The Gatha of the Idiot Who Plays Ball
An Absurd Zen Story
Vladislav Tsylyov
Illustrator Vladislav Tsylyov
© Vladislav Tsylyov, 2023
© Vladislav Tsylyov, illustrations, 2023
ISBN 978-5-0060-4553-8
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Preface
This book is my first work in the Buddha-Rilke series. The fantasy story it contains is small in volume, not overloaded with great meaning, and brewed like a single cup of unpretentiously light tea, so that it is not even read, but rather digested leisurely in two or three carefree sips. And yet I hope that the aftertaste of such a frivolous book will remain with the reader for a long time.
The semantic centre of the book is The Song of the Idiot, one of Rilkes paradoxical poems. I have to admit right away that my translation of this poem looks like a very free and clumsy interpretation of the original text. However, despite this shortcoming, I sincerely hope that I have managed to keep the spirit of Rilkes Idiot alive and to integrate this character harmoniously into the story of the book.
To give the book a more expressive look, I decided to dilute the text with funny pictures amusing Zen drawings by the acknowledged masters of this genre: Hakuin Ekaku (16861769), Sengai Gibon (17501837) and his friend Saito Shuho (c. 17681859).
I would like to point out that all images used in my illustrations are in the public domain.
Readers new to Zen vocabulary, as well as some textbook Zen characters and plots, will benefit from a small reference section at the end of the book. But first it is worth knowing what Gatha is. As Master Tho Idi once joked, Gatha is an irrefutable demonstration of Emptiness in the mind of the idiot.
Paula Modersohn-Becker, R.M. Rilke
The Gatha of the Idiot Who Plays Ball
When asked about the sense of Tao, I will flutter like a Zhuang Tzu butterfly; when asked about the sense of Zen, I will open like a Basho flower; when asked about the sense of all sense, I will bounce like an idiots ball.
Master Tho Idi*
The only result of Chan meditation, if the practice is serious, is idiocy.
Leon Wieger**
Youre an idiot, Im an idiot and so is God.
George Gurdjieff***
* See the reference section of the book.
** Leon Wieger (1856 -1933) was a French Jesuit missionary, medical doctor, theologian and sinologist.
*** George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1866 1949) was a philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer.
Instead of Prologue
In the year 2022, in one of Chinas most remote provinces, excavations at the ruins of an ancient Chan monastery have uncovered a strange script artefact. The archaeologists attention was drawn to a well-preserved manuscript which, according to a number of researchers, can be confidently dated to the eighth century. This documentary monument, written on a rare type of paper, contained the codex of a hitherto unknown school of sudden enlightenment called the Bouncing Ball School. Researchers have found many curiosities in this unique document. We know nothing about a mentor of this school, a master called Tho Idi, whose name does not appear in any historiographical source. Nor do we know how he came to be inspired by the texts of the great Japanese poet Basho (see epigraph), who lived and worked many years later in the seventeenth (!) century. To top it all, the ancient oriental manuscript contains a poem by the famous European modernist poet R. M. Rilke, first published in 1906 (!).
The reader is presented with two key chapters of the Codex which convey the essence of Master Tho Idis teachings.
Hakuin Ekaku, Self-Portret
From the Codex of the Bouncing Ball School
Sections on Sudden Enlightenment. Recordings of Master Tho Idis Lectures
Gatha to Pass on the Teachings
Addressing the assembly,
Mentor said, Seekers of the Way! Those who have heard of the legendary Platform Sutra know that in a once glorious time, when the Buddhas Teachings flourished in the Celestial Empire and the spirit of absurdity dwelt wherever it pleased, it was possible to gain the highest honours and even become the next Patriarch by composing an unsurpassed Gatha of Consciousness.
But few people know that such a Gatha can only be the work of a very special person
At this moment, the Mentor deliberately paused.
Hakuin Ekaku, Daruma
Everyone held
their breath.
Saito Shuho, Sengais Nirvana (detail)
Who is it,
do you think? the Mentor addressed the assembled.
The wisest of all the philosophers! replied a philosopher.
The most skilful of all alchemists! replied an alchemist.
The most inspired of all poets! replied a poet.
Sengai Gibon, Nanquan Cuts the Cat in Two, detail Two Monks
Oh, how lightly
you all think, remarked the Mentor.
Sengai Gibon, Daruma
Are there other worthy men
whom we have forgotten to mention? wondered the disciples.
Sengai Gibon, Nanquan Cuts the Cat in Two, detail Two Monks
There is certainly one
And hes the simplest of all!
The simplest of all? asked the disciples.
Saito Shuho, Sengais Nirvana (detail)
Yes, he is the one who
playfully turns the Lotus of the Law.