Grim Reapers

30th November 21 - November RIP

Rev dear Rev: What is the point of living in this mortal coil, if all we have to live for is an eventual mete with the Grim Reaper? Why go on living if living is merely an exercise in Dasein, being towards Death?

Fans of Monty Python will recall the now famous sketch from the show of the visit of the Grim Reaper to a cottage in the Scottish Highlands where the inanity of modern living meets with something hard and shocking and unrelenting as Death itself. The happy diners are appalled to discover that life's endless party has now come to a close. “Death, than which nothing is more certain” - as Fr B says it out in his weekly sermon, thus introducing a note of spiritual sobriety to the gatherings of the secular christians in the valleys of Milton Keynes and its ancient caldera. So some sobriety and some wisdom is required in such gatherings, and we have some excerpts from the Wisdom Sayings of a Zen Master of Shaolin monasteries in the East to prepare us for our meditation as November comes to a close and Advent begins in earnest. Before we start the Christmas parties we need to recall that the Grim Reaper can knock on any door this winter. A bit like the way that a moderne socialising society can feel when suddenly it runs into something as serene and eternal in its gazes as the wisdom traditions of the Shaolin monks. Here are some Wisdom Sayings from Katsumoto :

KATSUMOTO

WISDOM SAYINGS FROM NATURE

1. When the Winter Snowflake falls gently to earth and alights on the great river, then men will remember the great silences of their mother, Nature;

2. The Winter Snows on the bubbling brooks of water combine and recombine;

3. Katsumoto falls like the Autumn leaves but once in the season of judgement;

4. The long slow slap and clap of great grave wings – such is the grace of the mighty White Crane;

5. Mt Fuji in snow – a herald of the future things to come;

6. Snowy Winters – dumb like the sheep for shearing;

7. Mt Fuji in Winter – dumb but full of meaning and intent;

8. Mt Osaka is a river in snow – like those who tempt her fates;

9. A snow bound temple on the slopes of Mt Osaka, silent but alert;

10. A gardener at a Shinto Temple in the snowy winter – do not be fooled sometimes it is the superior that you are speaking to;

11. Why does the chill breath of the sea winds blow before a Tsunami – and why then do not men not read the signs of the Elements or reckon the rod of Nature?

12. Wherefore are the silver waves of the Sea of Mercury – save in the undulations of the ocean’s limits?

13. Why does the mongoose sing in Winter, save to warn its mate of some impending doom?

14. Whyfore do the Shaolin monks bathe in the Winter – save in the icy waterfalls of Mt Osaka?

15. Can the snow goose fly to its destination without instinct? So too with men.

16. Where lies the light of the pink sun that sets on Iwo Jima, save in the myths of the forever postponed?

17. Which stars shine in the night when the great moon is full? Few do so, for the light of the moon is sometimes enough to see into the future.

18. Before the Samurai Sword tastes the blood of an enemy, it must first be christened and blessed with the ice of Mt Fuji.

KATSUMOTO

WISDOM SAYINGS ON HUMAN NATURE

1. The pink lotus flower opens up but once in a while – and still it pales against the silver blue moon of once a generation – so too with human hearts.

2. The Canada snow geese hoot when they pass over the world of men at work – they hoot with joy at man’s industry;

3. There are many birds on the wing in the Dark of the Night – do not be fooled just because you cannot see them;

4. The owl can call out your name in the middle of the winter’s night, and it waits for us to rise from our leaden sleep and respond to its call;

5. The Grey Grey Heron, Lord of the Riverbank, is silent before it rises into the soft winter air of February when it must find a mate and build a nest;

6. The mink whale that beaches itself on the sandy shore does not know there are limits placed even on its ambitions;

7. The eagle that glides over Mt Fuji searches but once for its prey – it is sometimes enough to search, and so too for men.

8. High on this mountain of Mt Orinoko one has but to look once to see the activities of men;

9. Slow petals of a Lotus Bloom – here one will find that wisdom’s pathways and progresses are but slow in the small minds of busy men;

10. Up high here on Mt Orinoko one can see as far as the holy islands of Iwo Jima – and they are still – I have felt your pain and it is withered;

11. Mt Osaka smiles on the children of Tokyo – they sleep before the eternals of Shinto;

12. High Summer is thoughtless to itself – it is like the high warriors of the Kamikazi – for they touch the Springtides of Eternal Thought;

13. A Japanese Shinto priest does not ring only one bell at midday – his last bell he tolls for himself each day of his life, the last;

14. Some Nagasaki children cannot look at the sun – still, so too with men; the seek the light whereof every light is light itself;

15. Hiroshima too saw the ball of a golden sun – and was taken up by Our Lady of Akhito as an acceptable sacrifice to the machinations of men;

16. The far snowy peaks of Mt Osaka – such is insight on a clear day;

17. The slow rise of the oar is the beginning of many wars; as is water on the artifices of men;

18. A Samurai warrior does not take to the war shield and war sword quickly – but rises once in a season and with grave majesty.

19. We rise early from our beds on the day of our deaths, for the warrior knows the sound of an approaching Tsunami;

20. It is often only at full moon that the song of the owl comes to haunt our sleeping frames.

So on the subject of sobering Death, there are many meditations that can help us vision in our place in the world. One thinks of the world of poetry. Tennyson's "In Memoriam" stilled the fluttering and fainting heart of young Queen Victoria when she had lost her husband. Gerard Manley Hopkins toyed with the idea of the Grim Reaper in his poem, "Why do Men not Reck his Rod?" Dylan Thomas too explored the social reality of the impending death of his beloved father, in his poem, "Let me not Rage into the Night." Even the light filled and at times superficial William Butler Yeats toyed with the auras of death in his faerie poem, "Come Away O human child to the water and the wilde, for the world is more full of weeping than you can understand." So some reflections there among the poets on what Sartre called the sting of mortality or the sting of contingency. Paul too - "Death where is thy sting?" The Hebrew love poem, the Song of Solomon too - "Love is as strong as Death." So these poets have a job to do, instilling sobriety into every social gathering, where the Grim Reaper can possibly arrive, as per the above famous sketch, a genius study of the inanity of much 1970s middle class gossip and 1980s superficial discourse when confronted by ancient almost medieval realities from the other side. Even 007s and SAS men and women like to maintain a close and realistic grasp on their mortalities, chiefly be employing chaplains from the world of the monastery and the cloister, and confessors too, before going on their secret missions like Fr Ivor Carnutensis.