https://forum.treeleaf.org/ en Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:32:37 GMT vBulletin 60 https://forum.treeleaf.org/images/og/treeleaf-circle-og-logo.png https://forum.treeleaf.org/ https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/poetry/571482-arts-new-discussion-group-“less-is-more-encountering-the-dharma-through-poetry” Sat, 06 Jun 2026 16:55:59 GMT I am excited to announce the start of our new “Less Is More” reflection and study group. Beginning this month, we will gather around one or two...
Beginning this month, we will gather around one or two carefully selected poems (or occasionally a longer verse text) and explore together how they speak to our practice, our lives, and the Dharma in general.

Poetry has long been interwoven with Buddhism—and Zen, in particular. One reason for this is that poetry can be a powerful means of using language to point beyond language, expressing something of the ineffable that cannot be fully captured in words. Yet, as words are what we have to work with, poets have used them (often quite sparingly) to point towards the Dharma in unique and insightful ways.

The format will be simple. Around the 15th of each month, I will post one or more selected poems in this forum. Everyone is invited to read, reflect, and participate in your own way. You may join us for a monthly live discussion via Zoom (typically on the third Sunday of the month), and/or share your reflections here in the forum.

Our selections will be drawn primarily from Zen literature, but will also (from time to time) include poetry and verse from other contemplative traditions and writers whose work resonates with common Zen themes such as impermanence, interconnection, simplicity, silence, and direct experience.

There are no formal commitments and no books to buy.

The intention is not scholarly analysis or the search for “correct” interpretations, but rather shared reflection and inquiry. Whether you already love poetry or generally avoid it, I invite you to join us for what I hope will be a fresh and uniquely Zen approach to engaging with poetry. I sincerely hope that this practice will help us all better appreciate how poetry can serve as a powerful expression of the Dharma.

Please note that while I will be facilitating our selections and discussions, my role is simply that of a fellow practitioner helping to foster conversation and reflection. Any opinions or perspectives I share should be understood in that spirit.

I will post our first selections in the coming days. Please share any questions or thoughts you may have in the meantime.

Gassho,
Seikan]]> Seikan https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/poetry/571482-arts-new-discussion-group-“less-is-more-encountering-the-dharma-through-poetry” https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/zen-cooking-aa/571343-arts-zen-cooking-the-third-of-four-talks-by-ed-brown-on-the-tenzo-kyokun Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:31:37 GMT How To Cook Your Life 3 of 4 This session shifted the focus from cooking to eating. To repeat a quote from the first session, Daoists and... How To Cook Your Life 3 of 4

This session shifted the focus from cooking to eating. To repeat a quote from the first session, Daoists and Buddhists largely eat the same diet but Daoists focus on what you eat and Buddhists on how you eat.

The talk hung around one major anecdote at the start of his talk. This was about breakfast at Tassajara and the complication of when they switched from outdoor canteen service to eating in the zendo. The cereal served was easy but everyone wanted a different combination of condiments with their cereal – variations of milk, cream, sugar, dried fruit etc. This made self serving them in a seated position slow and cumbersome. After the second day, Suzuki Roshi called the whole community together and said that he couldn’t understand Americans. If you put so much milk and sugar on the cereal, how can you taste the true spirit of the grain?

If you take the time and effort to really taste and appreciate food then you will be in a place of stillness. Mostly, though we simply want the familiar that satiates a craving. So, without an instruction from Suzuki Roshi, Ed switched the next morning to a bowl of rice with a topping of sesame salt.

He developed this further by talking about some soups that look similar, namely carrot, sweet potato or winter squash. They have a similar colour and consistency and, if the same spices such as ginger are used, it can be impossible to taste the vegetable. But, carrot soup should taste of carrot. The cooking should bring out the flavour of the vegetable.

He then described an activity on a children’s retreat of sitting in silence and carefully eating one potato chip in order to really taste it. Then a piece of orange and then one cookie. To help focus the attention on eating and not just consume the familiar to get on with the next task.

Bows
Hoshuku
Satlah]]> Hoshuku https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/zen-cooking-aa/571343-arts-zen-cooking-the-third-of-four-talks-by-ed-brown-on-the-tenzo-kyokun https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/the-zen-of-health-ailments-in-body-and-mind-practice-group/571077-healthdharma-disability-and-practice Tue, 26 May 2026 14:05:13 GMT Hey All, I have a question: How does your disability affect your Practice? Gasshō, On
I have a question:

How does your disability affect your Practice?

