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Zen

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  • 134. Zen View

    If there is a beautiful view, don’t spoil it by building huge windows that gape incessantly at it. Instead, put the windows which look onto the view at places of transition—along paths, in hallways, in entry ways, on stairs, between rooms.

    If the view window is correctly placed, people will see a glimpse of the distant view as they come up to the window or pass it: but the view is never visible from the places where people stay.

    Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein & Sara Ishikawa, A Pattern Language
    • zen
  • Chef's Table: Jeong Kwan

    Jeong Kwan, Chef's Table
    www.imdb.com
    1. ​​172. Garden Growing Wild​​
    2. ​​The garden is a riot​​
    • gardens
    • food
    • zen
  • Zero Mass

    EricOrrZeroMass.jpg

    On an autumn night in 2009, I experienced a version of this piece installed in a stone barn in rural France. The evening was moonless and cold; I stood with two friends inside the piece for the better part of an hour, as our eyes adjusted to almost total darkness, before any of us could begin to see one another. It was the definition of a liminal, or barely perceptible, experience. Eric Orr, who died in 1998, was involved with Zen Buddhism and considered these pieces to be spaces for meditation. Experiencing them as intended requires the visitor to focus quietly on the mechanics of their own perception.

    Eric Orr, Phenomenal: Exhibited Works
    • zen
    • melancholy
  • Translation is always a treason

    Translation is always a treason, and as a Ming author observes, can at its best be only the reverse side of a brocade—all the threads are there, but not the subtlety of color or design. But, after all, what great doctrine is there which is easy to expound? The ancient sages never put their teachings in systematic form. They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths. They began by talking like fools and ended by making their hearers wise. Lau Tzu himself, with his quaint humor, says, "If people of inferior intelligence hear of the Tao, they laugh immensely. It would not be the Tao unless they laughed at it."

    Okakura Kakuzō, The Book of Tea
    1. ​​The work is what it means​​
    • zen
  • The mundane and the spiritual

    A special contribution of Zen to Eastern thought was its recognition of the mundane as of equal importance with the spiritual. It held that in the great relation of things there was no distinction of small and great, an atom possessing equal possibilities with the universe. The seeker for perfection must discover in his own life the refection of the inner light. The organization of the Zen monastery was very significant of this point of view. To every member, except the abbot, was assigned some special work in the caretaking of the monastery, and curiously enough, to the novices was committed the lighter duties, while to the most respected and advanced monks were given the more irksome and menial tasks. Such services formed a part of the Zen discipline and every least action must be done absolutely perfectly. Thus many a weighty discussion ensued while weeding the garden, paring a turnip, or serving tea. The whole ideal of Teaism is a result of this Zen conception of greatness in the smallest incidents of life. Taoism furnished the basis for aesthetic ideals, Zennism made them practical.

    Okakura Kakuzō, The Book of Tea
    1. ​​Chef's Table: Magnus Nilssen​​
    • zen
  • In a state of reverberation

    Irwin's terms of sudden, physical realization – bam! – call to mind the suddenly enlightening Zen slap or rap on the forehead. It also calls to mind [Philip Guston]'s own remark..."Look at any inspired painting...it's like a gong sounding; it puts you in a state of reverberation." Reverberation is another way of suggesting a kind of sudden, energetic, physical experience.

    Philip Guston, Robert Irwin: A Conditional Art
    1. ​​I have pacified your mind​​
    2. ​​It's dark outside​​
    3. ​​Scraps of the brocade of autumn​​
    • zen
    • art
    • understanding
  • The most incidental detail

    IMG_6227.jpg

    Black rakuware tea bowl (late sixteenth century), Kyoto, Japan. Freer Sackler Museum of Asian Art.

    For Irwin, the lesson of [the raku tea cups] was twofold: first, their presentation was important, insofar as the ceremony involved a gradual preparation of the audience's aesthetic attention. Then, when the time came to handle the cups, the intimacy of the experience fused visual and tactile sensations into a single continuum. As he also noted:

    he would set on the table this box with a beautiful little tie on it – very Japanese – and you untied it, you opened up the box, he let you do that. And then inside of it was a cloth sack. You took the sack out, and it had a drawstring, and you opened up the drawstring and you reached inside and took out the bowl. By that time, the bowl had you at a level where the most incidental detail – maybe even just a thumb mark – registered as a powerful statement.

    Robert Irwin, Robert Irwin: A Conditional Art
    • zen
    • wabi-sabi
    • ritual
    • tea
    • attention
  • Until we leave the gate behind

    And yet the timeless way is not complete, and will not fully generate the quality without a name, until we leave the gate behind.

