The Red Thread
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change.
I wear a red thread bracelet. You may have seen these. Red thread bracelets are popular across Buddhist, Hindu and Kabbalah practices. It can be a sign of protection, faith, and good luck. For me it is a symbol of practice. It reminds me to practice awareness, compassion, skilful ethics and my commitment to my Dharma life and treading a Buddhist path.
In Buddhism a red thread is sometimes given at the end of a retreat or when someone takes Buddhist precepts or ethical vows.
I am reminded of this William Stafford poem:
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
This is how I feel about my Buddhist practice.
I am also reminded of the myth of Theseus. Theseus was a hero of Greek mythology associated with the city-state of Athens and best known for slaying the Minotaur. The Minotaur lived in a labyrinth. Theseus used a red thread, given to him by Ariadne, to find his way in - slay the minotaur - and crucially back out of the labyrinth
One interpretation of this story is that a monster must be slayed so that there is liberation. Another interpretation is that monsters are guardians of treasure, who must be slain in order to reveal the precious jewels. Both interesting metaphors for the spiritual journey in which we also must often find our way through a labyrinth. We take wrong turns, get lost - but we keep following the thread towards treasure or liberation.
Songyuan Chongyue (1139-1209) is known for the following koan: "In order to realise the Way with perfect clarity, there is one essential point you must penetrate and not avoid: the red thread of passions that cannot be severed. Few really face this problem, and it is not at all easy to settle. Face it directly without hesitation, for how else can liberation come? Why are perfectly accomplished saints and bodhisattvas still attached to the red thread?
In her book Red Thread Zen: Humanly Entangled in Emptiness Susan Murphy says The red thread actualises the whole garment or weave of reality for a human being. It upturns anything called Buddhism in revivifying style and sets it back firmly on the ground of being—bowing deeply to being human, having a body.
Because the red thread can be nowhere but now, in this heartbeat of love and fear for the world…So the red thread and this wise fool of a body are intimates…the Red Thread koan exposes the deeply instructive entanglement of human frailty with boundless emptiness… it reasserts that even the most realised states of mind are not detached from the vermilion thread of vividly human life, its hot states, cold states, terrors, and wonders.
This passionate and vulnerable human condition. This messy life. How do we live in the midst of it with wisdom, awareness and compassion. This is the reminder of my red thread bracelet.
Gratitude
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I love it
One of my favourite poems! Thank you 🙏🏻