From R.H. Blyth

I found this old quotation I jotted down in 2008. That the writings of R.H. Blyth are so difficult to find, even online, is not surprising, but upsetting all the same. I myself only discovered the man by accident, pawing through the fifth floor of the Carleton Library in search of a palliative for a feminine cholic I was feeling right in the jumper. My good daimon led me to thumb through "Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics", first edition nineteen forty something, Hokuseido Press. I was leery, seeing that the author was not Japanese, but a kind forward from D.T. Suzuki seemed to suggest it might be worth reading... Within a paragraph, folks! and I'm a pupil. I've since gone AROUND him frequently -- but he's one of those writers I don't think I'll ever get PAST.

Campaigns have brought back Vivaldi and Bach. I think one day I shall campaign for Blyth:

"Ummon said, “The entire Universe, the Cosmos, and the Great Earth, and I, this old monk in this world! With my staff I give it one blow, and say ‘It is smashed to smithereens!’”

It is in this spirit that we must face death, and, more important by far, face impudent children, and hysterical women, and our own pusillanimity. "