Zen of Creativity Chapter 2

[Tai Do]

Thank you Kokuu, Mateus, Anne, Meitou and Kate. I feel we're well on the way to a collaborative project just by sharing.

Some music lyrics - part of a music project I've been working on for some time. Normally performed part spoken (rap style) part sung to a drum beat. Inspired by the Heart Sutra. Will try to post audio version when back home from holiday.



Heart Sutra – song lyrics

Gate / Gate/ Parasamgate / Bodhi svhami/

No sight/ No sound/ No touch/ No taste / No smell/
No unifying consciousness as well/
Where we are placed/ How to erase/ A way of being/ A way of seeing/
A sense of self.
And yet this peace
This sense of peace.

Without the cold can’t feel the fire
Without some need can’t sense desire
If we’re not bound – we can’t be free
If there’s no you – then there’s no me
And yet this peace/This sense of peace

Met a vagrant on the street today
He said, I cannot eat if you won’t pay
And I’ll sell my karma anytime
Or you could simply trade your life for mine
And yet this peace
This sense of peace

In some far country
So different to our own
A child lies bleeding
Dying all alone
She’s been fed on rage
And weaned on hate
An accident of birth has sealed her fate
And yet this peace
This sense of peace

We find ourselves on stony ground
With pebbles sharp and weeds abound
We think, we feel, we have desire
We long, we hope, work and aspire
And yet this peace
This sense of peace

We board a boat/ for the other shore
Think over there/ we’ll hurt no more
But the other shore/Is beneath our feet
We cannot find/ if we don’t seek
A sense of peace/This sense of peace

What’s the opposite of prayer
If you say there’s no god
Is there no-one there?

Threw my ideals in the fire of time
It burnt them fast – then burnt this heart of mine
In the charnel ground
Clothe was stitched and bound
To make a robe of grace
Your original face

And yes this peace
This sense of peace


Gassho

Jinyo

Sat today

Beautiful. Waiting for the audio.
Gassho,
Mateus
Sat today/LAH

[Cooperix]

Jinyo,

Such huge power in those words. And I too look forward to the audio. so very moving...

And you are right sharing, in a sense, is collaborative.

Gassho
Anne

~st~

[Meitou]

Again WOW! Thank you Mateus for your calligraphic art, it's beautiful in its clear and open simplicity.
And Jinyo, I have no words ( although here they come ha!) for how much I loved your lyrics, they stand alone even without the music. I've seen lots of Zen inspired poetry but I don't think I've ever read something so in touch with the eternal paradox of our personal practice.
Thank you everyone
Deep Bows
Meitou
sattodaylah

[Cooperix]

Mateus,
How did I overlook your calligraphy? I just missed the link. So sorry. A wonderful use of space and color. The red egg coming into the frame from the right is a perfect balance to the script. Sorry I missed it until Meitou pointed it out.
That is why there are two of us I guess!


bows
Anne
~st~

[Tai Do]

Mateus,
How did I overlook your calligraphy? I just missed the link. So sorry. A wonderful use of space and color. The red egg coming into the frame from the right is a perfect balance to the script. Sorry I missed it until Meitou pointed it out.
That is why there are two of us I guess!


bows
Anne
~st~

No problem, Anne.


Mateus
Sat/LAH

[Kotei]

Thank you everyone!
I am touched by all your works in different ways.

I enjoyed (re)reading the book so far.
This time, I see more clearly how the flowing, developing life is shown in union with the developing art and artistic skills. Becoming one.
A bit romantic, if you ask me... Having a family, booking expensive workshops without having the money... Roshis sitting in trees... Not knowing where to live and refusing to talk about... "Something will come up".
I've seen more than one artist's life, developing very unpleasantly that way.

Thinking about the prompt, I am having a hard ;-) time to see beyond our sitting Zazen.
Sitting like a mountain. Already a wonderful, symbolic expression of all the teachings and practice and realisation.

With the following from Master Dogen in mind, I finished the Suiseki,
I was collecting and ageing parts for, for quite some time.

An ancient Buddha said, “The mountains, rivers and earth are born at the same moment with each person. All buddhas of the three worlds are practicing together with each person.”

If we look at the mountains, rivers, and earth when a person is born, his birth does not seem to be bringing forth additional mountains, rivers, and earth on top of the existing ones. Yet the ancient buddha’s word cannot be mistaken. How should we understand this? Even if you do not understand it, you should not ignore it. So, be determined to understand it. Listen until you understand.

Is there anyone who knows what his birth in its beginning or end is like? No one knows either birth’s end or its beginning; nevertheless everyone is born. Similarly, no one knows the extremities of the mountains, rivers, and earth, but all see this place and walk here. Do not think with regret that the mountains, rivers, and earth are not born with you. Understand that the ancient Buddha teaches that your birth is non-separate from the mountains, rivers, and earth.

(...)

IMG_1449_small.jpg IMG_1470_small.jpg IMG_1457_small.jpg IMG_1474_small.jpg IMG_1467_small.jpg

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Cooperix]

Kotei,

I had no idea what a suiseki was. So thanks for that bit of education. Your suiseki is a perfect fixture in the garden that surrounds it. Which brings up the question: is this your personal garden!!!?And it sounds as though you piece the stone together after 'aging' it. I'm mystified and intrigued. Thanks for posting. And I enjoy your comments regarding the somewhat woo-woo nature of JDL's narrative. Thanks for that slant!

gassho
Anne
~st~

[Tai Do]

Thank you for the pictures and the knowledge of Suiseki, Kotei. I loved it. And it brought me ideas for my very very small garden. Everything I planted died because of the dry weather here. Perhaps a rock garden can be a good alternative.
Gassho,
Mateus
Sat today

[Kotei]

Thank you both.

