Calligraphy — Cacography
A friend, who studied Japanese but struggling to write in Japanese asked me about the sample
New Year’s card design I’ve posted here few days ago —– ” Writing of those card looks terrible.
Is Japanese these days couldn’t write properly because they no longer hand-write but use key-board ?”
” I don’t think so. Some of them sending me beautifully hand-written letters. And the writing on the sample
cards may be done by a good professional calligrapher” —— ” What, are they done by professional ?”
” Yes, I’m sure this person can write in pretty square formal style as well though, —— think,
receiving New Year’s Greeting from close friends, do they want to see a card looks like a formal notice
from officials ? —– How relaxed or polite and formal, the commonsense is the same to western culture.
The choice of a birthday card to your friend or to company boss would be different here isn’t it ? ”
———- Give a close look to the sample cards, top one and the bottom card, you may realized that
the first three lines on top card and the four lines on the bottom card, the writing is identical.
( By the way, the writing starts from the right to left. Hence I meant, three vertical lines on the right )
Its indicates, the graphic designer used the same resource of the writing and composed those two
cards —— its mean, it was not his own casual writing, but it was there as the special resources.
And the calligrapher who did the assignment treated this as an art, hence he did rather funny writing.
It’s not for a solemn occasion but joyful one. It’s a Happy New Year. 😀
—
Doing artistic calligraphy is a very special skill of the art. While writing the same letter, the movement
of the blush and the force to push on the paper makes different boldness, etc etc, million of resulting
differences on the line, hence the written letter gives different impression, on top of the letter’s own
meaning. When the impression enhancing the meaning of the letter itself, it makes the art.
A letter of the Grace written in smooth flowing line, or the Power written with bold, and blunt movement
of the blush, will give distinctive impression and it would strike the viewer’s subconsciousness.
———- Around my life, strangely there were many calligrapher. (Though, I was called Kana-kugi 😀 )
My grand father was a calligrapher and having its line of blood, my father and sister had pretty good
hand. And an AD / POP planing company where I worked for short time had started by the group of the
calligrapher as a lettering, font design studio , hence I had plenty opportunities to see them at work.
” The requirement of the assignment, the concept in mind, then just face a blank sheet of paper and put
blush on it. The blush start to run as if he got his own mind. My hand is just giving a support for his
movement. And the letter prevailed as if it was there before hand ” —— m m m ? What an explanation.
I was young (!) and hate irrational magic or mambo-jumbo like my father’s Buddhism then. It was out of
my comprehension, though after learned what is the structure of the mind and the Zen —— now I know.
The meaning of the letter will be read by the brain, but the style of writing can hit the guts straight.
———- If you have seen a Chinese film ” Hero” you might remember, a master calligrapher wrote
one huge red-letter SWORD which was then hanged behind of the king (who became the Emperor)
the letter was in the ancient form, so that the Chinese calligrapher has even more choice to express
the meaning. It was a very impressive powerful calligraphy. (—- I want to have a poster. 🙂 )
—-
You may feel strange though, I found the psyche or deep psychology in the Calligraphy and the
Haiku, even the Art of Pablo Picasso are all having the common factor —– Zen.
—– Once Picasso said, art is easy but to stay in the mind of child is not easy.
An episode of Picasso —– One day he asked a carpenter to make a small structure and he drawn a
sketch with each dimensions on it. When the carpenter measured the sketch, he found the drawing has
the exact dimension down to the mm accuracy. —— and the Picasso’s blue period paintings are
well-known with its accurate realism.
How the same painter, who got such exact eyes and the skill, could produce notoriously deformed
paintings and especially such as like his last series Las Meninous —– almost like a child’s doodling.
—– Haiku master Basho taught the way to create Haiku, is to capture ” Wabi and Sabi” though,
in his later life, he reached and created the Haiku in ” Karomi ” ( light-heartedness ).
It is exactly the same in calligraphy. All down to the same matter, liberation of the mind —- freedom
without the impediment of the thinking, mind = Mushin ( mind of no-mind ) in Zen term.
( In Zen, this freedom of creation was called in the state of Jizai )
Of cause, not all of them even know the Zen, and the creativity is not the monopoly of the Zen.