Gasshō,

On

st/lh

]]> The Zen of Health Ailments, in Body and Mind, Practice Group Onki https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/the-zen-of-health-ailments-in-body-and-mind-practice-group/571077-healthdharma-disability-and-practice https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/zen-cooking-aa/571033-arts-shojin-ryori-in-vanuatu Tue, 26 May 2026 00:19:16 GMT IMG_2128.jpg IMG_2130.jpg IMG_2131.jpg IMG_2129.jpg IMG_2131.jpg]]> Hoshuku https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/zen-cooking-aa/571033-arts-shojin-ryori-in-vanuatu https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/zen-cooking-aa/570947-arts-zen-cooking-2nd-of-4-talks-on-the-tenzo-kyokun-by-ed-brown Sat, 23 May 2026 09:02:37 GMT
1. The way to prepare a meal.
First, what is needed and for how many people? Second, what do we already have that can be used? What can I do with that from my past experience? What extra is needed? Then in a tidy and clean work space use your best effort to create a meal. Offer it to the guests without thought or expectstion of thanks or acknowledgment. Learn from the process. This would contrast with a contrasting process of having a desired result, finding a recipe to follow and buying the best ingredients. Follow the recipe and get the hoped for reaction while accepting the expected priase and thanks.

Supporting anecdote - Shunryu Suzuki's baked potatoes. Towards the end of a sesshin, Ed thought he'd treat their teacher to some baked potatoes because he knew Suzuki Sensei liked them. Never having done them before he followed the recipe and put them in the oven to bake. By serving time they were barely warm, let alone cooked. From this he learned that the temperature dial on the oven was broken. The potatoes were inedible though people had a good attempt.

2. The six flavours that you learn to balance in a meal.
East Asian cooking attempts to provide meals that balance sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter and umami across a vareity of small dishes. For example; honey, vinegar, soy sauce, chilli, mustard and mushrooms, for each class of flavour respectively.

Supporting anecdote - Ed tried learning some French cooking for a while. He tried learning to make cauliflower soup but realsied that ?all? French vegetable soups were basically chicken stock and cream. The lack of balance and variety put him off this as a style of cooking.

3. Cleaning as intimacy
The object of cleaning is to clean. It is to become intimate with things. When we clean, we are reminded what we have, where it is and where it best lives - we can care for things by being reminded of them.

Supporting anecdote - the following day, he was leading a half day sitting session and that afternoon, he would clean the zendo and all the items needed himself. That way, he'd know the zendo yet again.

Bows
Hoshuku
Satlah]]> Hoshuku https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/zen-cooking-aa/570947-arts-zen-cooking-2nd-of-4-talks-on-the-tenzo-kyokun-by-ed-brown https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/570616-arts-the-mountain-path-available-for-free Mon, 18 May 2026 08:40:10 GMT Hi, friends. Many of you are familiar with Ed Burger’s documentary Amongst White Clouds, in which he retraces Red Pine’s steps from the book Road... b3fc80e36181ae2584779d47e82ad057a662cba5.jpg.webp Hi, friends.

Many of you are familiar with Ed Burger’s documentary Amongst White Clouds, in which he retraces Red Pine’s steps from the book Road to Heaven in search of hermits in the Chinese mountains. In 2021, Ed re-edited the original film, added new material, and re-released the documentary.

Now, after five years, he’s finally making it available for free on YouTube. It’s definitely worth a watch.

Enjoy.


With metta, and in gassho
sat lah

]]> Bion https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/570616-arts-the-mountain-path-available-for-free https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/570591-arts-japanese-art-invention-of-tradition Sun, 17 May 2026 17:40:59 GMT Sometimes I listen to a podcast of Alex Sheremetev, an art historian who specializes in Japanese art. Below, I add notes based on his episodes... Key takeaway: "The 'traditional'Japanese culture we often picture in our minds and romanticize is largely an invention of the XX century."
Links to YouTube (if your Russian is good enough ):






The Mingei Movement — Folk Craft as Ideology
Context and Origin

• In 1920, in the small coastal town of St Ives, Cornwall, the English potter Bernard Leach and Japanese potter Hamada Shōji built a large wood-fired kiln based on the Japanese noborigama (climbing kiln) design.
• This event is conventionally regarded as the founding moment of studio pottery as a movement.
• But beneath this pastoral image lies a deep ideological conflict — one that challenges how we think about authenticity, tradition, and the East-West cultural exchange.

What Is Mingei?

