10Essays in Idleness for practicum in teaching.pptx

Essays in Idleness

1. Essays in Idleness YOSHIDA KENKO

2. Essays in Idleness: Background TSUREZUREGUSA - “Essays of Idleness” or “The Harvest of Leisure” It is a collection of essays written by Japanese monk YOSHIDA KENKO between 1330 and 1332. The work is widely considered a gem of medieval Japanese literature and one of the three representative works of the zuihitsu genre, along with Makura no Soshi and Hojoki .

3. Content and Structure Essays of Idleness comprises a preface and 243 passages, varying in length from a single line to a few pages. Kenko , being a monk , writes about Buddhist truths , and themes such as death and impermanence prevail in the work, also it also contains passages devoted to the beauty of nature as well as some accounts of humorous incidents .

4. TITLE Prefatory message: “ What a strange, demented feeling it gives me when I realize I have spent whole days before this inkstone , with nothing better to do, jotting down at random whatever nonsensical thoughts that have entered my mind.”

5. (2) The man who forgets the wise principles of the reigns of the ancient emperor; who gives no thought to the grievances of the people of the harm done the country; who strives for the utmost luxury in everything, imagining this is the sign of magnificence; who acts if the world were too small for him seems deplorably wanting in intelligence. You will find in Lord Kujo’s Testament the instruction, “Make do with whatever you have, from your court costume down to your horses and carriages. Do not strive for elegance.” Again, you will find among the writing of the Retired Emperor Juntoku court ceremonial, “The clothes worn by the emperor should be simple and unassuming.”

6. (21 )Looking at the moon is always diverting, no matter what the circumstances. A certain man once said,”Surely nothing is so delightful as the moon,” but another rejoined , “The dew moves me even more.” How amusing that they should have argued the point! What could fail to be affecting in its proper season? This obviously true of the moon and cherry blossoms. The wind seems to have a special power to move men’s hearts. Regardless of the season, however, a clear-flowing stream breaking against rocks makes a splendid sight. I remember how touched I was when I read the Chinese poem, “The Yuan and Hsiang flow ever east, night and day alike, they never stop an instant to soothe the grieving man.” Chi K’ang also has the lines, “The heart rejoices so much pleasure as to wonder to some spot far the world, where the water and vegetation are unsullied.

7. (29) When I sit down in quiet meditation, the one emotion hardest to fight against is a longing in all things for the past. After the others have gone to bed, I pass the time on a long autumn’s night by putting in order whatever belonging are at hands. As I tear scraps of old correspondence I should prefer not to leave behind, I sometime find among them samples of the calligraphy of a friend who has died, or pictures he drew for his own amusement, and I feel exactly what I deed at the time. Even with letters written by the friends who are still alive I try, when it has been long since we met, to remember the circumstances, the year. What a moving experience that is! It is sad to think that a man’s familiar possessions, indifferent to his death, should remain unaltered long after he is gone.

8. (56) How boring it is when you meet a man after a long separation and he insists on relating at interminable length everything that has happened to him in the meantime. Even if the man is an intimate, somebody you know extremely well, how can you but feel a certain reserve on meeting him again after a time? The vulgar sort of person, even if he goes on brief excursion somewhere, is breathless with excitement as he relates as matters of great interest everything that has happened to him. When the well-bred man tells a story he addresses himself to one person, even if many people are present, though the others too listen, naturally. But the ill-bred man fling out his words into crowd, addressing himself to one in particular, and describes what happened so graphically that everyone bursts into boisterous laughter. You can judge a person’s breeding by whether he is quite impassive even when he tells an amusing story, or laughs a great deal even when relating of no interest. It is most distressing, when the good and the bad of somebody’s appearance or the quality of a certain person’s scholarship is being evaluated, for the speaker to refer to himself by way of comparison.

9. (79 )A man should avoid displaying deep familiarity with any subject. Can one imagine a well-bred man talking with the air of a know-it-all, even about a matter with which he is in fact familiar? The boor who pops up on the scene from somewhere in the hinterland answers question with an air of utter authority in every field. As results, though the man may also possess qualities that compel our admiration, the manner in which he displays his high opinion of himself is contemptible. It is impressive when a man is always slow to speak, even on subjects he knows thoroughly, and does not speak at all unless questioned.

10. (92 )A certain man who was learning to shoot a bow aimed at the target with two arrows in his hand. His teachers said, “A beginner should not hold two arrows. It will make him rely on the second arrow and be careless with the first. Each time you shoot you think not of hitting or missing the target but of making this one the decisive arrow.” I wonder if anyone with only two arrows would be careless with one of them in the presence of his teacher. But though the pupil is himself unaware of any carelessness, the teacher will notice it. This caution applies to all things. A man studying some branch of learning thinks at night that he has next day before him, and in the morning, that he will have time that night; he plans in this way always to study more diligently at some future time. How much harder it is to perceive the laziness of mind that arises in an instant! Why should it be so difficult to do something now, in the present moment ?

11. (168 )When an old man has acquired surpassing ability in some art and people ask about him, “Once he has gone, who will answer our question?” it means that the is not living in vain, for he serves as a justification for all old people. However, the very fact that his art has not deteriorated in the least makes him seem rather contemptible, for it means he has spent his whole life doing only one thing. I prefer it when an old man says, “I’ve been forgotten it now.” As a rule, even if a man knows his art, people will suspect that he is not really so talented if he keeps chattering on about it. Besides, mistakes will naturally occur. A man is more likely to seem a true master of his art if he says, “I cannot tell for certain.” It is worse still to listen to a man of eminence expatiating on some subject he knows nothing about with a look of self-satisfaction on his face; one cannot very well criticize him, but one is thinking all the while, “What nonsense!”

12. (235 )A man with no business will never intrude into an occupied house simply because he is so pleased. If the house is vacant, on the other hand, travelers journeying along the road will enter with impurity, and even creatures like foxes and owls, undisturbed by any human presence, will take up their abodes, acting as if the place belonged to them. Tree spirits and other apparitions will also manifest themselves. It is the same with mirrors: being without color or shape of their own, they reflect all manner of forms. If mirrors had color and shape of their own, they probably not reflect other things. Emptiness accommodates everything. I wonder if thought of all kinds intrude themselves at will on our minds because what we call our minds vacant? If our mind were occupied, surely so many things would not enter them.