Truth-and-Darkness Page 43
Rilke's "cries of joy" to greet "the frightful in life" may be an exaggeration but
Judith Wright seems to indicate that she has a similar attitude in "Letter To A
Friend": "It is because of the joy in my heart/ that I am your fit mourner."
The apparent contradictions, making up what we understand by "truth", are
found in all religious traditions. For example, the Christian Gospel's teaching,
"anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life...will find it." 48
Or the Isa Upanishad:
Blind darkness enter they
Who reverence unwisdom :
Into a darkness blinder yet
Go they who delight in wisdom.49
Or, again, the teaching of the fourteenth century Zen master, Bassui:
when you do not hear with your ears you are truly hearing and when
you do not see with your eyes you are truly seeing Buddhas of the past
present and future.50
And from the Tao Te Ching:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
this appears as darkness
Darkness within darkness..
The gate to all mystery.51
48 Matthew l0:39
49 Verse 12, Hindu Scriptures, Translated by R.C. Zaehner. (Everyman's University Library: London: Dent and Sons, 1966). p. 166
50 Quoted by Thomas Merton, Mystics and Zen Masters, (New York: Dell Publishing Co 1967) p.236
51 "Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching, Translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English ( New York: Vintage Books, Random House. 1972) entry no. 1
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