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Old 13-01-2004, 05:05 PM
Kitsune Miko
 
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Default [IBC] Non-traditional forms {WAS: [IBC] good quote (non-bonsai, but related)}

--- Craig Cowing wrote:
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,


Snip

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?

Some times language proves inadequate or should we say
the writer proves inadequate to the task of expressing
a concept so primal that it defies description. I say
primal because of the suspension of higher intellect
when in this zen zone (for lack of a better term) To
me it is as if struck dumb in the moment awed by an
act or an object beyond believing.

I think Craig describes this concept well in his
posessing a collected stone, but seeing it as if for
the first time at a later date.

I have no formal practice in the area we call Zen, but
I do have a practice. That is working on my trees or
appreciating a moment, being able to suspend anything
else when so struck.

The last strong Zen moment I had (outside of working
on trees) was walking down a street with pistachio
trees covered with yellow leaves. It was a mild sunny
day and the leaves, in falling, spun to the ground
like snowflakes (see I could say yellow snow, but that
would distract) softly falling.

Objects have a zen quality in the moment as
interpreted by the viewer. To me it is an
interaction. Not a thing or a place.

Kitsune Miko

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