"If we think of the movement of life as an "organising energy"...."

“It is perhaps helpful here to note that the root of the word "organize" is related to the Greek "ergon," which is based on a verb meaning "to work," and that this verb is also the root of the word "energy," which thus means literally "to work within." If we think of the movement of life as an "organizing energy" that is "working within" the movements in the organs, in the cells, and, indeed, even in the atoms and elementary particles and thus ultimately merging with the universal field movement, this would perhaps help further in giving a feeling for what it means to take movement as primary.

The activity of this organizing energy is then what leads to the growth and sustenance of life in each organism, and to the evolution of ever-new forms of organism. When an organism dies, the movement of its "organizing energy" ceases, so that it dissolves ultimately into inorganic ("unorganized") matter: In earlier times, the prevailing world view was that there is a spiritual substance (a soul) which "does the organizing" and which departs when the organism dies. But now we can take it that the essence of life is the movement of organizing energy, and we do not think of a special "soul substance" that would produce or carry this energy.

By considering the primary significance of movement in this general sense, which includes art, inward experience at the psychological level, and what is to be meant by life, we can perhaps indicate at least the germ of a different world view, which can function to call attention to our outward perceptions and inward feelings in a new way, so that we can be free of the habitual and automatic function of the traditional view that this movement is meaningless, without some thing that is "doing the moving."“

“On Creativity” (1998), David Bohm, ed by David Nichol, Routledge. p 79-80

“It has to be emphasized that universal ratio is not merely or even mainly a statement of what is common to all, that is, of general similarity. Rather, it is an ordered structure of differences or divisions, which are all related, and whose relationships are seen as forming the particular or the individual.

One can usefully indicate what is meant here with the aid of a work of art [see Figure 4.1]. In this design, which is based on a Moorish arabesque, one can see many orders emerging in the form of lines that extend across the whole pattern. These orders may be considered to play the role of the universal. Particular geometrical objects, such as triangles, quadrilaterals, and hexagons, are then formed or created in the intersection of the universal orders. Thus, it is evident that the universal is not to be regarded as just a set of properties (e.g. shape) that is common to all the particular geometrical objects.

“On Creativity” (1998), David Bohm, ed by David Nichol, Routledge. p 84 and 85 (image below)

So…

An organising energy which is working within - at the micro level — in cells, atoms, elementary particles and ultimately “merging with the universal field movement”.

It is this organising energy which leads to the growth and sustenance of life in each organism, and to the evolution of ever new forms of organism.”

Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form. Form is movement, movement is form. Form is Movement is Evolution/Emergence.

Zen and Creativity, Presence and Truth

One way that our spiritual nature begins to manifest is through the emergence of the intuitive aspect of our consciousness.  This is one of the reasons why Zen and creativity are so intimately linked.  ...Getting in touch with our intuition helps us to enter the flow of life, of a universe that is in a constant state of becoming.  When we tap into our intuition, whether in our art or simple in the s=day to day activities of our lives, we feel part of this creative continuum.” “Zen and Creativity”, John Daido Loori, p 57

When the self disappears, the brush paints by itself, the dance dances itself and the poem writes itself.” “Zen and Creativity”, John Daido Loori, p 57

“The essential spirit of Zen in living, dynamic, non-conformist and non-traditionalist. We must experience this is we would really enter this domain. Zen is not “understood”, it is lived.” Living Zen (1958), Robert Linssen, p.22

'“Truth is dynamic. It is constantly being created and renewed. This is the reason for which all the great spiritual teachers have been - and should be - revolutionaries. Living Zen (1958), Robert Linssen, p.23

Whether it be a Buddha, a Socrates, a Plotinus, a Jesus, or today, a Krishnamurti, it is in the presence of powerful individuals that we find ourselves, men profoundly Alice and revolutionary. Their inspiration is a result of a total integration into the process of Life itself. …. If we wish to understand them it is indispensable for us to learn what this reality is.

The men who have realised themselves define it’s an eternal presence which escapes all our concepts of duration, time, and causality. At its approach, this presence reveals itself endowed with an incomparable up-surging and creative intensity. It is truly from instant to instant that the Real reveals itself and is lived in the states of “Satori” or Nirvana”. Living Zen (1958), Robert Linssen, p23

“Reality makes game of our limitations and our attempts at imprisonment. It cannot be codified. No framework can hold it. It is for us to rise to its level.

