Recently there has been a renewed interest in previous posts related to Zen & art. Here is a round-up of past art related posts from the Lost Coin Zen blog.
Wayfarer – Music composed by Daniel Doen Silberberg: Wayfarer
The Lore Of The Dragon – Poem & calligraphy by Daido Roshi
A Box And Its Lid – Photography by Caryn Silberberg
A Box And Its Lid – Part 2 – Photography by Caryn Silberberg
The Great Way – Poem by Daniel Doen Silberberg
photo credit: h.koppdelaney
I was reading Tim Ferriss’ blog yesterday. I always enjoy it. It is often about Tim and all of us doing what we want. The blog entry brought back a memory. I was in my twenties and a student in a Gurdjieff group. I had been given an exercise and asked to do it daily. It was a kind of meditation and required about twenty minutes. That summer I was traveling across country with friends and had to find a way to do it. Part of the excerise was an agreement to make it completely private, that is not to reveal the activity to anyone. Another aspect of it was the discipline of doing it at the same time every day.
We were driving past the small town of Mule Creek Junction, Wyoming. When we passed a small wooden outhouse, I asked to stop there saying I needed to use the bathroom in order to privately do my excercise.
The smell wasn’t inspiring but the view and my sense of resolve was.
I hear people say they sometimes have trouble sitting everyday. I think that is a step toward, a way of saying, that we can’t do what we wish with our lives. But we can. It is our life and barring major disasters we can do what we want. Even during disasters we have choice.
Let’s not give our lives over to a feeling of powerlessness. I think we can do what we want. It may take some effort, but that’s the price. As our esteemed president said “Yes we can.” And he did. I vaguely remember a line from a Staple Singer’s song that went “You know you can can”
Dogen Zenji referred to sitting as the “backward step”. Let’s take the backward step and the forward one as well. The forward step is claiming the freedom to do what we want with our lives. These two steps could be a great new dance. We can call it “The Freedom Boogie.”
photo credit: Hamed Saber
It seems the whole of wonderland is in constant bloom
It blooms rain, wind, flowers, children
Blooms thoughts, breath, fear, fire
The absent painter
brushless
Paints wildflowers of death and life
photo credit: simonsun08
California
Poppy
Late for something?
Master Joshu said the Great Way was the road to the capital
Alan Watts said the Way that can be “Wayed” is not the Way
Lao Tzu said the Great Way could not be named
What wonderful teaching we have received
What wonderful teaching we receive this very moment
Still we struggle to travel the way
We struggle with work, relationships, fear, sadness, death,
Sarah Palin, The Dallas Cowboys, taxes
Don’t worry
The Great Way doesn’t go anywhere
Many of the devices we purchase these days have an option to “Return to Factory Settings.” This reset option returns the software to the state in which it was originally shipped. Using this as an analogy, what would it be like if we were able to do this to ourselves?
We might start by looking at what we were originally “programmed” to do or be. In what ways were we “programmed” to function? What does our code have us believe about the world and others? How does it enforce our emotional responses, our life choices in our daily experience of work and relationships? How does this programming influence us in relation to larger issues like philosophy, politics, religion.
Our “factory settings” are created by the beliefs of our culture, parents and education, to name the most obvious. These settings often create moral imperatives, protective psychological devices and a host of illusions that we might be far better off without.
What if we could “reset” so that we were in line with provable realities like:
These are just a few examples of observations that are verifiable and might form the basis for a real practice and science of human existence.
Being in line with verifiable reality could lead us to the truth and freedom. The price of entry is the systematic discarding of everything that we cannot witness or prove.
It will take time, learning and practice to erase our existent code: to reset.
Are we now far enough from medieval values, fear and inertia to do that?
Wouldn’t it be an amazing exploration?
photo credit: tillwe
Doen Sensei discusses practice and development through serious play.
This is one of a series of posts intended to clarify the groups being formed in Lost Coin. The intention is that they be “ways”- a way to make your daily life a path and a practice of realization and excellence. This is what Lost Coin is about.
The roots of this kind of practice go back to the 12th century in Kamakura Japan. At that time it became the military capital of Japan and the Zen arts and “ways” were born and flourished.
To classify these “ways” and interpret them for our times here, we can say that the martial “ways” of strategy today would be the path of the entrepreneur: a self-reliant path to financial and personal freedom.
A second “way” is the path of what was the priest, and is now “the helper”: this would be the path of relationship or harmony, including personal relationships, parenting and the helping professions.
A third “way” is the “way” of art or spiritual insight through beauty. This can be practiced as traditional Zen arts (tea ceremony, painting, flower arranging) or our modern forms of painting, writing, music.
In this manner, our endeavors in life most of which would fall into these three areas become our “way.” Putting our vital energy (ki) and commitment into these areas we transform them into practices of realization and excellence.
Utilizing our contemporary activities is what makes Lost Coin an alive and modern Zen.
Throughout the history of Zen and Taoism, masters and practitioners have spoken of “The Way” or “The Tao.” This refers to the great way, the way of reality. The Chinese say “the way of heaven and earth.” This great way is synonymous with awakening, enlightenment, our true nature, the lost coin.
At the same time, the great way is no different than “the way” of everyday life.
Harmonizing the great way and the way of everyday life, making them one is our practice. It is retrieving our true life.
Excellence in our daily life, relationship, business, science, art, parenting is the pursuit of the way. It is the way of the practitioner who is not defeated by adversity, but instead looks at challenges as an opportunity to create and perfect.
Lost Coin continues this tradition.
What a wonderful way to live our lives – fully and with great respect (energy) for everything we do, others and ourselves. To throw ourselves completely into our life, to study and utilize the knowledge of the “ways,” to close the gap and become one with our life – this is the “Way.”
photo credit: James Jordan
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