Zen is only using the inherent state of the mind or subconscious, common to all the human being.
( Zen is the one who elucidated and established the methodology. Like a phenomenon of fire —– the
science elucidated the oxidizing mechanism, hence we are able to know how to use and control it now)
—-
Starting with exacting discipline, then free the mind and free the hand to write the letters inspired
by the occasion or the meaning of the letter —– freedom like a child’s imagination. So, it looks almost
like a scribble of a child —— on the thin line between Calligraphy and the Cacography. 😀
This is the Art.
( Yet, distinguish them, you may need to have seen million letters of good and bad one beforehand )
___/\___
—
Healing POWER
There is a widely believed healing effect to stay in the nature, especially wooded forest.
And, I just picked up interesting news about another way to get Healing —– 🙂
An American Holly Wood actress, Helena Bonham Carter said that she found, to cleaning her kitchen
having good healing power, hence she stopped to go healing session as cleaning has even better effect.
On this news program, two psychologists gave their responses.
One was very negative, saying don’t believe, cleaning the kitchen is nothing but a chore.
And the other was much more positive and said, to have nice clean kitchen is a pleasure and it can be a
good exercise too.
—–
Very interesting, —– because, provably the purpose of this blog is all condensed in here.
In the Buddhism, related story is in Churi Pantac ( in Japanese Shuri Bantok ) the one who was
directed by Buddha to sweep the ground of Deer Park, and his Enlightenment 10 years later.
On the beginning, he might not like to sweep the garden while other disciples are in the session to
listen the Buddha’s teachings. ( He had learning difficulty )
So, he might have started his work as a hated chore with frustration and a resentment though.
Five years later, he might be even tired to think about his complaint and became humble.
Nine years later, he might have become expert to sweep the garden and even able to do all the
task while eyes closed, as all the works became almost automatic.
Then, ten years later, he became aware, he is the man to make the garden spotlessly clean,
where the greatest Teacher, Buddha to walk.
What is the honor and the pleasure !
With this deep satisfaction and the dedication to the Buddha, what else of the
Nirvana will be awarded to him ? And Buddha knew him reached the enlightenment.
—–
A question to you. Why you are here in this world, and happen reading this ?
Did you expect to find smart short-cut to get enlightenment here ?
Do you think you can live while picking a cherry avoiding anything else ?
Still, you must know there are lots of burdens in the life, troubles, pains—– and is this
the reason why you want to pick a cherry as much as possible for your pleasure ?
—— Does it mean, you are having two lives, one is in pain and the other with pleasure ?
And is this alienation, double faced life is the reality of the life, you think ?
You are totally wrong. Where is your true self and the totality ?
For some, cooking is a pleasure and for most of them eating is pleasure, but never the cleaning.
Though, other than few millionaire, doing shopping, cooking, eating, then cleaning is the part of the life.
As long as the one is thinking to pick a cherry, the one can not get the totality / wholeness of the life,
not mention piece or happiness. In fact such life is one part entangled by the vicious Karma and
other part is drowned in the hunger of the desire to have pleasure.
This is why the woman (in this case, its happen to be an actress Helen ) found to regain the totality of
the life —— makes her feel healing.
It is the same kitchen, the same cups, same dishes, same washing basin —— do the same every time
every day is exactly the practice of the Buddhism. Soon, the one can learn the way to be in Mushin,
and the kitchen get clean, ready for next comfortable cooking. —— what anyone want more pleasure.
Who can expect a peace-full happy life living in a dirty chaos, let alone to reach enlightenment.
Because of the deep psychological / spiritual meaning behind, the superficial description “cleaning”
may give wrong impression, the core matter is all those processes in the mind or in the brain.
To start with cleaning, she gain the state of the mind, Mushin, and gain the understanding of
the totality of her life and her state of existence —– she is fulfilling the given roll to be Helen,
and becoming a part of the Dharma.
To be in this pathway, hence she can feel be in the right way, What more of healing the one needs.
And to follow Buddha’s pathway what more confidence and the pleasure there.