That is why Zen masters tell us that after having read a text we should, however paradoxical this may seem, free ourselves from the particular conditioning it may have imposed on our minds. If this is not done scrupulously, we cannot directly experience its living unforeseeable reality.”

It is something alive, and that flashes into awareness with both enormous energy and with subtle grace. We are not separate from it. We are not “it”, “it’ is us.

Bohm's Imaginative Insight and Imaginative fancy, intelligence v thought

Imaginative Insight

“Suddenly, in a flash of understanding, involving in essence no time at all, a new totality appears in the mind, in which this contradiction and confusion have vanished. This new totality is at first only implicit (ie unfolding) through some mental image which, as it were, contains the main features of the new perception spread our before our “mental vision” “ (ie it appears as an image). “Perception involving this display, which is unspeakable from the act of primary perception itself, is what may be called imaginative insight ( or creative imagination). Such as display plays a necessary part, because with its aid the mind can apprehend the meaning of what has been created in the flash of understanding.” “On Creativity”, David Bohm, p 44

Imaginative Fancy

From this “flash of understanding”, “the mind can go on to think and to reason out more and more of the consequences implied by the new insight.”

It then offers a new way of seeing the world which is available to others. From this new way of seeing the world, new insights will be gained.

An insight which offers a new way of seeing the world is “true” until there is a new insight which allows even more seeing. It doesn’t render the previous insight as invalid - it is still “relatively true” - ie true within the domain in which it was discovered…. But it not true outside that domain.

Intelligence v thought

“It is implicitly accepted in a large part of our common notions on the subject…that intelligence is an extension or development of thought. that is, thought is regarded as providing a sort of base or ground from which intelligence arises, and on which in turn it operates. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that what is being suggested here is that intelligence does not this arise primarily out of thought. Rather….. the deep source of intelligence is the unknown ad indefinable totality from which all perception originates.

Clearly then intelligence is not to be regarded as a result of accumulated knowledge with could be learned, for example, as a science or as a technique. Rather, it can perhaps best be regarded as an art - the art of perception through the mind. Such an art requires great insight and skill. When these are absent, thought quickly gets lost in confusion.” p 61

Margaret Blackwell on creativity

”Creativity is the expression of that aliveness, responsiveness or engagement with life that is an inherent and unlimited potential in all human beings. This means that genuine creative action is a choice hat can be made by anybody, at any time, in any situation.” The Heartbeat of Creativity (2017), Margaret Blackwell and Andra Kins. p 130

“There are two pre-requisites for creative action: the readiness to not already know and the readiness to persevere despite despair.” p 141

Collective Creativity

“In being with other people, there is something that opens us up, allowing us to let go, so that something deeper can flow through us. What arises in the intersubjective space between us when we are focussed, open and free is a mysterious transmission which takes us somewhere new together. It’s like a new potential for humanity being revealed in the process – a whole other realm of creativity beyond the individual. I now see creativity as this force of the universe which is in all of us. When we open up to it, we can experience it as an individual or a group where something new can emerge. What is most significant is that through this experience we find a deeper part of ourselves that nourishes us and gives us a sense of meaning and purpose in being alive.” “The Heartbeat of Creativity” (2017), Margaret Blackwell and Andra Kins, p195.

From section on Zen Brushwork

Hi bi arata!

Every day is new!

This is the true definition of creativity, where it arises from the source of all things, gathers us up in its arms and reminds us that we are one. This is where spirit and culture meet in the creation of each ever-new moment.” p174

What is a creative mind and why is it important?

David Bohm on what is a creative mind and why is it important? From Bohm, D. (1998) On creativity, Routledge.

What is the nature of a creative mind?

“What then is the creative state of mind, which so few have been able to be in? …. It is first of all, one whose interest in what is being done is whole-hearted and total, like that of a young child. With this spirit, it is always open to learning what is new, to perceiving new differences and similarities, leading to new orders and structures, rather than always tending to impose familiar orders and structures in the field of what is seen.” p17. (Further exploration on the penetrative insights which occur with this natural creative state of mind will come later.)

Societal problems and the importance of developing a creative mind…..

