Lightbody and the Internal Arts of China and Japan

 

Lightbody and the Internal Arts 

of China and Japan

(email exchange with an indoor student)

Simha: Been making some wonderful personal discoveries lately with regard to Amrita Asana and its relationship to inner martial arts/inner hatha yoga.

A few weeks ago when traveling to Finland I practiced standing meditation at the airport. As I stood past the first minutes, I started naturally applying the principles of Amrita Asana to the standing posture. More specifically, I understood the importance of "expanding" in all directions (up/down, front/back, left/right). At first, I was thinking of it as kinda pushing to fill the whole frame but soon realized I might as well just allow myself to be pulled.

Whichever perspective you take, what I am describing is sort of intentional settling into the whole "frame" of the posture. This very quickly unifies the whole body in the standing posture and thus activates the meridian field.

This week I made the same discovery with regard to various aspects of pranayama. I've always loved breathing techniques, and have regularly practiced Bellows Breath (bhastrika) and Shining Skull (kapalbhati), combined with breath retention and yogic locks (bhandas).

First I connected the actual inhalation and exhalation with the "expanding" in all directions. This wasn't entirely new, of course, as it's how Vajra Breath is taught in RBY, but I felt a deepening in the sense of the whole body breathing 360 degrees regardless of intensity. This feels effortless (and very empowering!) when all muscles are working in unison.

Then, with regards to yogic locks, more specifically root lock (mula bhanda), abdominal lock (uddijayana bhanda), and chin lock (jalandhara bandha), I realized that I have been doing these three locks separately from one another. This has caused unnecessary effort required in holding the locks. When applying the principles of Amrita Asana, on the other hand, the body (and thus the locks) become united, revealing the great lock (mahabhanda), which again instantly forces open the meridian system. It's a subtle point but makes all the difference.

The above discoveries have also led me to experiment deeper with the basic posture in sitting meditation. It seems obvious when I say it, but of course, the very same principles apply to just sitting as well. By intentionally filling the frame of the seated posture, the meridian body is forced open and sitting becomes effortless.

I know Baba has been talking about these things for a long time, and I've had glimpses of it myself too. Nevertheless, the practice of Amrita Asana has propelled the maturation of this understanding like nothing else. It feels like it has naturally opened up a whole nother dimension to the practices I've been doing for years. Very much looking forward to exploring this further. Thank you!

Baba: I remember when I first taught you standing practice (c. zhan zhuang) in Tammisaari in 2016-2017. We've come back to it every now and then at retreats and when hanging out. I've also lead qigong and zhan zhuang sessions at retreats for years and years but I saw a problem there: that it was too hard (unpleasant) and too difficult to people to understand what the practice was about. I've done that work when I began internal martial arts 25 years ago and it took me years to even get the basics right, even with lineage teachers, and it was just uncomfortable to grind all those hours. So seeing this problem with my students I wanted and needed to find a way to make the training much more enjoyable than the grind or die-traditional training style so that you'd even get interested in internal arts and their principles as they are taught in East-Asia, namely China and Japan.

After having learned a wide variety of internal practices it took me a number of years to come up with a sensible structure that my students could learn and start practicing. So I took some bits that I had learned from internal martial arts, such as Yi Jin Jing, Second Course Yiquan of Han Jingyu and hard Shaolin qi gong, Indian yoga postures, basic elements of yoga tantra (prayer and mantra) and subtle centers that have long been forgotten by the yogic culture and put them all together as the first level of Amrita Asana Yoga (abr. AAY). I've gotten so many positive comments about the practice, people really love it but the thing is that if I had taught under the name of "internal martial training", people would have had no interest, I am certain. So I tricked all of you, ha, but as you know the results are great. There is no yoga or qigong style that puts all these elements together but I suspect there might have been in ancient China in the days of the ancient immortals.

What you describe about realizing how to activate the frame (after just 6 months of regular Amrita Asana practice) took me years of traditional internal martial arts practice to understand. I got glimpses of it and of many other things but I didn't really understand it but after a number of years. Through your AAY practice you have now developed a connected physical frame that you can apply your intent (c. yi/意) on, to affect changes and transformation in the meridian field. Adding yi to AAY is taught on level 2 but you already got it.