I guess, this actress may have some Buddhist’s guidance in her previous healing session, hence
it was not difficult for her to find the way —– Which, I may say ” Cleaning Zen ” 🙂
—– So, you may see, to have clean kitchen, a pleasure to have clean life and the comfortable cooking
is not just a chore,—— far from it, it can be a good pathway to the enlightenment. This is true.
You can start the same in New Year. ( Begin with clean-up New Year’s eve party’s mess 😀 )
___/\___
—
Japanese NEW YEAR Greetings
–
–
–
–
–
–
—– Well, well, I found a free program designed by Japan Post
—– ( Nippon Yuubin ) to create own New Year’s Card, and
—– the images here are ready-made components.
—– I found its rather fun.
—– For those who can’t read Japanese, the message written on
—– there are all ” HAPPY NEW YEAR “ except the one which
—– looks no letter ( right middle ) is a Hiragana character Wu,
—– which mean Rabbit. ( the guardian of the year 2011, according
—– to the ancient Chinese mythology but nobody knows why )
——
For those, who want to have a fun ——- print-out or save and send to your friends as a card etc.
( But it supposed to be received on the morning of the New Year’s day )
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 —— Keep well and keep warm.
___/\___ Yoshizen
_____
GREETING
——————————————————— Parties started week ago
—————————————————— and I saw beautiful full moon
——————————————————— but missed lunar eclipse.
—————————————————— Still we passed Winter solstice.
——————————————————– Shining sun will come back.
—————————————————————— as usual 😀
———————————————–No big issue here, just enjoy the season. —————————————- No big issue here.
———————————————————————- ___/\___
—–
Wao ! — Jaw Dropping ?
When we encounter something utterly new or strange, there are two distinctive reaction.
Wao, and Jaw Dropping.—- You may think they are the same. No they are not.
Wao is a part of the thinking process, intellectual activity. When it was somewhat new but still within
the anticipation, such as a technological advancement, we express Wao ! with some admiration.
In contrast, when we encounter utterly unexpected and beyond the comprehension —– since, we
can’t find any related notion or idea, we lose a word.
So, only a reaction was to drop the jaw. —– ! ? ? ? —– as the jaw dropped, only a sound
came out of the mouth is, — Haaaaa. 🙂
This is the moment our mind / thinking become completely blanc.
—-
Why I started to talk about this is, I met a person stubbornly
refuse to accept the mental state of Mushin ever existed.
His stance was, as we have a self-conscious and the awareness of our state, which is independent
to our thinking therefore it is persistently there, so that it exists even a moment when the one is
in the mental state of so-called Mushin.
So, I asked him, when he was damn struck, completely taken aback in a Jaw dropping situation, how long
it took him to came back his own sense ? And at the very moment he was Dropping the Jaw, had he got
awareness ” I’m dropping my jaw ” ? —– m m m —– —– after long silence, he seemed to have
convinced that ” the complete blanc moment of self-conscious is exists “.—- You see ? The Mushin is
not a fancy invention of the Zen Buddhists, it is the one of a definite state of the human mind.
And it is inherently exists in the mind or brain function. As the higher brain function is a later addition
in the evolution process, there is a state without self-conscious —– it is the default state of the mind.
Most important key is even one’s MIND is in its blank state, all the physiological body function,
and the activities which is under the control of subconscious are fully functioning ——– in
other words, anything sublimated into the subconsciousness can act in its maximum potential
since it having no interference of the thoughts / hindrance. ——- This is the ZEN.
—-
Buddhism is a teaching which utilizing this state of the mind, and the practice to gain the
control of the mind to get this mental state by will.
( Without waiting a Jaw Dropping moment to come 🙂 )
—-
Cyber Space / BLOG-SPHERE
To see is its OK there, I’ve Googled and clicked [ kinetorori ] , —— in my amazement,
I found there are 200 items under this key-word. —— What ? — How come ?
There are only 2 kinetorori in the whole Syber Space. One is my Youtube name. And other is in a post
of this blog where I’ve talked about an image I had put into Youtube.
Out of two how those 200 items bore out ? ( I haven’t clicked those, I don’t know what they are 😀 )
Another funny finding was, the collection of the comments I had put to the other blog-site, such as
[ tokyo 1000 ]—— Yah, I remember certainly I did. —– After many months, and reading back those,
I found its rather fun 😀 ( It’s in the [ backtype.com ]—– in the first page of [ yoshizen blog ] at Google )
( Of cause, the original exchange of comments with reference photo has more fun at [ Tokyo 1000 ]. )
—
We are in a strange false environment or utterly artificial communication sphere.