“The mechanical and uncreative character of most human activity tends, at the very least, to lead to what may be called a “general mess”….. p18

“The fact that society is in a “mess” is the result of the conflict of arbitrary and fragmentary mechanical orders of relatively independently determined actions. Any effort to impose on overall order in this “mess” will serve only to make it worse. What then is to be done? I would suggest that it is a wrong order of approach to try first to solve the social problem. Rather, the key is in the state of mind of the individual. For as long as the individual cannot really learn from what he does and sees, whenever such learning requires that he go outside the framework of his basic preconceptions, then his action will ultimately be directed by some idea that does not correspond to the fact as it is. Such action is worse than useless, and evidently cannot possibly give rise to a genuine solution of the problems of the individual and of society.” p19

Returning the mind to a more natural state of freedom

“The tendency to 'fall asleep' is sustained by an enormous number of habitually applied preconceptions and prejudices, most of which are absorbed at a very early age, in a tacit rather than explicit form. Therefore, whoever is really interested in what it means to be original and creative will have above all to pay careful and continual attention to how these are always tending to condition his thoughts, feelings and overall behaviour….. But as he becomes sensitively aware of how the whole process works, in himself and in others, he is likely to discover that the mind is beginning to come to a more natural state of freedom, in which all this conditioning is seen to be the triviality that it really is. …... pps 25, 26

This means that it is up to each person to make the first step for himself, without following another, or setting up another as his authority for the definition of what creativity is and for advice on how it is to be obtained. Unless one starts to discover this for himself, rather than to try to achieve the apparent security of a well laid-out pattern of action, he will be just deluding himself and thus wasting his efforts….

Certain kinds of things can be achieved by techniques and formulae, but originality and creativity are not among these. The act of seeing this deeply (and not merely verbally or intellectually) is also the act in which originality and creativity can be born.” p26

On Creativity

Sue Griffiths and I are off on an exploration of Creation/Creativity through texts, our work, practices and lives. With special thanks to the life work of Margaret (Mags) Blackwell.

Nobori

Thanks to Rafa — see previous blog post, I’m reunited with these Japanese banners, which made such an impact on me when I was first in Japan in 1980. I think I saw images of them before I went and loved the boldness of them.

Alison's Water marks - draft text by Rafael Cruz

Alison's watermarks

(A text inspired by images created by Alison Churchill. The pics have been borrowed from her FB wall)

"Nobori", Japanese flags dangling in mid-air, characters of a language expressing the great Void at the heart of creation, its origin: enso circles accompanied by inscriptions.

With her paintbrush, the artist draws her marks in a single blow, like a zen high-priestess, guided by an inner light coming from outside for, at the moment of creation, there is neither within nor without, no difference between what is received and what is given out. She performs a pure act; the result, the hanging banners we see, are the aftermath of that blow.

There, we may see the storms that swirl across the sky since the beginning of time, the unknown hurricanes that blow in distant planets, or perhaps circles formed in a pond as an apple falls into it from a branch above, causing ripples that grow and then stop.

These watermarks look like wavering amoebas or quivering molecules, elementary particles, protozoa, embryos and cells, a world of potency, a world in the make, which is the same as a world in the wane. They are big galaxies, black holes or pulsating quasars.

Enso's power: the symbol of the void, a good way for us, unheeding but enthralled adepts, to begin to think and maybe begin to understand the nature of truth, its transcending quality. Art as real or art as fake, a metaphor and a visual representation of that unimaginable emptiness from which everything comes and to which everything will return.

Enso's mystery: a circle quickly drawn, in one single brush stroke, the ink gradually fading into nothingness, a broad mark made in one breath, darker intensity that grows pale, energy losing strength, a shooting star in the summer sky, light melting into dark space, white noise that grows increasingly faint, water that evaporates.

These watermarks flow from the depths where time and space coalesce. The artist has no self, she's an instrument blending with her brush to produce a whole universe with her decisive strokes, a pure moment of bliss that lasts both a second and an eternity. The rest, the banners, is the damage left in the storm's wake, noise fading into silence.

(Fragment of a work in progress, a book putting into words the work of Alison, Norman A Son and Richard Stott, with the collaboration and guidance of Yuen Fong)

Self-directed residency January 2024

Last January I was in California, at the Lucid Art Foundation. This January I was given the gallery space at Exchange Place Studios for a self-directed residency — a month to work on a big scale and experiment. I went for it!

The first step was to clear and clean the space, roll out the large Fabriano roll and to lay out the Zen Brushwork mat and mat. To sit in meditation, and then to brush a calligraphy to start the process of charging the space with energy. Enough for the first day. The heating was not working, and the building was cold. But I was glad to be there. I knew I would expand into the space and that something new would come out of it.

