Crouching tsukubai, hidden proverb...

[khiemtran]

Okay, this one will mess with your mind - or at least it certainly did with mine...





This is the famous tsukubai at Ryōan-ji. A tsukubai is a stone basin meant for ritual purification. The name actually means "crouch" because you have to crouch down to use it, which adds an extra layer of symbolism to the purification process. What's especially interesting about this particular tsukubai are the four characters you can see written around the square hole in the middle...



The top character is 五 meaning "five". On the right is 隹, which is the symbol for a short-tailed bird like a sparrow. On the left is 矢, which means "arrow". (Incidentally, that's another of those characters that once you learn you'll never forget. It's made up of 天 (sky), plus a little dash soaring upwards. You can't quite see the dash in the photo though.) And underneath is 止, meaning "stop".

So... Five/Sparrow/Stop/Arrow. Feeling enlightened yet? No, it's not a note about a particularly good hunting day...

The trick is to look at the suspiciously square hole right in the middle. Since it's a square, it happens to look exactly like the character for mouth, 口. Now, when this character is combined as a radical to form a single character with each of the other four, we get a whole new set of meanings.

五 over 口 = 吾 (ware meaning "I")
隹 on the right of 口 = 唯 (tada meaning "just or only")
矢 on the left of 口 = 知 (shiru meaning "to know" [1])
止 under 口 = 足 (taru meaning "sufficient" [2])

So, putting it all together, we now have (depending on word order) ware tada taru shiru or "I only know enough".

This is commonly translated as "learn to be content with what you have", an important Buddhist teaching.

Which is fine, except...

There are also lots of other ways to translate these four characters. For starters, the word order is not entirely clear, and even then there are plenty of other ways to derive different meanings from each arrangement.

Does it mean "I learn only to be content"? Or "I learn so I what 'only enough' is"? Or "I know that I am only enough"? Or "I only know that I am sufficient"? "Only I know what makes me content"? "Too much knowledge is a dangerous thing"? [3] I'm sure you can think of your own variations.

Something else for you to ponder as you gaze at the stones or walk around the outside gardens...

Next stop: the outside gardens.



[1] An arrow plus a mouth means "to know". I'll never forget that one either now.
[2] Likewise, a mouth plus "stop" means "sufficient"...
[3] A quick google of ware tada taru shiru will throw up most of these in short order. For laughs, I also asked google translate and got "Shingo known only foot", which, it is probably safe to say, is NOT likely to be among the high-runners. I told you it would all make sense in the end.

Comments

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

That's very clever and classically ambiguous. :)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

And a great Maguffin for a mystery story.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it will turn out that it wasn't a Zen proverb after all and it meant "Only I [meaning the tsukubai] have the information you need..."

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It would also be a relaxing place to sit and think, when there are no other people around and the water is trickling into the basin.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Again, thanks for bringing that to my attention; I like it. (I also like your cut text.)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading! Trying to read these kanji is a lot of fun, and when it's part of a puzzle like this it's even more entertaining.

[rymrytr.livejournal.com]

"Four", is the natural number of things in the philosophy of some American Indians. With that on my mind, and when you point out that the inner part is square, it makes me imagine that no matter how you approach the "circle", you are face to face with the four directions; the four stages of human life; the four parts of the earth; the four kinds of beings (human - animal - nature - creator)...

(I am not an expert! What I know about all that, would fill the cup of my hand while I stood next to the greatest body of water within my existence.)

So, going back to the tsukubai. From there then, you would read the word order in one of four ways, starting with the word most directly in front of you. This would lead you to one of four meanings, instead of finding just one.

Of course, I have no understanding of the way of Zen, if that is the proper word... but I do love mystery, be it esoteric or cryptic. As a young teen, Poe's "Gold Bug", got me started.

My mind goes even farther in thinking about games and puzzles, and when you say that the one symbol means "five", I wonder if there might have been, at one time, a further symbol at the bottom of the water. :o)

Could you stand at the "south" and read South East North West and make sense of that.
Then, could you still be at South and read SENW; SWNE; SNEW; SNWE, etc, standing at each point, for a start?

But then, "Life" itself, is the greatest puzzle!

Anyway, thanks for posting and telling us about these things; I truly find them interesting.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

My mind goes even farther in thinking about games and puzzles, and when you say that the one symbol means "five", I wonder if there might have been, at one time, a further symbol at the bottom of the water. :o)

That's quite a brilliant suggestion, actually! Because there are actually characters that consist of a square around an internal component (and, of course, 口 by itself is a character).

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Fascinating!

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? The other funny thing is the whole thing would be quite easily passed over by a casual visitor - if not for the constant stream of Japanese tourists stopping to admire it.