I have made quite a few posts about yi recently because it is one of the key practices to transform the meridian field which condition as you know is the ground of immortality/lightbody/rainbow body. Yi is physicalized concentration. Being able to focus one's mind mentally is one thing but to focus (yi) with one's whole body mass, the whole skeletal structure, muscles and tissues harnessed behind it, like a pack of horses in reigns, is entirely different thing. The principle of yi is entirely unknown in Indian and Tibetan yogas and their traditions but developed into a key principle in China and Japan, and their many arts and traditions.

From the perspective of hatha yoga, without yi you're just doing a physical workout with moments of mental focus here and there through dristhis, bandhas and so on but what is typical is that even highly regarded professional of hatha yoga never develop a frame as it is understood in China and Japan. If you don't have a connected internal frame, even if you could put yourself into very complex and advanced postures, the effect on the meridians that makes a great part of our psyche will be very limited. With a built frame, yoga asanas will immediately take a different gear because the frame allows one to not only work on the physical field but also the meridian field which is really really important from the common perspectives of health and wellbeing, but also from the point of view of trauma healing and preparation of the lightbody. In Amrita Asana Yoga you start with postures but through the tensing of all muscles at once in each posture, you actually start building that frame effectively from the start and work out the whole meridian field. It makes the body very strong very fast because you're doing a gym workout (without weights) through the tensing and flushing the whole system with prana/chi that is spiritually charged because of the preparation in the beginning of practice and during through mantras or whatever techniques from RBY you might be using. The difference between level 1 and 2 of AAY is that it just becomes subtler and with yi-without yi is given more emphasis.

That phrase "with yi - without yi" is something that I could say a few words. It is written all over the Taoist classics, this thing about "marvellous alive non-doing" or wu wei and it has been extensively written by zen artists of Japan during the past over 1000 years. My master Terayama Roshi dedicated his life to studying and writing about it, as did the masters before him in the lineages. But just like on the side of dharma or spirituality this principle is vastly misinterpreted in various ways. Not having to do anything about it for one to realize or to successfully wu wei just like the immortals or that if you just sat immovably like the Buddha that'd be the same as being a buddha are two of them.

One great gift that mahamudra and dzogchen texts by Tibetan masters such as Gampopa and Longchenpa have to give us is the clear definition about the most fundamental spiritual part of us. It does not matter whether we discuss of the Tao, Christ, God, buddhanature or whatever, it makes sense that regardless of beliefs and opinions we are all built the same way and have the same basic nature of mind. Understanding this was made into science by the master yogis and while I can see many others from other traditions speak about it sometimes identically or similarly, I think it is because of the unreligious pragmatic nature of buddhadharma that makes it more understandable and therefore better accessible than any other system I know about. Poetic, mystical and glorificational sources definitely give as much benefits as they do harm because of the option of (mistaken) interpretation. My point is that without knowing the ground of all beings or the mind common to all beings, it is impossible to understand without yi (c. 無 意) but you know all this already.

So, next in your practice, now that you have grasped all three: the frame, yi and without yi; next step is to play with them. Form doesn't matter. I stand, do yoga, sit, dance, walk, do crossfit and lift weights applying "physicalized intention together with basic awareness" and "basic awareness together with movement but without intention". This strikes the main teaching of Garab Dorje.

Rainbow-light blessings,

-Baba, 30 March 23

Kindness and Softness: The Highest Level of All Arts

 

Kindness and Softness: The Highest Level of All Arts

The way I see it, all arts have three levels of learning. These are: 1. technical learning, 2. technical mastery together with basic training of the mind, and 3. mastery of both the art and the mind.

In the history of East-Asian arts and (zen) artists there are instances of stage 3 that transcends both technique and the self-based mind, and there are lineages that have particularly focused on getting to stage 3 and developed views and ways to get there. This is the realm of zen art or true spiritual art that developed into its own thing in Japan.

It has been made clear by many great masters of martial and fine arts, such as Miyamoto Musashi (17^th century) and Yamaoka Tesshu (19^th century) that after the initial stages of learning all arts boil down to the mind of the practitioner and that mastery of the art cannot be attained through technique alone. You could say that the art of the mind is the foundational art of all arts which is true because when an artist stops practicing or performing one's art, be it taichi, tea ceremony, running or basketball, one is left with one's body and mind. The art of zen, the art of being is definitely the heart and soul of all arts, even if most artists and athletes are unaware of it.

