for - quote - The Elbow does not bend backwards - Dasietz Suzuki - contradiction - the finite and infinite in one being - meme - to be or not to be, that is the question - to be AND not to be, that is the answer

quote - The Elbow does not bend backwards - Dasietz Suzuki - Barry Magid - When D. T. Suzuki came to this country later, he said he had a great realization contemplating the Japanese expression, “The elbow does not bend backwards.” - The idea is that the elbow only bends inward, bends one way. Is that a limitation of the elbow? Is it a defect? That a really good elbow would bend both ways? Is it a design flaw that we’re stuck with? Instead, - it’s a matter of seeing the particular irony in - what we would think of as a limitation rather, as a definition, a part of what we intrinsically are, and - freedom is not a question of being able to do something, to do anything whatsoever, - but to fully function within our design and our capacity. - The full freedom of the functioning of the elbow takes place in bending inward, not outward.

comment - the contradiction of our life is that - the infinite and the finite exist in the same mortal coil - this consciousness which is capable of unlimited imagination - is housed in a fragile, time-limited body - Yet all life exists in the concrete form of living / dying individual's housed in bounded, albeit dynamic bodies - Each of us takes on a unique and specific morphological form, determined by the genetic material passed on to us intergenerationally - Each individual belongs to a unique species, a unique replicable template that is unique - And yet, all life derives from the same reality - So each species, and all individuals belonging to each species, have unique bounded bodies - While that universal wisdom articulates itself uniquely in each species and each individual of a species, it is nonetheless a universal wisdom behind it all - So the elbow does not bend backwards in the human - and the wings flutter only one way in birds - and the fins only project one way in fish - etc, etc.... - Can we trace ourselves from the perceived limited - all the way back to the unlimited infinite? - To be or not to be, that is the question - To be AND not to be, that is the answer

for - The elbow does not bend backwards - D.T. Suzuki - interpretation - by Barry Magid - Our daily, mundane life is the equivalent of this phrase.

for - comparison - Rupert Spira - limited human being striving for return to natural condition - Dasietz Suzuki - The elbow does not bend backwards - insight - freedom is our natural state - because in our contracted human form - we desire to return to our original expansive form - Rupert Spira comment - As Dasietz Suzuki observed, within the limitations of our form, there is a freedom - After listening for a 2nd or 3rd time, I noted something I missed on the 1st listening. A metaphor helps - My nickname reflects this desire to return to the original expansiveness. "Bottled up" and existing in a "contracted" human form, - we possess a natural desire to expand out of the contracted human form back into its original, primordial expansive state - This is indicated by our innate desire for freedom

The great Zen teacher Daisetz Suzuki said upon his Satori experience: "The elbow does not bend backwards".