I have virtually no idea who this Tokyo 1000 is. If I bumped him on the street or even in an exhibition space,
I don’t think I ever exchanged single word with him. Nor, even if I saw a notice of his photo exhibition
in an art listings, I don’t think I ever attempt to go there. Simply, because I don’t know him.
Since when we are in our far ancestor’s time ( kind of animal then 🙂 ) we keep so-called Psychological
distance to each other, —– closer relations to alien. Distance is proportional.
So far I picked up some clue about this man Tokyo 1000, he lives in Tokyo, 24 years old University student,
a mountain trekker, ex(?)- graffiti artist, etc. ( Of cause I can read a bit more between the lines and able
to guess something from his photos though ) —– Yet, two people who are having totally different life,
still able to share a topics and freely exchange opinions in equal ground —— How democratic !
—– What intrigued me about this Tokyo 1000 was, a man who didn’t have any knowledge about
photography, just started to take picture and blogging. —— rather successfully 🙂
thanks to a pretty well designed small camera.
To be naive, often exposes the truth, true nature and the true self. Because there was no prerequisite
thoughts or pretense which clouding the eyes. ( But rest of time, the picture is utterly dreadful. 😀 )
All about photography is, —– how to see the subject. 90% of How is the reflection of the personality
of the photographer / author. ( And rest of 10% is the limitation of both subject and the camera ).
——- Yet still, regardless who he is, I could make quite funny comments, thanks to this Cyber Space.
( rather ilresponsively 😀 —— hence, it is fun to read )
After all, both of us are anonymous, neither photos or scripts having such as copyright issue, and able to
make fun of each other —— then somebody else also came into the game, and made fun of us using
our materials and created yet another space for AD.
Whats so ever, if there wasn’t WordPress ( and they ( accidentally ) created Blog-site of mine ) there was
no Yoshizen ever appeared in this world. —— and I might have remained silent ( So, the world could
have kept its peace. — Ha ha ha 😀 )
Only a drawback to do Blogging is, it consume a bit of time, especially for a non native English speaker,
typing by one finger while making funny mis-spelling —– is not easy business. Though, one reader said
funny mis-spelling is a part of fun here.—– m m m ? Thank you very much. Quite an encouragement.
Life having quite unexpected twist and turn and above all, a fun hidden in its sleeve.
—– Incidentally, Tokyo 1000 suddenly stopped to post new photo, and its happened when it got
158th post —– m m m ? ? ? ( Please refer to 8150 Story ) —– was this a halt by the Dharma ?
( I hope, he is still alive and kicking, expecting to have fun-full festive season with his girl friend —–
question is which one ? 🙂 )
___/\___ Ha ha ha 😀
—-
Walking ZEN
Under financial strain and adding to it, the heavy freezing weather —— it could be the shortage, price up
—– so, I found some items in the shop are already sold out —– etc. And only few days left to the Xmas,
the mind of the people walking on the street are a bit tense. —– isn’t this a symptom in your mind too ?
Are you bumping to others or nearly so while walking on the busy street ?
Then think and reflect a bit —– ? ? ?
I know, you have or feel some pressure in your mind or in your subconsciousness, —– a tension
of ” Have to do, and I’m in hurry ” list of tasks to your job or to your family, kids etc.
Though, when you have a task in your hand, but for walking, do you think, to have such tension,
would it help you to walk any quicker ? —— I don’t think so.
Far from it, as your mind is stack and lost the flow, flow of mind, flow of smooth movement, you tend
to bump or come too close to other people, while feeling “Who the devil,can’t you see the others”.
———- The remedies is in your mind.
Just rise your eyes and see 5m away. —–See all the people walking toward you just as
the moving objects, not take notice of each individual.
In this view, you can see the direction where moving objects flow, which one is coming
toward you and which one is swaying ——- then you can see where the gap would be.
So, you can freely sway and able to navigate and able to walk much quicker.