Anne, yes, that's part of the garden, I am living with. I started creating the section on the pictures 5 years ago.

Maybe the garden itself would also fit into this prompt? Although there is no such thing as a Zen-garden, there is imho quite some Zen in Japanese (influenced) gardens.
To me, it is also expression and celebration of our union with nature.
It feels like our sense of beauty and being touched by it, developed in us, living as a part of nature.
"A sunny clearing, the woods in the back, a little river below, some stable rocks by my side" is not only beautiful and calming, but also the right place to rest and settle. Water, wood, food, shelter, overview... all present.
Beauty as a sense for automatically selecting the right surrounding for survival.
A Japanese garden seems to be exploring this connection.
Creating a blueprint of nature's forms and functions, that touch, soothe and activate a poetic state of mind.

Some traditional elements in Japanese Gardens are objects, created from natural materials.
Historical, aged building materials that continue existing and living a new life as a new object as part of the garden.
Joining nature and culture, showing time and age and transformation, death and birth, connecting past and present.
In Japan, these are often column parts used as stepping stones, old stone lanterns and such.

In this case, it's a basestone, that is a misfit leftover of some stones, I got from a stone quarry.
A sandstone sink from the demolition of an historical side building of a some hundred years old manor.
A display stone that I found expressing 'Mountain' in a nice way and some basalt gravel that I've had for another project (the display of a hollow tree trunk, I salvaged from a garden around the corner).
I played with the materials, I collected over the years and found the above fitting nicely together.
Some tripod, lever, chain-block work later, the material was close to it's final position.
I closed the sandstone sink's drain and filled it with sand, made a mixture of water, low-fat yoghurt, shredded moss and lichen and let it grow on the surface, the yoghurt being great nutrient solution.
The light/shade and water conditions determine which lichen and moss grow on it,
so this stinking 'aging' has to happen near the final display position.
I cleaned the surfaces, removed the sand, opened the drain, added the gravel and positioned the stones finally.
I am curious, how it will develop.

Someone (I think it was a suiseki collector) called suiseki the most basic, oldest kind of art.
Finding a stone that you find having a strong expression. Making a display that accents it. Displaying it unaltered.
Raising an object out of the emptiness, by pointing with the finger at it.
"Wow! look there!"

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Meitou]

Thank you both.

Anne, yes, that's part of the garden, I am living with. I started creating the section on the pictures 5 years ago.

Maybe the garden itself would also fit into this prompt? Although there is no such thing as a Zen-garden, there is imho quite some Zen in Japanese (influenced) gardens.
To me, it is also expression and celebration of our union with nature.
It feels like our sense of beauty and being touched by it, developed in us, living as a part of nature.
"A sunny clearing, the woods in the back, a little river below, some stable rocks by my side" is not only beautiful and calming, but also the right place to rest and settle. Water, wood, food, shelter, overview... all present.
Beauty as a sense for automatically selecting the right surrounding for survival.
A Japanese garden seems to be exploring this connection.
Creating a blueprint of nature's forms and functions, that touch, soothe and activate a poetic state of mind.

Some traditional elements in Japanese Gardens are objects, created from natural materials.
Historical, aged building materials that continue existing and living a new life as a new object as part of the garden.
Joining nature and culture, showing time and age and transformation, death and birth, connecting past and present.
In Japan, these are often column parts used as stepping stones, old stone lanterns and such.

In this case, it's a basestone, that is a misfit leftover of some stones, I got from a stone quarry.
A sandstone sink from the demolition of an historical side building of a some hundred years old manor.
A display stone that I found expressing 'Mountain' in a nice way and some basalt gravel that I've had for another project (the display of a hollow tree trunk, I salvaged from a garden around the corner).
I played with the materials, I collected over the years and found the above fitting nicely together.
Some tripod, lever, chain-block work later, the material was close to it's final position.
I closed the sandstone sink's drain and filled it with sand, made a mixture of water, low-fat yoghurt, shredded moss and lichen and let it grow on the surface, the yoghurt being great nutrient solution.
The light/shade and water conditions determine which lichen and moss grow on it,
so this stinking 'aging' has to happen near the final display position.
I cleaned the surfaces, removed the sand, opened the drain, added the gravel and positioned the stones finally.
I am curious, how it will develop.

Someone (I think it was a suiseki collector) called suiseki the most basic, oldest kind of art.
Finding a stone that you find having a strong expression. Making a display that accents it. Displaying it unaltered.
Raising an object out of the emptiness, by pointing with the finger at it.
"Wow! look there!"

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

Kotei, this is the perfect embodiment of this project, your garden certainly does fit this prompt and I'm really glad you chose to share it with us. Please feel free to post more photos. Like Anne, I didn't know what a suiseki was- it's really inspiring! In fact, I might incorporate something from your post in a future prompt, as I think it's possible to combine some of these elements and create a 'garden', even for those folk who don't have a garden as such, or are able to access one. You've given me lots of ideas, thank you!
Deep Bows
Meitou
sattodaylah