 

Wang Xizhi

But most artists, including practitioners of traditional arts in East-Asian countries do not know this and have the view that mastery has to do with perfecting particular techniques and forms of one's art. That the whole dimension of mind and its effect on one's artistic performance is so poorly known is quite weird for the fact that we all have minds that affect everything in our lives, including the arts. Interestingly, the past two decades secular mindfulness practices have become popular in the field of professional athletic training but with its practices of attentiveness and relaxation, secular mindfulness is still far from what awakening/s (zen) makes possible and lacks the character development that comes with recognition of oneself as a perfectly wakeful being, or buddha.

The lineage I belong to through Terayama Roshi, originated from the calligrapher saint Wang Xizhi who lived in 4^th century China but roshi was a representative of other arts and lineages too, namely rinzai zen-lineage and jikishinkage ryu kenjutsu-lineage of Omori Sogen Roshi. Throughout his life he studied many disciplines of Japan, China and Tibet, and many teachers of various arts came to study with him. Terayama Roshi was a very highly regarded specialist of zen arts in all of Japan. I remember studying calligraphy with Imao Toshio Shihan (8. dan) in a small village in Nagano prefecture who was astounded to learn that I was a student of Terayama Roshi, just to give you an example how famous he was.

Terayama Roshi, despite of him being a high level master and a teacher of masters of their own arts, was a very kind, humble and simple man. I knew him for the last 3 years of his life (when he was 66-69 years old) so I didn't know him when he was younger but I've been told by other students of Omori Roshi that despite of him being somewhat serious and fiery like martial artists usually are when they're less than 40 years of age, he was also very kind and considerate towards others. I have never heard a word of him being rude. He started practicing zen – zen buddhist meditation - when he was a teenager and did so for many decades. Practicing being present tends to mold a person's character but it also refines one's ethics and manners.

I remember once training at Budokan in Tokyo where he demonstrated a particular section of a kenjutsu kata, sword form, to me. I have seen dozens of other aged high ranking martial artists do similar demonstrations to really feel their self-importance in the air. I've seen people's, some of who are very well known teachers, egos getting triggered in similar situations. I never felt that from him which I am sure is because of his training in the art of awakening. He was soft and kind, and also a very realistic person.

Getting triggered is based on insecurity, uncertainty and fear that most often comes from trauma but this whole field, the way how one's mind affects one's level and mastery in the arts, is almost never discussed or if it is, it is superficial and incomplete.

To become a master in any art, one needs to master one's mind or at least have significant degree of clarity in terms of nonduality. One may be physically or artistically talented to be able to run faster, jump higher, punch harder or paint better than others but if the small self is in the mix, from the perspective of zen arts, this is still low quality art.

-Amrita Baba, 11 Jan 23

Future of Dharma Arts in the West

 

Future of Dharma Arts in the West

Some time ago I was talking with my friend Gyempo who has custom painted some works for me. He lives in Bhutan. I had been messaging with Gyempo's brother Tashi who is a master woodworker who makes thrones and other decorative ornaments such as those in tb temples and monasteries. I couldn't reach Tashi so I asked Gyempo if his brother might be able to make me a big Mahakala mask. He seemed to chuckle to my question and replied that his brother is a woodworker, not a mask maker. How foolish of me to ask a woodworker to make a mask!

Asian dharma culture is abound with art. There is dance, music, woodwork, metal work, sculpting, painting, calligraphy, writing, poetry and probably other forms too. Dharma in the West is a completely new thing but it is somewhat established, and yet there is basically no training whatsoever available in any or most of these artforms. This is very much reflected with how places in the West look. They have way less expression. In fact, I could say that they look dull. Hmm, I wonder if this contributes to the fact that western buddhist groups feel kind of lifeless.

"Visiting Western buddhist centers felt like

I was back sitting in church. They were so puritanistic."

-Lama Vajranatha John Reynolds

I just wanted to bring this up just to bring your attention to this matter. I've spent my adult life, since 2003, studying buddhist calligraphy and painting (see links below) and I'm a keen collector of high quality dharma art that I buy from Asia.