• Mingei (民芸) is an artificial neologism coined in 1925 by philosopher Yanagi Sōetsu, together with potters Hamada Shōji and Kawai Kanjirō.
• It is a contraction of minshū-teki kōgei (民衆的工芸), meaning roughly "craft for the masses" or "folk craft."
• Before this term existed, Japanese culture had no separate concept for everyday functional beauty. Objects were either expensive elite art or purely utilitarian items.
• Yanagi was the first to propose elevating so-called ordinary objects to the status of high art.

Mingei as a Modernist Project

• Mingei is not an organic continuation of Japanese medieval tradition — it is a typical modernist project, constructed using Western intellectual tools.
• Yanagi Sōetsu was deeply versed in European philosophy: his library included works by John Ruskin, William Morris, and William Blake.
• He essentially borrowed the British Arts and Crafts movement's protest against industrialization and transplanted it onto Japanese soil.
• The central paradox: the "folk" Yanagi wrote about had largely disappeared or transformed by the 1920s in Japan. He was not preserving a living culture — he was performing an act of selection and curation.
• Yanagi and his circle decided what was "worthy" and what was "vulgar" in Japanese craft — an aesthetic dictatorship of intellectuals, effectively imposed on the artisans themselves.

Core Concepts of Mingei Aesthetics

• Yūbi no bi / Bi in yō — "beauty in use" (useful beauty); the idea that functional objects embody the highest form of beauty.
• Shintei (真諦) — truthfulness and honesty of materials; a craft object should not disguise what it is made of.
• Anonymity — the maker should not sign their work, as personal ego distorts pure form.
• Taishū-sei — mass production, but not industrial mass production; objects should be made in large quantities for ordinary people's everyday needs.

The Bernard Leach Contradiction

• Leach came to Japan as an artist-potter who wanted self-expression — a deeply Western individualist impulse.
• Japanese tradition, by contrast, demanded dissolution of the self into the craft.
• Their collaboration with Hamada Shōji became an attempt to reconcile Western individualism with Japanese collectivism.
• The result was a telling hybrid: a Western artist imitated the anonymity of a Japanese peasant craftsman — then sold those objects at high-art prices in London galleries.
• This was the birth of elite craft masquerading as folk primitivism.

Technical and Cross-Cultural Exchange

• Leach rediscovered English medieval slipware — rough pottery decorated with slip (liquid clay). He found it closer in spirit to Japanese ceramics (particularly Seto ware) than to the refined European porcelain dominant at the time.
• The exchange was genuinely bidirectional:
  • Japan gave the West: firing techniques, and the aesthetic of wabi-sabi (侘寂) — the beauty of imperfection and the passage of time.
  • The West gave Japan: the studio model — where one artist controls the entire process from clay preparation to firing. Previously, Japanese ceramics relied on the division of labour within family workshops.
• For Western art, this was revolutionary: ceramics ceased to be a minor craft and entered the space of fine art (bijutsu, 美術 — a word that itself only emerged around this period, as the concept of "fine arts" was largely absent in Japan before the 20th century).

The Problem of Self-Orientalism

• Mingei is often accused of self-orientalization — constructing an image of Japan designed to appeal to Western romanticized expectations.
• It is better described as mutual borrowing, though the selectivity was real.
• Yanagi emphasized shun (旬, seasonality) and rough, natural textures — while ignoring Japan's rich tradition of urban kitsch: bright colours, the almost Baroque visual culture of the Edo period.
• Mingei is a sanitized Japan, cleansed of urban complexity and projected as a pastoral, rural utopia.

Mingei vs. Bauhaus: A Structural Comparison

Goal	Democratize design	Democratize design
Method	Handcrafted, organic materials	Machine, geometry, technology
Aesthetic	Wabi-sabi, natural textures	Clean lines, industrial forms

• Both movements aimed at the same goal — democratizing design — through opposite means.
• By the 1950s–60s, the two lines converged: Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand borrowed principles of Japanese modular space; Japanese architects like Kenzō Tange integrated traditional wooden structure into brutalist concrete.

Legacy and Commodification

• The brand Muji (無印良品, Mujirushi Ryōhin — "no-brand quality goods") is a direct heir to Yanagi's philosophy of anonymity and useful beauty.
• But there is an irony: what Leach and Hamada saw as a spiritual quest became a marketing code for minimalism.
• The "authenticity" we seek in Japanese ceramics or design today is often the result of a sophisticated intellectual construction begun in the 1920s — not an ancient, unbroken tradition.
• This does not diminish the value of the objects, but it demands critical awareness of terms like "tradition" and "national spirit."

