Category Archives: Western Teachers

Teachers primarily of American and European cultures

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nameless curbs

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A little souvenir from Toronto.

It was a full weekend moving The Kid to her new digs in Toronto where she will take on the world.  We made an abortive attempt to wander our old haunts that once were hippie hangouts (yes, even in staid TO) but are now toney boutiques.  I claim the heat got the better of me but I’ve taken a considerable ribbing about the cause being the many bags I was lugging around the streets of Yorkville.  Totally untrue but do check out the stunning red purse at Kimina.

We actually spent much of the time in Ikea dodging the millions of back-to-schoolers looking for bargain furniture for their own digs.  It was a little strange to be assembling tables and chairs late into the night when it wasn’t Christmas Eve and the former-child was doing her share of cussing at the Allen Wrenches and bemoaning the absence of a Phillips screwdriver.  About the time we seemed ready to launch into the etiquette of tool naming – wrench, spanner, wrench – the collection of circles, squares, and triangles manifested into rather pretty and useful objects.

On the way to our car, a frantic man in a car pulled up beside us and mumbled, “Vanier…Vanier…”  I was about to say, “You’re about two neighbourhoods and 500 kms in the wrong place.”  He managed to clarify: “Frosh week.  Vanier Building?”  As I apologized and said I was new here too – and intended to remain so – a voice shrilled from the passenger seat.  She looked about 12 years old and was slamming her hand on her iPhone: “Dad!  Forget it!  Ok?  Just forget it!”  

Life can be very intense at some ages.

For me, it was nice to learn through a fun exchange with Roshi Joan that I can put some of those bags of intensity down at “nameless curbs.”  And walk away.

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unknown ingredients

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Another snippet from Glassman’s talk in reference to cooking up the Five Course Meal (see Instructions to the Cook by Glassman & Fields).

“We can only do the best we can with the ingredients we know.  There are many ingredients we don’t know.”

In fact, there are often ingredients in a mix that we are not aware are there – or how they are adding to the flavour.

One example that was discussed extensively was of a village to which a developer brought indoor plumbing.  As a result the well, which was the community gathering center, fell to disuse and the subtle ways of communicating between villagers ruptured.  The bonds of the community were based in the gatherings and sharing that emerged from those meetings around the well.

By the time the impact of rip in the social fabric was understood, repairing it became a dilemma.  What do you do?  Tear out all the pipes and cisterns in each house?  Build a community center?

The paradox in the koan is only in its construction, in how the story is told.  There are unknown and unknowable ingredients in each shift of the story.

Can we only know them in retrospect?