The Moon at the Window

James Ford Roshi posted his sermon from Sunday at the UU Church in Providence. He posted that he had borrowed a Japanese quote I had posted on my Facebook page a few days earlier. His post is titled Theft: a Love Story and I highly recommend it to all of you. I found it interesting that his closing statement was a poem by the famous Japanese Zen Monk and Poet, Ryokan.

The thief left it behind:

The moon

at my window.

This was in part because it has always been my favorite of his poems, and because of my weird connection with the poem. I cannot remember the first time I read this poem but it was in the early 1980’s and its simplicity and heart connected to something that I did not understand at the time. During my days of Vipassana meditation, I was still searching for a Zen teacher but had no luck finding one in Orange County, California. I was resigned to having to sell all my belongings once my son had graduated from College so I could move to Japan to enter a Zen Monastery where I could begin the practice that seemed somehow strangely to resonate in my heart.

I remember driving home from work in Los Angeles in 1987 and I was listening to KTWV (one of the first progressive Jazz Stations on the radio) and this song by Joni Mitchell came on. I immediately recognized her voice and has floored when she hit the chorus of the song, it was Ryokan’s poem. The lyrics are quite introspective and this has been on my playlist since 87. I share the audio version of the Video because the live versions leave something lacking. Thanks James for reminding me of my path.

The Moon at the Window

It takes cheerful resignation

Heart and humility

That’s all it takes

A cheerful person told me

Nobody’s harder on me than me

How could they be

And, nobody’s harder on you than you

Betsy’s blue

She says—Tell  me something good!

You know I’d help her out if I only could

Oh, but sometimes the light

Can be so hard to find

At least the moon at the window—

The thieves left that behind

People don’t know how to love

They taste it and toss it

Turn it off and on

Like a bathtub faucet

Oh sometimes the light

Can be so hard to find—

At least the moon at the window—

The thieves left that behind

I wish her heart

I know these battles

Deep in the dark

When the spooks of memories rattle

Ghosts of the future

Phantoms of the past

Rattle, rattle, rattle

In the spoon and the glass

Is it possible to learn

How to care and yet not care—

Since love has two faces

Hope and despair

And pleasure always turns to fear

I find—

At least the moon at the window—

The thieves left that behind

At least they left the moon

Behind the blind

Moon at the window

©Joni Mitchell