Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
Wu-men
A cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
This is the best season of your life.
This teaching, offered by Wu-men, an ancient Chinese Chan master, is both invitational and provocative. The first two lines describe the natural world of the seasons, evoking aspects of beauty and serenity.
You may sense a kind of tenderness in your heart when you read these words. You may be called to remember moments in your life when you were touched by aspects of nature—looking up at the sky at a sunset and down on the ground at a blade of grass, feeling your body touched by a warm or cool breeze, and delighting in the first appearance of snow in winter. And there may also be a sense of poignancy along with this tenderness and delight. As we well know, in this current time on our planet, there is great upheaval causing great suffering in the face of extreme weather patterns. And yet, and yet. These wondrous aspects of life continue to exist. The flowers, the moon, the breezes, and the snow exist now, and we find ourselves grateful.
The third line, “If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,” is surely an invitation to explore and investigate. It is a beckoning, an instruction. It is also a statement of trust and faith. It offers a path of investigation: look at your mind. Find out for yourself what is necessary and what is not. What is clouding natural innate wisdom and compassion? How is the mind conditioned by past experiences and how might those clouds dissipate? What are the particular habits and patterns that have had you in their grip from time immemorial that may now be released into the clear blue sky?
The last line is provocative: “If the mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.” What does this mean in these times that are so dire on so many levels? What could it possibly mean? It means a life of meaning, a life lived now, a surrender to life being lived through us rather than controlled, managed, and manipulated. It means a life of connection, availability, and engagement. When we understand that we are sharing this life with one another and can’t carry the weight of the world alone, when we live with hearts of peace, we see we can be joyful in the midst of sorrow, balanced in the midst of tumult. We glimpse the possibilities of living amid things as they are, without being overcome with despair and hopelessness. What does life want of you rather than what do you want to get out of life? Asking this question with sincerity and honesty, attending to the clouds without judging and identifying, makes this the best season of our lives.
There is another translation of this same passage that goes like this. I will end with it as a blessing:
The flowers say it, the moon, the breeze, the snow. Each time we pause to notice the living world around us, it blesses us and says: May your mind be unclouded and may every season be the best season of your life.
Wu-men
It could be so!