( Though, if you are believing, it is the other’s fault not to open the way for you —–> forget this blog
and buy Body-armour 😉 )
——
Our Peripheral Vision can sense the object’s movement very well. And when one’s vision was spread
wide, having no center weighted attention, it can see the flow of movement all over the visual field.
This diffused vision without having any concentrated mind / attention is nothing but the
Eyes of Mushin / Mind of No-Mind in the Zen Buddhism.
Without any projected attention / absolute passiveness / open-minded, we can see which person is
going to right or left, hence we can see where the gap of flow would be, and the best direction to walk,
ahead of moment = able to fore-see = predict what would be, so that we can minimise the trouble and
maximise the smoothness and the speed of walking.
———- I know, most of you know this already. Yet still in a daily life we are entwined with silly mind
and eyes would be caught by big boobs etc, and too many congested thoughts obstructing and blinding
our eyes or making us short-eye-sighted —— then bump to others.
That’s why, ” Get rid of the thoughts and open your eyes wide ” —–
You see, this is the Zen teachings and it is just there on the street. Zen is, in fact easy and simple practice.
The matter is only you, just open your eyes.
—– So, I hope you able to walk smooth and able to do all the shopping quick in optimum efficiency
for the coming festive season. 🙂 ( Though, I’m already a bit tired for too many parties —– parties for
a person who doesn’t drink is not very much a fun, unless the music is German-Base or Jungle 😀 )
___/\___
—–
A Dirt for Health ? ? ?
A woman who is an ex-direct action activist and having quite open-minded thinking said to me,
” A scientist said, the reason why the kids these days are so allergic to everything, is because the sterile
city environment, and on top of it, the attitude of the mothers became dirt-phobia, hence the kids life
became hygienically too clean and depriving the opportunity of them to build up the resistance and
immunity against the germs and toxic substances.” ” So that our family is drinking a tea with a pinch
of dirt in the pot” —— m m m.
” I think, in certain extent, it is true, but I don’t think you are right ” ” Along side, did you teach them
to wash their hand and washing them in the bath ? “
” Yes of cause ”
” The teaching and the message of washing the hand having two meanings, one is in hygienic implication
and the other is the spiritual teaching to observe the one’s cleanness in the life. If the kids sees you to put
dirt in the drink, the consistency of the message is completely break down. For a teaching become
sublimated and became a part of one’s spirituality, its need to have absolute consistency. ——do you
know, a dog-poo on the street, where does it goes and disappearing ?
It dried up and ground by the shoes, blown away by the wind. So, the air we are breeding having the
powdered dust of the dog-poo as well. Without noticing, we are taking enough dirt into the body.
So that, there is no point intentionally put a dirt into a tea, it wouldn’t do any good but spiritually it is
the dreadful act. In worst case, your kids may get wrong message and think ” I am safe to do dirty act,
as I got immunity or strong enough to defy even STD ” —– It’s an awful situation ”
” Oh, you are very opinionated person ”
” Bloody hell, it is not an opinion. This is the common sense ”
——- oh, dear 🙂
—–
Unconscious ~ Subconscious ?
“There must be an unlimited possibility beyond the boundary of human consciousness”.
But there is a strange myth ” We human is only using 20% (?) of our brain, hence to develop its hidden
potential is limitless, blah blah ” —— according to the Guru. —- What a beautiful dream.
( With the observation by the PET Scanner, no such hidden or inactive region of brain exists)
Since it is a myth, nobody know who said it or where its original research has come from.
And such myth has been used by ignorant youth to justify the experiment to the drugs and even many
grown ups is using it as an excuse to smoke cannabis, saying ” This is to touch my Spirituality ”
I know a lots of 19 century poets, novelists and artists were the addict of opium when it was not a banned
substance and quite a lot of their works were said to be contributed by its influence etc etc. — THOUGH,
—– Really ? The question is even though their poems, stories were written when they were under
the influence of the drugs, their works and the imaginations couldn’t be existed without it ?
And the drugs DID OPEN any unknown horizon ?
Did, LSD actually created anything new, unknown to human culture, other than colorful
so-called psychedelic paintings or rather dull monotonous, endless music ?
