"Just a Brief Stop": Arboreal Buddhisms of Japan - Timothy A. Brown, PhD

The September IOR program featured Timothy Brown, PhD who took members on an enchanting journey through Japan illustrating the relationship to trees and nature that is intrinsic to Buddhism and the culture. We learned about the origins of the Buddhist connection to nature in Japan, and how this was expressed through art, poetry and most recently a new practice called “forest-bathing” which is the seeking of calm and quiet among trees. He underscored these centuries old traditions by focusing on three Japanese Buddhist poet-monks whose work he highlighted in his
presentation: Saigyo, Basho and Ryokan.

Dr. Brown is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Randolph-Macon College where he has taught for 15 years. He has a Ph.D. in Religion from Syracuse University, an MA from New York University, and a BA from Wabash College. Dr. Brown teaches a broad range of classes in Religious Studies, including courses on Buddhism, Hinduism, Asian Religions, Native American Religions, New Religious Movements, Religions and Ecology, and travel courses on Japanese Religions. His recent research interest is “arboreal religion,” which uses a comparative approach to examine tree-human relations in traditional and contemporary religions and spiritual traditions.

Accompanying the program, five IOR member designers representing different schools creatively reflected poems provided by Dr. Brown through their arrangements. The designers and the poems they interpreted were:

Ikenobo: Evelyn Klumb
“Just a brief stop”
I said when stepping off the road
Into a willow’s shade
Where a bubbling stream flows by…
As has time since my “brief stop” began.
Poem by 12th century, Japanese Buddhist Monk, Saigyo (1118-1190)

Ohara: Judy Sheldon
If your hermitage is deep in the mountains
Surely the moon, flowers, and maple tree
Will become your friends.
Poem by 18th Century, Japanese Buddhist Monk, Ryokan (1758-1831)

Sogetsu: Annette Ernst
Twilight—the only conversation
on this hill
Is the wind blowing through the pines.
Poem by 18th Century, Japanese Buddhist Monk, Ryokan (1758-1831)

Ichiyo: Alice Litchfield
Tired from travel
I’m falling asleep under
a tree at Yoshino
while a spring breeze gathers
and pulls over me a quilt of petals.
Poem by 12th century, Japanese Buddhist Monk, Saigyo (1118-1190)

Sangetsu: Grace Morris
“Detached” observer
of blossoms finds himself in time
intimate with them –
so, when they separate from the branch,
it’s he who falls…deeply into grief.
Poem by 12th century, Japanese Buddhist Monk, Saigyo (1118-1190)