Zen and the poetry of T.S. Eliot

At the still point of the turning world.

Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered.

Neither movement from nor towards,Neither ascent nor decline.

Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.

And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.

The inner freedom from the practical desire,

The release from action and suffering, release from the inner

And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded

By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving…

-from Burnt Norton, section I of Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

I’ve come to absolutely love this passage from the long poem Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot not only because my father used to read his work in school but also because of the Zen-like connotations in his writing. Considered a pioneer of Western 20th century poetry for being among the first to reject conventional verse forms and language, T.S. Eliot is highly-regarded in Japanese literary circles for his interest in Zen Buddhism.

In Four Quartets his last major work, Eliot explores the questions of time and eternity in four sections, Burnt Norton (1936), East Coker (1940), The Dry Salvages (1941), and Little Gidding (1942), representing places visited by the poet.

'The still point of the turning world' in Burnt Norton illustrates for me what one should ideally experience when practicing yoga. As scholars have pointed out, Eliot implies that there is a point of stillness at the heart of movement which is poised, balanced, and is also the “locus of power.”

He also writes about 'the dance' and equates it with beauty, control, elegance, power and harmony. The Western Buddhist Review dissected and interpreted this as: dancing, like meditation, needs concentration but also fluidity, a blend of conscious control and a creative flow. 'At the still point, there the dance is' - the dance comes from that stillness. Om.