    Indeed this ageless character has nothing, in the end, to do with languages. The language, and the processes which stem from it, merely release the fundamental order which is native to us. They do not teach us, they only remind us of what we know already, and of what we shall discover time and time again, when we give up our ideas and opinions, and do exactly what emerges from ourselves.

    At this final stage, the patterns are no longer important: the patterns have taught you to be receptive to what is real. It is the gate which leads you to the state of mind, in which you live so close to your own heart that you no longer need a language.

    This is the final lesson of the timeless way.

    Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building
    1. ​​The natural thing to do​​
    • zen
    • ending
  • It will revenge itself in judgment

    To the average man, life presents itself, not as material malleable to his hand, but as a series of problems of extreme difficulty, which he has to solve with the means at his disposal. And he is distressed to find that the more means he can dispose of—such as machine-power, rapid transport, and general civilised amenities, the more his problems grow in hardness and complexity. This is particularly disconcerting to him, because he has been frequently told that the increase of scientific knowledge would give him “the mastery over nature”—which ought, surely, to imply mastery over life.

    Perhaps the first thing that he can learn from the artist is that the only way of “mastering” one’s material is to abandon the whole conception of mastery and to co-operate with it in love: whosoever will be a lord of life, let him be its servant. If he tries to wrest life out of its true nature, it will revenge itself in judgment, as the work revenges itself upon the domineering artist.

    Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker
    • wisdom
    • zen
  • Shortlist of interesting spaces

    Nick Trombley, barnsworthburning.net
    • craft
    • work
    • walking
    • www
    • notetaking
    • words
    • euphony
    • melancholy
    • zen
    • darkness
    • gardens
  • Mountains are mountains

    Before attaining enlightenment,
    mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers.

    At the moment of enlightenment,
    mountains are no longer mountains,
    nor are rivers rivers.

    After attaining enlightenment,
    mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers.

    Yuanwu Keqin, Thomas Cleary & J.C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record
    1. ​​Don't Rush to Simplicity​​
    • zen
    • nature
  • The journey begins by letting go

    The journey begins by letting go of control, and becoming flexible.

    John Allsopp, A Dao of Web Design
    alistapart.com
    • wisdom
    • zen
  • Only when it has ceased to be a pattern

    Here I would like to append three lines in praise of muji:

    A pattern that is not a pattern is a true pattern.
    Create patterns until they are no longer patterns.
    The true pattern is a patternless pattern.

    When creating a pattern, one’s heart must also be muji. A pattern must be followed through until it is no longer a pattern. It is a true pattern only when it has ceased to be a pattern.

    Yanagi Sōetsu, The Japanese Perspective
    • zen
    • patterns
  • Not as a star

    But I’m warning you,
    this is my last existence.
    Not as a swallow, not as a maple,
    not as a cat-tail and not as a star.

    Anna Akhmatova, The Elements of Typographic Style
    • death
    • zen
  • The utter nothingness of being

    Everything written symbols can say has already passed by. They are like tracks left by animals. That is why the masters of meditation refuse to accept that writings are final. The aim is to reach true being by means of those tracks, those letters, those signs - but reality itself is not a sign, and it leaves no tracks. It doesn’t come to us by way of letters or words. We can go toward it, by following those words and letters back to what they came from. But so long as we are preoccupied with symbols, theories and opinions, we will fail to reach the principle.

    "But when we give up symbols and opinions, aren’t we left in the utter nothingness of being?"

    Yes.

    Kimura Kyūho, On the Mysteries of Swordsmanship
    1. ​​The Elements of Typographic Style​​
    • zen
    • meaning
    • symbols
    • being
    • reality
  • It doesn't look like anything to me

    It is related that the bodhisattva Manjusri was once standing at the gate, and seeing him, Shakyamuni Buddha called to him, "Manju, Manju, why don't you come inside the gate?"

    Manjusri replied, "I don't see anything outside the gate."

    Kōun Yamada, The Gateless Gate
    1. ​​I don't see a wall​​
    • zen
  • The Void

    Objects or elements which have the greatest depth, which actively draw the senses in, have at their heart an area of deep calm and stillness – a void bounded by and contrasted with an area of intense centers around it.

    When an element becomes all detail, its own constant buzz tends to dilute its overall strength. Like a musical wall of sound, it pushes against our perception to produce a flat field-like state. Conversely, it is the pause which allows us to interlock with a piece of music and feel its depth. The presence of void, at many scales, provides a contrasting calm to alleviate the buzz and strengthen the center.

    Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order
    • zen
  • Flexible imagination

    By giving up preference for harmony,
    we accept dissonance to be as desirable as consonance.

    Besides a balance through color harmony, which is comparable
    to symmetry, there is equilibrium possible between
    color tensions, related to a more dynamic asymmetry.

    Again: knowledge and its application is not our aim;
    instead, it is flexible imagination, discovery, invention – taste.

    Josef Albers, Interaction of Color
    • zen
    • taste
  • One candle can light another

    Lighting one candle
    with another candle—
    spring evening.

    Buson is saying that we accept the light contained in the work of others without darkening their efforts. One candle can light another, and the light may spread without its source being diminished.

    Frank Chimero, The Shape of Design
    • zen
  • A thousand different roads

    They great Way has no gate;
    There are a thousand different roads.
    If you pass through this barrier once,
    you will walk independently in the universe.

    Kōun Yamada, The Gateless Gate
    • zen
  • No door at which to knock

    Penetrating the Blue Cliff, you will open
    the eye within eyes
    and realizing life through the Blue Cliff,
    you yourself will become a torch,
    the light beyond light.

    Being so, you will find no door at which to knock, nor any door to be opened.

    Yuanwu Keqin, Thomas Cleary & J.C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record
    • zen
  • In one there are many; in two, one

    The ultimate path is without difficulty;
    Speech is to the point, words are to the point.
    In one there are many kinds;
    In two there is no duality.

    Yuanwu Keqin, Thomas Cleary & J.C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record
    • zen
  • Mind of no mind

    To you, mind of no mind, in whom the timeless way was born.

    Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building
    • zen
    • i
  • Autumn breezes blow

    One day you are born
    you die the next –
    today,
    at twilight,
    autumn breezes blow.

    Yoel Hoffman, Japanese Death Poems
    • zen
  • Aggressively Zen

    "He was dealing with Zen in the most aggressive way Zen has ever been dealt with." — Irving Blum

    Lawrence Wechler & Robert Irwin, Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
    • zen
  • Don't mistake my finger for the moon

    Many people mistook the string itself for the work of art ("When I point my finger at the moon, don't mistake my finger for the moon" is a Zen aphorism that Irwin is fond of citing). By mid-1976 Irwin himself was prepared to Jettison—along with figure, line, focus, permanence, and signature—the very requirement of any overt activity of making as a necessary prerequisite for artistic viability.

    Lawrence Wechler & Robert Irwin, Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
    • zen
  • The Timeless Way of Building

    A Book by Christopher Alexander
    www.patternlanguage.com
    1. ​​Mind of no mind​​
    2. ​​The quality without a name​​
    3. ​​An objective matter​​
    4. ​​Bitterness​​
    5. ​​The most precious thing we ever have​​
    1. ​​Some emptiness in us​​
    2. ​​Deliberate acts​​
    3. ​​No kind​​
    4. ​​patternsof.design​​
    5. ​​A Pattern Language​​
    6. ​​Non-architects​​
    7. ​​The Side View #17: Susan Ingham & Chris Andrews​​
    8. ​​The usages of life​​
    • architecture
    • making
    • building
    • urbanism
    • beauty
    • construction
    • zen
  • Japanese Death Poems

    A Book by Yoel Hoffman
    www.goodreads.com
    1. ​​The haiku​​
    2. ​​Spring snow​​
    3. ​​An entrance, an exit​​
    4. ​​Poppies​​
    5. ​​Coolness will rise​​
    1. ​​Graceful Exits: How Great Beings Die​​
    2. ​​Poems of an Indian summer​​
    3. ​​He only who has lived with the beautiful​​
    • death
    • poetry
    • nature
    • melancholy
    • zen
  • In Praise of Shadows

    A Book by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki & Thomas J. Harper
    www.goodreads.com
    1. ​​Things that shine and glitter​​
    2. ​​A naked bulb​​
    3. ​​The Japanese toilet​​
    4. ​​Empty dreams​​
    5. ​​Most important of all are the pauses​​
    1. ​​125 Best Architecture Books​​
    2. ​​Daylight should not tyrannize architecture​​
    3. ​​Deep shadows and darkness are essential​​
    4. ​​Lights and lamps​​
    5. ​​The gentle light of shoji screens​​
    • zen
    • darkness
    • light
    • material
    • making
  • Silence

    A Book by John Cage
    archive.org
    1. ​​I would want to be in that darkness​​
    1. ​​The Sound Of Silence​​
    • sound
    • silence
    • music
    • art
    • zen
  • The Blue Cliff Record

