Wind and Mirrors

James 1:1-18 (Sunday, Proper 7)

 

⁴ But let perseverance do its complete work; so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing. (CJB)

⁴And let equanimity hold you in the practice of the process of complete realization; so that you may abide entirely in wholeness, wanting nothing. (My adaptation from MOUNCE)

 

This lectionary reading also includes an absolutely apt description of ‘dukkha’ (discontent, dissatisfaction; distraction): “….for the doubter is like a wave in the sea being tossed and driven by the wind. ⁷ Indeed that person should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord, ⁸ because he is double-minded, unstable in all his ways.”

and,

“¹⁴ Rather, each person is being tempted whenever he is being dragged off and enticed by the bait of his own desire. ¹⁵ Then, having conceived, the desire gives birth to sin; and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. ¹⁶ Don’t delude yourselves,….”

Here’s another delightful excerpt from the letter of James:

“²² Don’t deceive yourselves by only hearing what the Word says, but do it! ²³ For whoever hears the Word but doesn’t do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, ²⁴ who looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

 

James might as well be a Zen master.

I never previously equated ‘endurance’ or ‘perseverance’ with ‘equanimity,’ but one of Mounce’s options for the translation of hypomonē (perseverance, endurance) is “a patient frame of mind,” which sounds a lot like ‘equanimity’ to me.

‘Double-minded” is “dipsychos” which is also translated as ‘inconstant; fickle.’ It’s related to psyche, which means ‘breath’ or ‘blow.’ It’s sometimes translated as “two-spirited,” but the phrase “divided breath” really grabbed me. “Di-“ can mean either “doubled, twice, two-fold”— or it can mean “through, in different directions, between.”

What a great image— a person whose breath blows in two different directions!

I couldn’t help thinking of the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song “Idiot Wind”—

“Idiot wind
Blowing through the buttons of our coats
Blowing through the letters that we wrote
Idiot wind
Blowing through the dust upon our shelves
We're idiots, babe
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves!”

 

I’m sort of all over the place today, rebounding from equanimity to discontent and back again; one minute I’m chasing the bait of my own desire, and the next I’m smugly congratulating myself on how completely whole and entirely enlightened I must be, until eventually the vaudeville hook comes out of nowhere to haul me offstage.

 

Turning away and back again, two-faced;

dithering in front of that dirty, indifferent mirror,

playing peek-a-boo with whichever face it is that I can’t remember.

 

Who knows what I saw or didn’t see,

Or whose breath is fogging up the glass.

The mirror isn’t telling, and neither am I.

 

After all, the wind is still only the wind—

no matter how many ways it blows.

 

(….Old Man Zen says, “Wait… Isn’t there going to be a breaking-wind joke?”)