“Living Zen is nothing special: life as it is. Zen is life itself, nothing added.”
― Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special
Many who are interested in Irezumi are familiar with the koi and its accompanying myth. A powerful Japanese carp curling and jumping forth from the water is a vital image in the lexicon of Japanese tattoos. In my search for information, I’ve come to admire this particular motif as a profound symbol and a personal favorite.
As the story goes, koi are creatures of perseverance, swimming upstream through the Yellow River in China. After hundreds of years of tenacity, swimming against the turbulent current, the koi arrives at the Dragons gate, where the God’s reward the koi’s determination and is transformed into a dragon. The story is historically set in the Autumn time, which is why autumn leaves (Momiji) are typically paired with the image.
The story of the Koi can be considered an allegory for zazen, a name for sitting meditation in the Zen Buddhist tradition. The practitioner sits with diligent attention over many sessions, and maybe years seeking enlightenment, represented by the dragon at the end of the river. Immovable in pursuit of its goal, the meditator works until enlightenment is obtained.
But being a Zen practitioner myself I’ve struggled with the concept of enlightenment. I always considered that a core teaching of Buddhism was radical acceptance of the present moment. What was so wrong with life that we needed to reject it to get somewhere better?
Put simply, Buddhist tenets are pure. We are all connected, and we are all impermanent. The same way the tree is dependent on the roots, sun and soil, and is therefore intimately connected to them, we too are connected with every aspect of the universe. And each of those aspects are constantly changing, falling apart and coalescing once more as something new.
And what’s that all mean?
That the way I treat you is important, because you ARE me. We are connected. And when things fall apart or decay, that’s fine too, because we are connected. Just as energy cannot be created nor destroyed, nothing can be be truly lost.
In that same vein our deepest struggles and greatest accomplishments are inextricable. They are opposites that reside in harmony. They exist only in contrast to each other.
This is why I admire the Koi as much as I do. It reminds me to enjoy the simples parts of life, here and now, and stop rejecting life’s struggles. Like the koi, to be unshakable in the face of challenges and heartache IS the enlightened state. Warts and all, the present moment is where we find peace, because its the only moment that is ever available. We never actually get to the gate if we think that some future magical moment holds the key to our happiness. The koi are humble and earthly in comparison to the dragon, but they teach us the wisdom that the magic of life is hidden in the mundane. The every day of parts of life, however repetitive or dull, are where you uncover true joy with the right attention. We waste so much time looking forward to life changing events that are ultimately unsatisfying, that we forget to find gratitude for what’s available now.
So maybe we never finally become the dragon. Or maybe the dragon and the koi are one in the same. Regardless I think the place to start is here, now, exactly as we are. Much like the koi, determined yet not fully realized.