The sakura, that extraordinary cherry tree that blooms in the Japanese spring, barely in flower, sees its petals fall at the slightest breath of wind. Ephemeral destiny, image of a magnificent yet precarious world, it reminds us of our own fragility. How can we admire the beauty of nature without thinking of its irretrievable loss? Perhaps we Westerners harbor the idea of linear, inescapable time, to which we often respond by rushing forward or clinging to the past. For the Japanese, the value of ephemerality is, on the contrary, a value of rarity. The cherry blossom is all the more beautiful for being fleeting. Since we know it is lost from the start, then there is nothing left to lose. Let us savor the moment.
And then the beauty of nature returns each year, and its return can truly be called eternal. Every spring in Japan is a promise. There's the start of the school year, the brand-new uniforms, the beginning of the professional lives of new graduates, the renewal of life. Here, Zen Buddhism traces a circle rather than a straight line. Embracing the present moment, believing in renewal, the sakura, the meeting point between the ephemeral and the permanent, transforms our perception of time.
The Japanese are sensitive to the slightest oscillations of the earth. A country so attached to nature knows, after all, that everything changes in an instant. The seasons, numerous and varied in Japan, stretch out over time. They are like living beings, never broken, always in motion, and the Japanese like to name this. Hashiri, the beginning of the season, let's savor the first fruits, when they release their freshness and raw energy. Then the peak of the season, sakari. And finally, nagori, literally "the remnants of the waves," what the wave leaves on the sand as it recedes. Traces, pebbles, memories, emotions still vivid. It is the taste of the ripe fruit that contains all the flavor and depth of the departing season, already a certain nostalgia for parting. But nagori is also about embracing the emotion of nostalgia, like a step aside from melancholy. To appreciate the beauty of each age, to accompany these multiple times that we are given to live, to remain still for a moment before taking leave, as if to contain the sensation…