——
The surrealism poet / artists, Andre Burton, Poul Eluard tried the mescaline, alkaloid from cactus
to have a hallucinated state of the mind and produced poetries or so-called Automatism scripts.
I spent quite a money to buy this expensive book and looked their creation or the description of
unknown ! (?) when I was a poor student of the Uni’. Though, there was nothing in it.
Just the meaningless, endless continuation of the words and words —– yet more words.
( Still, it was better than Dadaism poetry ( Ha ha ha 😀 ) as they are at least the words ).
—-
We, some times, speak or utter a word without conscious.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the word came out of the mouth disappear at once.
What ? What did you say ? —– What ? Did I say anything ? I don’t know, I don’t remember.
( It could have been a Truth ! )
Though, it is almost impossible to write unconsciously. Yet, in the written words, our subconscious
may show up without our intention, so the skillful writer could write hidden meaning using utterly different
description —– lots of poetry, especially Symbolism Poetry is using this technique. ( Since, it is stronger )
Our vague inspiration would take a form of concept and then converted into the word or words, using
the notion or meaning of the word to carry and to express what was the original feelings or inspiration.
Therefore, it is often the process of the compromise. Just borrow the meaning of the word which is likely
fit to the original inspiration, but not necessary exact. (—– Some time, a rigid meaning of the particular
word itself may give the inspiration as a trigger )
Unlike the spoken words, the writing leaves visible evidence, which can be objectively read
again and again. As the written letters has to be visually read and its pattern has to be configured
as the word, then converted to the notion or meaning, it is impossible to avoid the thinking process.
So, no unconscious writing could exist, hence Automatism couldn’t produce anything significant to
the human creativity at all. —– ( finger itself may move unconsciously though, it would be hard to create
legible letter without having visual feedback of the graphic positioning ).
_____
So, there is a funny misconception, lots of people thinking as if there is a secret garden in our brain where
the treasure was hidden. And suddenly its door would be opened by the drug or meditation, and make
us a genius or superman. 😀 —– Though as I wrote in many of my early posts, there is no such magic, but
we are living with unconscious / subconsciousness as a part of our life in every moment.
We are thinking unconsciously, —— and when we converted its result to visible or noticeable form as in
the last process in the brain, we start to feel ” Thinking “.
Our eyes are seeing the scenery mostly without noticing anything —– until something trigger the attention.
Then, conscious process of WATCHING starts. Still, during this unconscious seeing, some of the images go
to unconscious memory and its data process is taking place. ( Some of them may come back in a dream )
So, all about the matters of unconscious / subconsciousness are how to deal with those invisible animals. 😀
How to know or see its tendency, and to know how to control them.
—— and this is what all about the Buddhism.
—–
When I was in my junior school, we were taught to keep the school tidy and clean.
So too, pick up the trash on the floor. Teachers told us ” Picking it up, while you are thinking ” This is a trash,
I have to pick up” is not good enough yet. Pick it up without thinking is what you have to do “.
In fact, effectively we were taught Zen practice in the junior school. ( Whether a teacher was
aware, this is the Zen Practice or not —– such Ethos has been so deeply embedded in the Japanese culture,
people are no longer bother to distinguish its origin )
Picking up a trash without thinking ( ie; in Mushin )and put it into a bin, how many second does it need ?
And living in a clean environment all day without bothered by dirt ( ie; in Peace of Mind ). Who needs more ?
So, we were taught and learned the way to live in the clean environment.
And this Ethos and the Practice has been embedded into our deep subconsciousness as a habit.
—— therefore one’s room would be clean, not mention his (her) own life. ( Well, ideally 😀 )
You may say ” What ? Is this All about the Buddhism ?”—–Yes it is. It’s a Dog shit isn’t it. 😀
Yet this Dog Shit would clean up your life and give you a Peace of Mind and the Nirvana. That’s
why ” Every body was born with Dharma and anybody can get Nirvana “
( Of cause, Buddhism and the Zen practice will not end with picking up a trash.
It is a start and it is a metaphor 😀 )
And how to utilize those mechanism of subconsciousness to more proactive situations, such as
in the creative front is what I wrote before —– ( Please refer to Category / Art )
___/\___
—-




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