by Andy Gyoyo Sensei

My mother is an artist and sees the world through her unique perspective. She looks at seemingly disparate patterns and challenges us to see what she sees… “See that cloud? What do you see?” Quite frankly, I never see what she sees and often I see no pattern at all so I’ve learned to immediately ask what she sees- so I can know the right answer. But in one book, Thich Nhat Hahn asks if we can see the cloud in the paper from which we are reading- not in the abstract or spiritual sense but in the sense that without clouds and rain there would be no trees, and without trees there would be no paper. So, the cloud is in- or inseparable- from the paper. Over the years, I’ve tried to mediate about this interdependence- or the contingent nature of things as Batchelor-sensei would phrase it. So, my morning musings have expanded in the following manner when I contemplate things as they inter-are.

In the paper is the cloud

In the rock is the cloud

In the rose is the cloud

In Andy is the cloud

These expansions were added gradually as I came to see clouds in the inanimate, in living things, and in me. Without clouds, none would exist- though in different ways. Water is throughout me- no water, no Andy. No water, no rose to bloom. And the rock? Well, likely not much water within it- but the rock that I saw in my garden next to the rose was shaped over eons by water (and other rocks, etc.) to have its smooth surface- no cloud, no rain, no rock.

It seemed reasonably complete until the day I was simply absorbed in the clouds above and thought about ‘What’s in the cloud?” Well, first, it is empty- empty of itself. There is no cloud in the cloud. The cloud is made- is contingent upon- non-cloud elements. Trees give off oxygen and other gases that help form the cloud- so too does the rose bush. And bits of the rock fall/float/disipate off the rock and become part of the particulates around which water vapor coalesces to form droplets- to form clouds. And, of course, my breath mingles in the air and merges with clouds continuously- so Andy is in the clouds. For me, this is not a spiritual discussion- we’re talking about reality. So,…

In the cloud, there is no cloud- the cloud is made of non-cloud elements.

In the cloud is Andy

In the cloud is the rose

In the cloud is the rock

In the cloud is the paper

So whether you look up or down, in front or behind, everything contingently is.

Andy Gyoyo Bondy is Lay Minister for Bright Dawn Way of Oneness