S11 #31 - Consider the lilies and the birds . . . and don’t forget the carpenter and his plumb-line - A thought for the day

The full text of this podcast with all the links mentioned in it can be found in the transcript of this edition, or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2026/07/consider-lilies-and-birds-and-dont.html

Please feel free to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Opening Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass) 

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

Transcript

Introduction

 Good morning. As some of you will know, last week I offered you a thought for the day that I realised could serve as a prelude to this morning’s talk

In it, I explored Jesus’ invitation to ‘look closely’ at the lilies of the field. We considered how the great free-religionist Imaoka Shin’ichirō, much like the poet Bashō, realised that to truly see the world, we must learn to drop our agendas—whether those are the literal viewfinders of our cameras or the rigid, symbolic lenses of our inherited theology. I noted that to truly connect with the Great Life flowing around us, we must cultivate what us as completely an unobstructed gaze as is possible, encountering the everyday world with, what in the piece you are about to hear, what can be called ‘naturalness’.

But a very practical question naturally arises from this: how, exactly, do we cultivate that unobstructed gaze? How do we settle our minds and drop our agendas when the world around us is so deeply unsettled? Well, I hope my thought for the day this week helps us begin to answer that. 

—o0o—

Consider the lilies and the birds . . . and don’t forget the carpenter and his plumb-line

We are honoured this weekend to be joined by Miki Nakura-sensei, a priest in the Shinshū Ōtani-ha branch of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism, and a teacher of Okada-style Seiza meditation (Quiet Sitting). Following coffee, Miki will kindly introduce this practice—which, not incidentally, was preferred by the Japanese Unitarian movement and is what we practise in our weekly online Kiitsu Kyōkai meetings.

Over the past few years, Miki and I have become close Dharma friends. He conducted my Kikyoshiko ceremony here in October 2023, formally welcoming me into the Jōdo Shinshū tradition, and we have collaborated on translating important works by and about Okada Torajirō-sensei and Seiza meditation.

So, in my thought for the day — grounded in this church’s deep roots in a free-religion springing from the liberal Christian tradition and the human Jesus — I want to introduce a subtle, profound connection Okada-sensei made between Jesus’ teachings and Seiza meditation. In the Western Christian tradition, we are taught to understand Jesus primarily by concentrating on what he said. But in the sayings you are about to hear, Okada-sensei helps us glimpse a fundamental lesson Jesus’ way of being-in-the-world might be showing us.

To share that glimpse, we first need to hear some of Okada-sensei’s recorded sayings:

79. Seiza posture accords with the laws of nature. A five-storeyed pagoda does not topple because its vertical axis is firm, maintaining physical equilibrium. Whilst sitting in the Seiza posture, one does not fall even when pushed from the front, back, or either side.

80. When the body’s vertical axis is firmly established, the heart-mind’s vertical axis is established as well; from this arise both composed tranquillity and fearless inner strength.

81. All that is needed is to keep the body’s centre of gravity stable. Trying to calm the heart-mind whilst the body is unsettled is like trying to still the water in a bucket by shaking it.

82. The yajirobē is a balancing toy: even when placed on the tip of a finger and moved in endlessly varying ways, it does not topple, nor does it fall. If you observe a yajirobē, you will understand this at once. This is the foundation of Seiza.

83. Daruma (Bodhidharma) dolls are known as ‘never-toppling old men’. It is of the utmost importance that the centre of gravity is stably settled in the lower abdomen.

84. Do not lose bodily stability.

85. It is because the body’s centre of gravity is lost that one suffers.

86. Even the slightest leaning to one side causes suffering.

87. Your posture must be properly set, just like a five-storeyed pagoda.

88. Like a five-storeyed pagoda or Nagoya Castle.

89. Trust the carpenter with his plumb-line.

90. Seiza posture is like a carpenter’s plumb-line: it is not something that can be altered at the carpenter’s convenience. A difference of even the smallest fraction becomes the difference between heaven and earth.

91. Christ seems to have conceived of rebuilding the human being by starting with the building of a house.

Central to Okada-sensei’s Seiza is the idea of ‘naturalness’ [自然法爾 jinen hōni]. As the great Pure Land Buddhist figure Hōnen Shōnin put it:

‘There is what is called the principle of Hōni. Flames rise upwards, water flows downwards; amongst fruits there are sweet ones and sour ones. This is called the principle of Hōni.’ [ 法爾の道理と云うことあり。炎は空に上り水は下り様に流れる。菓子の中に酸き物あり、甘き物あり。これらみな法爾の道理なり。]

In other words, just as water naturally flows downwards without effort, true spiritual ‘naturalness’ is not something you do; it happens when you stop trying to justify yourself and allow Other-Power (他力 tariki) to work through you. Okada-sensei intuited that Jesus’ teaching was rooted in this exact same insight, and we can hear this ultimate surrender to naturalness in the familiar words of Jesus: ‘Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me; yet let not my will, but yours, come to pass’ (Luke 22:42, trans. DBH).

Because Okada-sensei recognised this profound alignment with Jesus, when I look again at Okada-sensei’s eighty-ninth saying, I am deeply tempted to translate the words, not simply as ‘trust’ the carpenter and, therefore, his use of the his plumb-line, but as an invitation to look closely at the carpenter in the same way Jesus once asked us to consider closely the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.

Let us imagine Jesus working as a tektōn (τέκτων). Though traditionally translated as ‘carpenter’, this really means a general builder or artisan working in wood and stone. Some of his parables clearly reflect this trade: building a house on a rock (Matthew 7:24), calculating the cost of a tower (Luke 14:28), or referencing the ‘stone the builders rejected’ (Mark 12:10).

Now imagine him walking to work, considering closely the lilies of the field and birds of the air. Upon arriving at the building site, he takes out his plumb-line to ensure his work aligns perfectly with gravity. Contemplating, day after day, the unwavering, entirely natural way the plumb-line guided him to build securely, he may well have recognised how sacred such a trustworthy standard is. I don’t think it is an implausible leap to think that Jesus did, indeed, begin to conceive of how to rebuild the human being by starting with the building of a house, and his use of the plumb-line.

Today, I want to suggest that one simple, beautiful, and health-enhancing practice that can help you naturally inhabit the heart-mind of Jesus’ teaching is Seiza meditation. It is a practice untethered from the purely intellectual or medical, and independent of emotion, piety (bhakti), or otherworldly mysticism. It is not bound to any specific culture or confession, requires no pilgrimage, and supports no proselytising. It demands no guru, no visualisation, chanting, counting, or special vestments. It is simply an expression of ‘naturalness’.

So, I say to you: consider closely the carpenter and his plumb-line. It may be that, one day — perhaps even today — this may lead you to take up Seiza meditation because, remember, as Okada-sensei said:

When the body’s vertical axis is firmly established, the heart-mind’s vertical axis is established as well; from this arise both composed tranquillity and fearless inner strength.

And that is assuredly a characteristic that Jesus clearly displayed. And I suspect it is a characteristic we, too, would aspire to display in our own free-religious lives of faith.

So, yes, consider the lilies and the birds, but don’t forget to consider closely the carpenter and his plumb-line.