-Kim, 19.12.2021

• https://www.facebook.com/groups/257852984267435

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd7IXus0RZo&list=PLqTm9fV9DGhtAIMEzWHA8a6ibMExrfeGI

Buddhanature in Inner Martial Arts

 

Buddhanature in Inner Martial Arts

Oskar: What are these qi gong exercises for? Any spesific yogic purpose I mean? (Comment to this video).

Kim: Hi Oskar⁠. I come from a tradition that combines dharma practice with martial and fine arts. But I realise it is very difficult for me to answer what would be the purpose of it. Well, there are common reasons, like learning to unify the body and to move with a unified body. This alone is a tremendously rewarding learning process and we can all understand what is the benefit of learning how to use and carry our bodies well aligned. You don't learn this from only doing sitting practices, nor you learn it from Western sports. From the purely physical perspective, Alexander technique is somewhat close to what is done in (specifically) Chinese "inner martial arts" but what is done inwardly in Chinese arts, that knowledge is entirely absent in modern sports and forms of exercise whatever they may be. The result of this can be seen how (fit) people carry their bodies, how people jog and so on. There is no inner structure, no inner composition or understanding how the body could be used in optimal fashion.
​
⁠Regarding the internal aspects of what I am doing on the video, I wriote this few days ago: http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2021/07/doing-nothing-just-stand.html
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⁠What you are seeing on the video is atiyoga from one perspective of mind, while simultaneously using dynamic concentration (active mental pushing while doing the pushing movement). Here from the point of view of mind, the basic state and the action of dynamic concentration (in the form of physical and mental pushing) are of same taste, and not two separate things.
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⁠Typically active mental pushing, called yi in Chinese, pronounced ee in English (the yi in yiquan, lit. intent), in inner martial arts is practiced just like mindfulness is cultivated by mindfulness practitioners. Mindfulness is always momentary and then you get distracted. Thosewith excellent concentration abilities can remain mindful for as long as they want but this doesn't mean that the basic state would be there as a sort of bedrock. So, to me, merely cultivating active mental pushing (yi) in yiquan momentarily, just like the practice of mindfulness, is incomplete. This is the reason why I spent years in dharma practice stabilising the basic state. Now when it is stabilised, I feel ready and very motivated to give my inner state an external expression, here through this movement. And as you can see there are no “gaps”.
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⁠To me, all forms of practice have always been about reality and it's expression and this is also of course how Terayama Sensei taught. But even long before that,when I started judo at 7, I wasn't interested about belt colours or competing. It's been a life long haul and now finally, with unshakable confidence, I can focus on inner martial arts and bodywork.
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⁠I don't know what I can accomplish through this but because I took a vow of trying to bring zen arts to Westerners and people of the world, that is what I will do. 

 

- Kim, 4.7.2021 

Westernizing the Arts of Zen

 

Westernizing the Arts of Zen

Hello all!

I think there are many new members here who don't know the history of this page. I started it 10 years ago and have been somewhat active through the whole time posting interesting links and sources on the wall (scroll down to access).

I studied zen calligraphy and zen art with Terayama Tanchu Sensei, buddhist heir and student of Omori Sogen Roshi and Yokoyama Tenkei Sensei, until Sensei passed away in 2007. He was probably the most respected and widely known authority of zen art and zen calligraphy in Japan.

Myself being a Westerner, I have spent many years processing the meaning of zen art in the West because basically all the Western people/practitioners I've ever met cannot relate to the outer form of Japanese and Asian zen art because they are not used to black ink, white paper and other such purely Asian features. For this reason I've spent any years contemplating the meaning and expression of zen art in the West in a form that Westerners could relate to. I have shared my thoughts about this throughout the years, as well as developed my own style of painting in the process. 

 

No East, No West - Mu To Zai, by Terayama Tanchu Sensei

I think there is a treasure chest within everyone of us, modern citizens and artists of the world, that is waiting to be discovered (zen, awakening, enlightenment) that can then be expressed through different artforms. We have art tradition of our own in the West or wherever you might live, but what is missing is the pure and bright mind, soft heart and unified body that was cultivated together with the art form in ancient Asia. Here, there is lot to learn for Westerners.

Because of my training this topic is very dear to my heart so I hope to contribute to bringing Western or non-Asian art forms and teachings of recognised reality together.