Iwao Yamawaki — The Man Who Invented "Japanese" Minimalism
Who Was Yamawaki Iwao?

• Yamawaki Iwao (山脇巌, 1898–1987) was a Japanese architect, photographer, and modernist designer — a figure rarely mentioned in popular guides to Japanese aesthetics, yet arguably the architect of the visual language we today (often incorrectly) take to be Japan's ancient tradition.
• In 1930, at a moment when Japan was caught between nationalism and efforts to catch up with the West, Yamawaki made a radical decision: he sold his house in Tokyo and moved to Dessau, Germany, with his wife Michiko Yamawaki — to attend the Bauhaus.

Why the Bauhaus?

• Japanese art at the time still relied heavily on kuji (手仕事, hand craft), where mastery passed from father to son.
• Yamawaki wanted to learn how to design for the masses — for factories, for a new industrial era — not for individual patrons.
• His explicit goal was to rationalize Japanese everyday life and strip it of what he called "the dust of centuries."

The Bauhaus Education: A Collision of Worlds

• At the Bauhaus, Yamawaki studied under Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky.
• The Bauhaus Vorkurs (foundation course) taught that materials are pure physics — steel, glass, and concrete have no nationality.
• For a Japanese person raised in a culture where nature is animate and spiritually charged, this was a profound conceptual shock.

Michiko Yamawaki: A Parallel Story

• Michiko was the daughter of a hereditary master of the tea ceremony (chanoyu).
• At the Bauhaus, she joined the weaving workshop — and took her inherited silk kimonos, cut them apart, and used them to make collages in the spirit of German Constructivism.
• This act is itself a perfect metaphor for the couple's entire journey: literally cutting apart Japanese tradition in order to sew something functional and modern from its pieces.

The Photomontage "Attack on the Bauhaus" (1932)

When the Nazis forced the Bauhaus to close in 1933, Yamawaki responded by creating a photomontage titled "Attack on the Bauhaus" (Bauhaus he no Dageki).

• The work contains nothing of Japanese visual softness — it is aggressive, harsh, dynamic: sharp shadows, collage, kinetic composition. A fully Western avant-garde technique.
• What Yamawaki brought back to Japan was not merely drafting skills — he brought the concept of design as an ideological weapon: the understanding that form, and how it is deployed, can transform society.

Return to Japan: Inventing the Grid

• Yamawaki returned to Tokyo in 1932 and became a proponent of the concept of Kōsei (構成) — literally "composition" or "structuring."
• Before his intervention, Japanese spatial design was built on an intuitive sense of emptiness (ma, 間).
• Yamawaki replaced this intuition with a mathematical grid — the systematic Raster he brought from Dessau.
• He designed studio homes that looked like white cubes: steel chairs, no thresholds, functional kitchens, stripped walls.

The Great Substitution

• When we look at the interiors of Muji today and admire their "inherently Japanese simplicity," we are — whether we know it or not — looking at the legacy of Yamawaki's obsession with German Bauhaus aesthetics.
• "The great forgery": Yamawaki took Western functionalism, purified it through his Japanese sensibility, and re-presented it as the new Japanese.
• His argument, implicitly: to become truly global, Japanese design first had to become German design, then American design, then French design — absorbing all of it, bringing it home, adapting it — to produce something entirely new.
• He was not preserving culture in a museum case. He reassembled his worldview in the laboratory of Dessau.

Overarching Themes (Both Episodes)

• Authenticity is constructed. What we perceive as timeless Japanese aesthetic — minimalism, wabi-sabi craft, spatial restraint — is largely the product of specific, historically datable intellectual choices made in the 1920s–30s.
• The influence was always bidirectional. Japan shaped the West (Arts and Crafts, Impressionism, modernism), and the West reshaped Japan from within (Bauhaus, studio craft, the concept of fine art itself).
• Modernism and tradition are not opposites. Both Mingei and Yamawaki's work show how modernist projects can be disguised as — or genuinely evolve into — expressions of national identity.
• Ideas about "the folk" or "the national spirit" are invented. The people who define them are always intellectuals with specific agendas, not the ordinary people ostensibly being celebrated.
• Design is ideology. From Mingei's aesthetic dictatorship to Yamawaki's photomontages, form is never neutral — it carries social and political meaning.

satlah]]> Hokuu https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/practices/treeleaf-arts-music-sports-circle/570591-arts-japanese-art-invention-of-tradition