuren
dragen hem verder
.
Bashō (1644 - 1694)
.
temple bells die out
the fragrant blossoms remain
a perfect evening!
-
-
sounds carried on by scent,
everything ever-changing
and yet
all remains…
…
a perfect day in a perfect daze
gone before you know it
the perfect day
carried on into the evening -
not just an evening,
for it is a perfect day (after all);
a perfect day then,
slowly transforms
into
a perfect evening
!
…
thanks for listening
thanks for reading
until next time;
please
have
a perfect day
a perfect evening
!
.
love
from
louis
COMING UP:
A silent day retreat on Wednesday the 26th of March;
When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you. Your forgotten or neglected inner wealth begins to reveal itself. You come home to yourself and learn to rest within - John O’Donohue
Meditazione; every other week or so, I guide an online meditation and it usually ends with story time (me sharing something that I’m inspired by at that moment) and a short conversation with whomever wants to stay and converse (feel very free and welcome to join and leave anytime you want);
Rituelen (coming up: Pasen, 2 april);
And if you have enjoyed this letter of news you might consider donating a small amount through this link: letter of news donation
final things to share:
The Smile’s Tiny Desk Concert is pretty awesome - i want Thom York’s blue woolly hat! - and for all you beginner guitarists out there (like me), you might want to try that bass line from the second song (the smoke); the smoke from the smile - it’s easy and fun!
Paradiso Amsterdam is uploading full concerts from the 00’s, here’s a Damien Rice concert with zero phones recording.
Really enjoyed ‘submission’ by Houellebecq. It made quite the stir in 2015, it’s quite the read ten years later… Western culture and society in decline, the narrator steps into a new life, with very little connection to the old one, and that’s just fine with him since ‘I would have nothing to mourn.’
It’s quite the funny book as well, but, as the Guardian writes, also a shifty, discomfitting affair:
That we feel Houellebecq’s satire (like all the best from Swift to Céline to Waugh) is only half in jest makes reading Submission a shifty, discomfiting affair: we’re never sure quite how many steps ahead of us the author is; how much of the nastiness is meant and how much mere drôlerie; how many levels lie beneath, just waiting to suck us down from our moral high ground.
Some trees to finish it all up,
fewer shadows this time,
but a lot of light
x
Thx 🌿