About
Zen Art and Ordinary Art
Some
casual thoughts about art.
Zen
Art
I
was a student of a Japanese zen master, Terayama Tanchu Roshi, who
was one of the greatest zen artists and zen art teachers of Japan.
His art was calligraphy but he could comment all other arts and their
spiritual or mundane features because he knew how to analyse the "zen
quality" in them. This was possible because he knew the mind
where art emanates from through his own zen meditation practice.
In
short, the zen quality in art means whether the utter clarity and
aliveness of mind is transmitted into and through the art piece to
the observer. Pieces of zen art, created by people who have pure
minds are impressive and have impact in a deepest meaning of the word
because it reaches and touches the core of the viewer or listener,
instead of merely causing the viewer to think or feel on the level of
thoughts and emotions as ordinary art does. Zen art clarifies,
purifies and inspires the viewer's mind while ordinary art clouds it
with thought and abstract mental ideas.
In
zen calligraphy, the form of the art piece can be a simple dot, a
line or a circle or it can be an abstract painting or a poem brushed
in alphabet or Chinese letters. In music this can mean playing a
single or very few notes or creating elaborate tonal textures of
complex harmonies. The form does not matter even nearly as much as
the zen quality of it. If the vibrancy and aliveness of buddhanature
does not come through the art, it is not zen art.
”Zen
and the arts have not only a closely-tied but an
inseparable
relationship, like Siamese twins. The inseparability
arises
because zen negates the self and in the absolute being called buddha,
then affirms its being. The self once negated is not only the simple
limited self but is also the manifestation of buddha, symbol of that
which we revere
as
universal life. When something which cannot be seen or touched is
symbolized in this way, it is worthy of recognition as a magnificent
work
of art. When this occurs, zen takes the form of artistic expression.
But
notice, all work from a zen priest is not necessarily zen art. The
art must embody the selfless absolute and in the true religious sense
zen art must embody the mind that is awake.”
-
Omori Sogen Roshi, Japanese zen master
Ordinary
Art
In
my teens I was a keen musician and studied guitar with several great
musicians, played a few hundred gigs and went through the whole
formal music education channel. I also became a music producer until
I quit music entirely for nearly 20 years. I never stopped listening
music, though.
At
the time I didn't know what it actually meant but I always sought
”truth” through music. I thought that through learning the
instrument, its playing techniques, musical theory and many things
about melody, harmony and so on. would help me to get there, to
truth, whatever it was. I spent many thousands of hours learning
these things but ironically it was only when I somehow got out from
everything I had learned when great music came out and and touched
the hearts of the listeners. I spent a few dozen hours a week
learning all these things about fingerings, chords, effects and copy
the musical phrases of great musicians but when ”that something”,
a glimpse, happened live, it was like jumping out from the box of
musical learning to an unknown and utterly fresh territory where pure
expression gushed out from. At the time as a teenager I intuited that
it had to do with what was talked about by spiritual masters in their
books but no one I knew had ways to systematically cultivate this.
In
retrospect, after countless hours of meditation and study of buddhist
psychology and zen art, I know that these moments of pure expression
happened because my sense of me-ness subsided for the true me, the
selfless creative space, to take over. This is nothing new to anyone
who has delved deeply into doing their favourite hobby or art. My own
mother, a professional of handcrafts, could instantly recognise from
my narration what she has often experienced.
This
is what all the greatest artists and athletes speak about. Champions
like Ayrton Senna (Formula 1) or Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest
basketball players ever, always say that they played and achieved
their best when they went beyond their mind that thinks in usual
terms of their art such as: winning, competing, game tactics or
particular techniques like running, jumping, throwing, hitting the
gas or changing the gear. Similarly musical giants like John Coltrane
(jazz saxophone) and Steve Vai, (electric guitar, of whom I have
written a book about), who are keenly into sitting meditation and
prayer, testify that when their usual sense of self subsides, the
true art emanates forth by itself. This is why the greats are known
as ”greats”.
Ordinary
Education
It
is curious that one cannot become a zen calligrapher by applying
brush, and black ink on white paper alone. In the same way a musician
cannot learn to know and express the deepest and the most profound
part of him- or herself by playing his instrument alone. One cannot
learn to know ones mind, its deluded and pure areas, in any other way
than through meditation. And it is here where the biggest problem and
hindrance of musical education lies at because no system of musical
education teaches us how to study our minds.
The
consequence is that educated musicians become good at technique and
they come to know everything there is to know about the common
aspects of music, but they don't learn to know themselves as
existential beings beyond their self-deluded mind. In terms of
musical education the self-delusion becomes created through becoming
biased to the works of idols, to the theory of music and by
identifying with a particular genre or style of music. The students
become biased to the view that this is all they need to learn, that
these are the ingredients that will enable them to become as great as
their idols. But this is a misleading idea because the whole thing
lacks a larger context, that of mind and awareness which is the basis
of everything.
”Whenever
we go into that creative element of our brain,
we
always gravitate to the thing that interests us the most.
Some
people are very passionate about politics, about love affairs,
about
fast cars, most of the time we are thinking about sex... Right?
But
for some reason, ever since I was very young, I've been a seeker,
after
truth or reality. And through the years, I've studied,
even
more than guitar, more than anything, I've studied
various
religions, spiritual thoughts and truths.
You
know, that's a personal journey, we all can have.
And
when I go to write my music, many times I immediately just
gravitate
to that core. Then my brain has all the technical information
and
ability so it mixes it all up. That's how I get the music that I
write.”
-
Steve Vai from ”Zen of Steve Vai”
We
play and create music firstly with our hearts and minds, and secondly
with our bodies, voices, fingers, feet and instruments. Sounds that
we create are expressions of our minds. A skilled zen artist can
instantly recognise whether the notes, musical vibrations, carry the
messy energy of conceptually biased mind or whether they transmit
freshness and wonder of the natural mind. The nature of mind infuses
the art with way more power and appeal than a deluded mind ever
could.
Education
of Zen Art
Music
is about listening or hearing. Hearing means being in a receptive
mode, rather than in a transmitting mode, projecting outwards. After
one has learned the essentials about one's own instrument and music
in general, it is important for one to become a listener, or
otherwise one ends up blabbering all the things you've heard from
others which is interesting only to those who are stuck in the same
limbo. Learning to listen can and does take years of practice but if
you ever stepped out from your limited mind zone and tasted pure
expresion, you already know it is more than worth it.
We
need to learn to listen in order for us to hear our own voice. This
point has been stressed by all spiritual classics. Hearing our own
voice means going beyond our sense of me-ness with all the
conceptions we have acquired. When we do that, expression begins to
flow by itself. We start to play, or dance or sculpt in a way we
always dreamed of.
”People
ask me,
'How
do you write music and how do you get inspiration?'.
Sometimes
inspiration just comes and you never know how it's gonna come. The
best music comes when you listen to your inner ear
and
you hear the melodies there.”
-
Steve Vai
This
happens because the nature of awareness is to create and express its
own nature in every way it can. For this reason we can detect the
same feel, or zen quality in the work of a master race car driver, a
master rock'n'roll guitarist or in the work by a master craftsman.
The same vibe can be observed from an aware person walking, fixing a
car, having a cup of tea, or when having an argument.
Thank
you for reading.
-
Kim Katami. 10/2017
Teacher
of zen art, buddhist tantra and dzogchen. Amateur guitar player.
