“Mono no aware” Note & Excerpts for Monday the 8th (a post-practice post) April 8, 2024

“Ramadān Mubarak, Blessed Ramadān!” to anyone observing the holy month of Ramadān. (Keep your eyes open.) Many blessings to all, and especially to those observing Kanbutsu-e and Hanamatsuri (the “Flower Festival”) or Great Lent!

This is a post-practice post for Monday, April 8^th, which includes links to posts that reference the Four Noble Truths. You can request an audio recording of a related practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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“Everything changes and nothing remains still…you cannot step twice into the same stream.”

— Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesos (c. 535 BCE – c. 475 BCE)

Even though I revisit similar themes throughout the year, the classes are never quite the same. They change because the calendars change — and holidays overlap in different ways. They change because the world changes. They change because the people in class change. More importantly, they change because we change. And, as our mind-body-spirits change, some aspects of our practices change. Of course, as our practices change, our mind-body-spirits change, we change, and we change the way we move through the world — which changes some aspects of the world.

The cycle continues. The shifting continues.

The excerpts and links below are some of the ways I have stepped into the stream on this date.* Even though the excerpts are from 2 different Kiss My Asana yogathon offerings, I chose selections that fit together and highlight the focus of the Monday night class and prompt question (which was, “When it comes to people and things that are no longer part of your day-to-day life, do you spend more time and energy missing them, being grateful for the time you had with them, or not thinking about them at all?”).

NOTE: The 2024 Kiss My Asana yogathon starts this Saturday! Are you ready to Kiss My Asana?

The following excerpt is from a 2018 Kiss My Asana offering entitled, “Remembering the Moon”:

“Remember the moon survives,
draws herself out crescent-thin,
a curved woman. Untouchable,
she bends around the shadow
that pushes himself against her, and she

waits.”

— from “Remember the Moon Survives,” by Barbara Kingsolver

“Barbara Kingsolver, born today [April 8^th] in 1955, always seems to point her pen in the direction of struggle and suffering. Sometimes the struggle is within a single community, sometimes it involves multiple communities; sometimes it involves an individual struggling to find balance between a community; and other times the struggle is between man’s desires and the needs of the natural world. But, always, there is struggle, suffering…and hope.

The Buddha, whose birthday is also celebrated today by some Buddhists, pointed his heart towards struggle and suffering as well. Unlike Kingsolver, Prince Siddhartha Gautama didn’t grow up with awareness of the suffering of others. However, once he was aware of it, he started considering how to alleviate it. And so, like Kingsolver, the Buddha’s work includes the promise of hope.”

REMEMBERING THE MOON – 2018 Kiss My Asana Offering #8

The following excerpt is from a 2019 Kiss My Asana offering entitled, “CH-CH-CHANGES, LIKE A RIVER”:

“The history of Japan and Japanese culture is full of change. Depending on where you look you may find an acute juxtaposition between accepting change, keeping a tradition (without change), and actually celebrating change. For example, most of the Buddhist world celebrates the Buddha’s birthday on May 8^th or a day determined by a lunar calendar. Many temples in Japan, however, started celebrating on April 8^th every year, when the country switched over to the Gregorian calendar in 1873.  During the Flower Festival, which is the birthday celebration, people will pour a sweet tea made from fermented hydrangea leaves over where small statues of the Buddha.

For an example of people celebrating change, look no further than the sakura (cherry blossom) season that is beginning. The Cherry Blossom Festivals that are currently kicking off (or ending, depending on the region) is completely separate from the Flower Festival associated with the Buddha’s birthday.

Sakura usually begin blossoming in the southern part of Japan and, over a matter of weeks, eventually blossom across the whole island. However, by the time the blossoms peak in the North they are already out of season in the South. The delicate flowers literally blow away like dust in the wind. For the heart and mind to hold the beauty of the moment when the flowers peak, with the awareness (and sadness) that the moment is already passing, is known as mono no aware (literally, ‘the pathos of things’).”

CH-CH-CHANGES, LIKE A RIVER: 2019 Kiss My Asana Offering #8

“πάντα ρεῖ”  (“panta rhei”)

“everything flows” or “everything to the stream”

— Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesos (c. 535 BCE – c. 475 BCE)

There is no playlist for the Common Ground Meditation Center practices.

*NOTE: In addition to citing some information from the posts referenced above, this practice also highlighted the holy month of Ramadān and included passing references to Great Lent.

Click here for the 2020 post entitled, “So Much That Is Holy On April 8th,” which features a couple of Buddhist parables and parallels between Jesus and the Buddha as well as between Moses and Hanuman.

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YOU & YOUR FRIENDS
CAN KISS MY ASANA TOGETHER
(April 13^th – 19^th)
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