“No Character…”

の

The Japanese hiragana character の (no) connects one thing to another, often carrying the meaning of “of” or belonging.

My own interpretation is: Connects… belongs… of…

Is this a connection due to separate things somehow finding themselves and connecting after the fact? Is it things that were “once” connected, somehow separated, and connected again? Or is it pointing at an unbroken connection that needs expression because “separation” is believed to be the case, but is not?

の is the “(no) character,” and it points at many things named to remind and remember that All is ingrained and intermingled with All. Again, this is what it brings to mind. My “reading,” if you will.

The hiragana の (no) developed from the kanji 乃, which was once used phonetically to represent the sound no in man’yōgana, an early Japanese writing system.

As 乃 was written repeatedly in flowing cursive calligraphy, its strokes gradually simplified:

乃 to cursive form as の.

I love its “spiral-like” shape and form!

In mono no aware (物の哀れ), it becomes the bridge between things and their impermanence, hinting at no things existing “separately,” the tender awareness that all beauty passes because they were allways really This.

This concept and phrase have happily haunted my awareness for many years. And の here points to an integral and never-separate part of existence and this beautiful Universe. The flow of everlasting change within the experience of This.

Thus, having “(no) character” (のthe character Of) points to that which is “beyond” and a priori to any characters, letters, or names: the All that is all.

すべてのすべて

(subete no subete)

“The All of all,” or “everything of everything.”

名の彼方なるもの

(na no kanata naru mono)

“That which is beyond names.”

What are you OF before names?

————

Why do I feel a foreigner

In a foreign land,

Never there as named,

Looking just the same

For the name

That I can remember,

The one that calls me home

To that place unknown?

Can I find it alone…

🌀

I have heard of names:

Heaven, paradise, the pearly gates,

But none have ever shown

The place that I belong.

I can feel and almost sense,

But names never come

When this feeling of home

Is here…

🌀

Here,

Where I am?

Could it be?

The un-named

Is the un-seen

By the eyes that have been

Ever searching

For somewhere else?

🌀

I am of here.

I am of now.

Never been separated from This

That is!

🌀

No words could ever write,

No character ever express

The essence of This,

The All that it is.

🌀

And yet we try to name.

And yet we try to call.

And yet we try to sing

To the All.

🌀

All that changes, yet still remains

This.