Page 156 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

bamboos and he looked at small bamboos. He looked at them

when they were green and when they were yellow, when they
were fresh and springy, and when they were dry and decayed. In

this way, we are told, he spent several years — just looking at
bamboos. And so he became really aware of the bamboos: he
really saw them. And seeing them, being aware of them in this

way, he became as it were one with the bamboos. His life passed
as it were into the life of the bamboos; the life of the bamboos

passed into his life. Only then, we are told, did he paint bamboos,
and of course you may be sure it was real bamboos that he
painted. In fact, we may say that it had become a question of a

bamboo painting bamboos.

Now according to Buddhism, at least according to Far Eastern
Buddhism, i.e. the traditions of China and Japan and, above all
perhaps, the traditions of Ch'an and Zen, this should be our

attitude towards all material things. This should be our attitude
towards the whole of nature: not only towards bamboos, but

towards the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earth; towards
trees and flowers and human beings. We should learn to look,
learn to see, learn to be aware, and, in this way, become

supremely 'receptive'. On account of our receptivity we shall
become as it were one with, or at least fused with, all things, and

out of this oneness, this realization of affinity and deep unity, if
we are of artistic temperament we shall create and truly create.

(2) Awareness of Oneself
This level has many different sub-levels of which three, we may

say, are of particular importance.

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