David Foster Wallace whispers to Mao Zedong
[ by Charles Cameron — but Dogen has the last word ]
.
— and if Mao’s guerrillas don’t know they’re swimming in the general population, doesn’t even know there is a genpop, whose liberation are they fighting for?
**
Ah, but David Foster Wallace and Mao were just the bail I threw around, to reel you into some Dogen Zenji:
A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements.
When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once.
Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish.
