Peeter Laurits 1962 Firewood Becomes Ashes. 2024

Firewood becomes ashes and it cannot become firewood again. Although this is so, we should not see ashes as “after” and firewood as “before”. You should know that firewood abides in the configuration of firewood, for which there is a “before” and “after”. But although there is a “before” and an “after”, both the past and the future are disconnected from the present. Ashes abide in the configuration of ashes, and there is an “after”, and there is a “before”. Just like this firewood, which will not become firewood again after it has become ashes, a human being will not return to life again after death.

Life is a momentary configuration, death is a momentary configuration. This is like winter and spring. One does not say that “winter” has become “spring”, one does not say that “spring” has become “summer”.

—The Challenge of Becoming-Immanent (Genjō