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Part II, Chapter 5: Ruth
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Tale for the Time Being, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Time, Impermanence, and the Present
The Difficulty of Communication
Life vs. Death
Coincidences and Connections
Sexual Perversion and Violence
Summary
Analysis
(1) Nao writes that she might not be able to write much today, since she is feeling uncomfortable at the café. Babette is upset because Nao refused to go on a date, and Nao thinks that she might soon have to find another place to write in.
When the bar hostesses in Nao’s apartment complex brought their customers home, Nao called them their “dates.” With this in mind, when Nao says here that Babette is angry at her for refusing a “date,” it seems to suggest something more sexually explicit than a date in the traditional sense.
Themes
(2) Nao says that since she and her reader are friends, she will share something personal that has really helped her: Jiko’s instructions for zazen meditation, which Nao and Jiko refer to as Nao’s “superpower.”
Nao feels that her reader is her “friend,” which stresses the intimacy between writer and reader. Ruth, of course, feels the same way toward Nao.
Themes
Nao relays the sad story of how Jiko became a nun. Jiko’s son, Haruki #1, was 19 and studying French literature when he got drafted to fight in World War II. Jiko said that he was a peace-loving boy who liked life. Nao thought that when Haruki #1 was forced to become a kamikaze pilot, he must have felt much more miserable than Nao did amid all the difficulties in her life.
While Nao likes to tell Jiko about her troubles, Jiko, too, is open about her sorrows with Nao. This is a stark contrast to Nao’s parents, who lie and hide their troubles from her. Jiko and Nao’s relationship shows that open communication between people must come from both sides.
Themes
Nao said that this this kind of extreme misery feels like a fish flopping around under one’s heart, and Jiko agreed. Jiko said that the sadness she felt for Haruki #1 was more like a whale. However, after she became a nun, Jiko “learned how to open up her heart so that the whale could swim away.” Nao says she, too, is trying to learn how to do this.
Jiko’s Buddhist practice helped her deal with her extreme sorrow by helping her to focus on the present rather than wallow in past suffering. This is how she allowed her immense heartbreak, represented by the image of the whale pushing up under her heart, to “swim away.” Nao, too, wants to be able do this.
Themes
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Nao tells her reader that she will now describe how to do zazen: one has to sit down without slouching and stack one’s hands in one’s lap with the thumbs touching. Then, one must relax and focus on one’s breathing. Nao says that although it sounds simple, she struggles to do it without getting distracted. Jiko says that this is fine, since minds do think—but one must pay attention when this is happening and choose to drop it. This is how a person can develops their “superpower.” Jiko says “that to do zazen is to enter time completely.”
Zazen meditation is one of the tools that Jiko teaches Nao to help her to focus on the present, or “enter time.” Nao values the practice and finds it empowering and calming, which is why she shares it with her friend—her reader.
Themes