    A Book by Yuanwu Keqin, Thomas Cleary & J.C. Cleary
    www.shambhala.com
    1. ​​Mountains are mountains​​
    2. ​​No door at which to knock​​
    3. ​​The miraculous bones of the ancients​​
    4. ​​What did you see when you were there?​​
    5. ​​I have pacified your mind​​
    • zen
    • euphony
  • Kokoro

    A Novel by Natsume Sōseki
    www.penguinrandomhouse.com
    1. ​​Vibrations in the air​​
    2. ​​That delicate and complex instrument​​
    3. ​​The great soundless whirl of darkness​​
    4. ​​Underfoot​​
    5. ​​Not them he despised​​
    • zen
    • absurdity
  • 155-217-155

    A Website by Nick Trombley
    155-217-155.netlify.app
    Screenshot of 155-217-155.com on 2020-08-26 at 2.29.20 PM.png
    1. ​​Haiku 2018–2019​​
    • poetry
    • love
    • zen
    • haiku
    • microsites
  • List of games that Buddha would not play

    A List
    en.wikipedia.org
    • …
    • Guessing at letters traced with the finger in the air or on a friend's back. (letters in the Brahmi script)
    • Guessing a friend's thoughts.
    • …
    • games
    • zen
    • morality

    Via Scott Alexander. See the full list here: Long Discourses.

  • Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

    A Book by Shunryū Suzuki
    en.wikipedia.org
    1. ​​Like designing things for the first time​​
    2. ​​Don't Write the Tedious Thing​​
    • zen
  • Don't Rush to Simplicity

    An Article by Shawn Wang
    www.swyx.io

    You've probably heard this story before:

    A businessman finds a fisherman, who is living an idyllic, peaceful life by the sea.
    He laughs and tells the fisherman how to get rich instead.
    The fisherman asks him what he will do after he gets rich.
    He replies that he would retire to an idyllic, peaceful life by the sea.

    There's supposed to be a deep life lesson in there, but it's always felt insincere to me.

    To me it is better to have reached the heights of a career, or suffered an epic defeat, even if I do end up in the same place as everyone else in the end.

    To me simplicity is made more beautiful when understood through a long personal struggle with complexity. When I can dance with it, having turned a mighty nemesis into an old friend, and teach others to do the same.

    Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

    1. ​​On the other side of complexity​​
    2. ​​Mountains are mountains​​
    • zen
    • simplicity
  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

    A Book by Robert M. Pirsig
    www.goodreads.com
    1. ​​One brick​​
    • zen
  • Is perfection boring?

    An Article by Ralph Ammer
    ralphammer.com
    Image from ralphammer.com on 2020-07-27 at 5.09.09 PM.jpeg

    We love to see the process, not just the result. The imperfections in your work can be beautiful if they show your struggle for perfection, not a lack of care.

    • zen
    • perfection
    • mistakes
    • wabi-sabi
    • imperfections

See also:
  1. melancholy
  2. nature
  3. death
  4. wabi-sabi
  5. darkness
  6. making
  7. poetry
  8. art
  9. euphony
  10. gardens
  11. wisdom
  12. meaning
  13. symbols
  14. being
  15. reality
  16. taste
  17. ending
  18. i
  19. perfection
  20. mistakes
  21. imperfections
  22. light
  23. material
  24. absurdity
  25. sound
  26. silence
  27. music
  28. architecture
  29. building
  30. urbanism
  31. beauty
  32. construction
  33. love
  34. haiku
  35. microsites
  36. craft
  37. work
  38. walking
  39. www
  40. notetaking
  41. words
  42. patterns
  43. simplicity
  44. food
  45. ritual
  46. tea
  47. attention
  48. understanding
  49. games
  50. morality
  1. Christopher Alexander
  2. Yuanwu Keqin
  3. Thomas Cleary
  4. J.C. Cleary
  5. Robert Irwin
  6. Kōun Yamada
  7. Yoel Hoffman
  8. Lawrence Wechler
  9. Nick Trombley
  10. Okakura Kakuzō
  11. Frank Chimero
  12. Anna Akhmatova
  13. Kimura Kyūho
  14. Josef Albers
  15. Ralph Ammer
  16. Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
  17. Thomas J. Harper
  18. Natsume Sōseki
  19. John Cage
  20. Murray Silverstein
  21. Sara Ishikawa
  22. Robert M. Pirsig
  23. Yanagi Sōetsu
  24. John Allsopp
  25. Shawn Wang
  26. Shunryū Suzuki
  27. Jeong Kwan
  28. Dorothy Sayers
  29. Philip Guston
  30. Eric Orr