OK, I just wanted to say few words of introduction and welcome our new members. Feel free to ask and discuss about these topics here.

Here is a video of my teacher Terayama Sensei doing a form of physical-awareness exercises. I haven't seen anyone move like that, not before or since :) https://youtu.be/lZ6FHg9IIJo

-Kim, 30.5.2021

Zen Art and Zen Calligraphy at FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/257852984267435/

Visceral Study of Spiritual Martial Arts

 

Visceral Study of Spiritual Martial Arts

I'd like to share something about hitsuzendo - the way of the zen brush - body movement and Yamaoka Tesshu Sensei's calligraphy. If you take this as a practice, it might change the course of your bodily (martial or healing) practice. My zen calligraphy and zen master Terayama Tanchu Sensei's main practice close to the end of his life was kusho (空書, lit. empty writing) - writing in the air with one's hands and body. He would hang up a calligraphy or painting on his wall, study the movement of the brush and then trace it in the air with his hands and body movement. The idea is not to study Chinese language but to study the bodily movement of the past masters to better understand how they moved which in turn reveals something really interesting of their state of mind, or realisation. The basic idea of kusho is very simple. You could for example write your own name or some piece of text in plain block letters or cursive handwriting to try it out. The idea is to use one's whole body while applying different kinds of intensity of intent (c. yi/j. i, 意) into the writing. What I mean by different kinds of intensity is that we could use our hand to write very lightly in the air, like writing with a finger on the surface of water (without making the water splash) or we could imagine tracing our finger one inch inside mud. With mud we would have to use more intention or concentration to get the thing written. Our writing could also be a combination of both light and heavy, combined with slow and fast. From here to enter the realm of "zen" we would have to be able to recognise the most basic state of mind or basic awareness, commonly called buddhanature (佛性) in mahayana buddhist schools.

In the case of a professional zenman this buddhanature should be present at all times and one's writing, whether in the air or on paper, becomes a play of intent, where intent isn't based on mindfulness (念) but on effortless basic awareness. Because of this fundamental difference in the degree of realisation (見性), the meaning and result of intent is not the same but becomes non-intent (無意) because mindfulness does not appear and disappear. This very point separates "zen calligraphy" or zen art from ordinary art. Anyway, the point of kusho is to write in the air or to trace the movements of masters' works with one's body. I am sharing here one of Yamaoka Tesshu Sensei's calligraphies. The large characters on the left read Namu Amida Butsu, which venerates Amitabha Buddha. The small characters on the right are a part from some sutra or poem. I don't know what it says but it's not important either for our purposes.

Tesshu is one of the most respected spiritual martial artists of all times in Japan. He died in 1888 so he is quite recent and this is why there are many of his works available. Tesshu was a martial artist of the highest kind who held several lineages of kenjutsu and kendo and started his own Muto/No-Sword school. To understand Tesshu's uniqueness, we need to know the order of the strokes in calligraphis characters. Generally, calligraphes are written in vertical lines from right to left. The strokes in characters are written from up to down, left to right, from outside to inside. The piece below is wrotten in cursive or "grass" script and doesn't look except distantly to what people associate with kanji, Chinese characters. Anyway, with these few instructions you can understand that you begin from the top right corner and how each character is formed. It would really be important to get the order right to get the point that I'm trying to make. When you do know the right order, then trace through the whole piece. Do it several times. Get the angles right. That is very important... because it shows exactly how Tesshu, the legendary spiritual martial artist, moved...

Now, I have analysed thousands of calligraphies but among all of them Tesshu is unique. No one out there moved like he did. People move like block letters but not Tesshu... It must have puzzled the heck out of his students and opponents who came to challenge him! If you study how he moved, you will see that because of his exceptional free flowing shapes, you can't predict his movements and that is the treasure to be found from Tesshu's works. Copying him opens up a whole different realm of bodymind movement that I have not seen elsewhere in my 35 years of study of the field.

-Kim Orgyen Pema Rinpoche Katami 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158901778078136&set=g.257852984267435&type=1&theater&ifg=1

About Zen Art and Ordinary Art

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.

Open Heart, www.openheart.fi

See also my Soul of Sound-Facebook project about music and guitar.