Peter wrote:
Dear Kitsune Miko:
Thank you very much for your quick response on a very difficult subject.
Please accept my highest compliments as you are the first person in my
memory who was able to address this subject knowledgeably on this forum, and
I have been a member nearly since the IBC's original inception.
I thought it was an excellent post, and a wonderful description of the interaction
between the object (stone/tree) and subject (us).
However, we may disagree on the application of an open, beginner's mind. I
will argue that the Zen quality, if any. resides in the
artist/creator/discoverer and perhaps even in the viewer, but not in the
object itself. The object, be a tree, stone, painting, tea cup, etc., just
serve as a bridge, a connection between two like minded persons.
snip
If I have a "beginner's mind" and discover a stone that elicit an emotional
and artistic impulse in me where does the Zen quality resides? And if you
look at the same stone and you are unmoved by it what happened to that Zen
quality?
snip
Thank you and Gassho!
Peter Aradi
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Peter:
Although I don't necessarily see the need to use the term "zen", especially because
it is SO overused in the media to label an indescribable quality, especially in the
elation supposedly experienced while driving expensive cars, could we say that the
"zen" quality be in the interaction between the subject (person) and stone or tree,
and thus not residing in either one? This might fit in with Lynn's idea of art as
a social function--something is not art simply because it has certain qualities,
but becomes art when it interacts with a viewer. Did I get that right?
This particular topic interests me greatly, and I'm glad to see the discussion
continuing out of the quote I posted on the list a few days ago. As a Christian, I
could say that somehow the divine is involved in that interaction between subject
and object--such as the image of the creation singing it's Creator's praise.
I have experienced this connection many times inworking on a tree, or making a
daiza for a stone. I have stones that I collected three or more years ago, and
they are very good stones, but they haven't spoken to me yet and so I haven't
worked on a daiza. Then, one day I look over the stones sitting outside on their
benches, and one visually leaps out at me. That is the stone I have to work on
that day. Same is true with a tree.
Thanks very much for continuing this conversation. This is the time to talk about
such things, while our trees (at least in some parts of the world) are sleeping and
the stones are awake!
Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37
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