[Buddha-l] art

[Gary Gach]

there is looking, which is grasping, and seeing, which is pure awareness ...
perhaps that distinction can serve as a touchstone here

but am only mumbling here as i'm in the final day of bailing out a 1500-word
commission from an editor that just refuses to simply write itself ... ...

... arvo part and taverner are apt here ... and so is cage ... (whose work
in visual arts such as lithography ... deserves due consideration) ... an
amplitude of devotional art being diminished in the west for oh some five
centuries or so ... re-emergent in our times ... (where ya been?) ...
co-incident with study of sanskrit- and chinese-based languages and cultures
... and spiritualities ...*

question: ... is there an aesthetic independent of a specific culture ... is
there dharma independent of a specific culture ... or might aristotle
actually have basis for dialogue with basho  ... acquinas and shinran ...

japan seems to have expressed its understanding and appreciation of the Way
("do") in innumerable walks of life via aesthetics ... architecture,
gardening, flower arranging, calligraphy, haiku; tea ceremony as high mass,
combining all of these ...

...ancient greek culture seems symbolized by sculpture and architecture
(columns) (altho' also the performative: contest, drama, etc. ... ) in
contrast with japan's national symbol : cherry blossom ...

     in the shade of cherry blossoms
     no one's a stranger             - issa

... appreciation of the passing of all things (ourselves as well) = but one
of an almanac of aesthetic responses (furyu, hisome, awar-e, sono mama,
sparkly, etc); wabi / sabi seeming the closest approximation to truth &
beauty ...  ( ... remember heidegger trying to talk to a japanese
philosopher about the very words ... their philology ... asking was it even
possible ) ...

i'm very grateful jk continues to interrogate these matters ... eliciting
our response and dialogue ...

... my own understanding of buddhadharma being integral with its emergence
within my own cultural work ... poetry and teaching poetry, literary
translation, editing, criticism, etc. ...


*
(rumi being the most popular poet in america for nearly a decade, one might
ask about arabic too, but coleman barks' arabic isn't his strongest suit)
...

now, to my editor

gary gach

http://www.redroom.com/author/gary-g-gach
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/where-buddha-meets-freud
http://www.tricycle.com/web-exclusive/riches-a-different-market