The days after that started with meditation, yokiho (chi-raising exercises), and then zen brushwork. I drew 含光 — Cherish the light/Hold the light, which we had drawn with Sarah Moate sensei at the online New Year workshop at the beginning of January. I started making tentative marks on the long roll with ink and water, gathering the energy before it started to flow. Compared to the long piece I made last January, this time there was more assurance, more flow, more empty space, more freedom to move, to change course, to pause and to move on with the journey……

I wrote the words “This is not water!” defiantly in my notebook. This is energy, it is flow, it is…. (well I’ll concede that it is “of” water….!)

I brought the layers of “scripts” that I had been working on in the studio into the space to see how they related to the “Water course” and the calligraphy.

And I joined Carousel, the print studio next door to try out cyanotype techniques. Two visitors to Open Studios last November, Andy and Shirley from Carousel, suggested I could write the “scripts” in cyanotype. The first attempts were fixed in the UV machine. After that I put them in the sunlight, which although pale and wintery, was enough to turn them a wonderful blue. I’m looking forward to trying them in the bright spring and summer sunlight.

Friends joined me in the space. Norman and Hisami came and drew on long rolls, and Roanna joined us for a few experiments with cyanotype.

Cyanotype is compelling. The different tones of blue, the fact that it is the sunlight that is causing them is delightful. I like to draw looser “scripts” on strips of washi, and to suspend them in the centre of the room, with space around them and moved by the air currents. Water patterns playing on them……

The experience of walking on the paper and making the marks was very different from viewing the complete work from outside. I walked over and through the marks myself with bare feet, and traced my journey. Looking down “through” the water, following its course. When I invited people to walk through it themselves there was some hesitancy — was it ok to walk on it? And a great respect and care when they did. It affected their walking. One was moved almost to tears…..

I had a “Crit” session at the end. At first I was disappointed that only 3 people came but the conversation between them was deep and to the point. I was gratified that their engagement and conversation went on for an hour — that my work had enough to say for itself and that it had transmitted! So grateful! And a relaxation, as I now know — whereas I didn’t before.

In all, I had about 26 visitors I think…. And 26 wonderful conversations. And a new direction with the cyanotypes.

I am happy to return to my studio — it took quite a lot of energy to fill that space!

Re visionary art….

“In short, art represents the area of furthest advance around man’s growing energy, the area in which nascent truths condense, take on their first form, and become animate, before they are definitively formulated and assimilated.

this is the effective function and role of art in the general economy of evolution”.

Teilhard de Chardin “Towards the Future”, quoted in “Art and Physics - Parallel Visions in Space, time and Light” by Leonard Schlain. Shambala

Responses to "The Big One" in London April 21-24 2023

I’m glad to have been there. A march coinciding with Earth Day organised by XR, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and others. Deliberately designed to be non- confrontative and peaceful. Which is why I went. I met friends, learned a lot, heard talks and had interesting conversations. But it seems it had very little impact - hardly covered in the news and no response from Government. I think XR have concluded that disruption garners much more attention.

Marches: I want them to have more gravitas. This last one was described on the news as looking like half way between a May Day parade and a Music Festival. We were recognisable as a group — Planet People. This makes us easier to dismiss. I would like to see more depth and dignity. And more people from the mainstream — which will come in time.

Cultivation of Depth: “A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions.

When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic, and social institutions, a holy force — the power of wisdom and love in action— is born. “

Andrew Harvey

Re Disruption: How can this be directed so that it galvanises the public rather than antagonises them? How can it unleash positive energies? As with transport strikes — in Japan they still continue to run the busses and trains, but just don’t charge passengers. So the public is completely behind them. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/may/11/no-ticket-to-ride-japanese-bus-drivers-strike-by-giving-free-rides-okayama

Environmental Service: As opposed to Military Service. I think this will come as a matter of course as the situation worsens, but it needs to be sooner rather than later. We came together during the Pandemic in many ways, but were also isolated because of risks of infection. In a war situation we would be required to direct our energies in one direction.

We should all be encouraged/called on to devote X days a week to environmental rejuvenation work. (Of course depending on each person’s capacity). Retired people (those who contributed most to the current situation) could offer to devote significant time and energy to this.

“Let us take a few minutes off our busy lives and imagine a world where conscription is mandatory in all countries but with a slight twist. Instead of a military conscription, what if it is mandated that one serves the state through environmental service. During this mandated period, one is asked to take time off to bond with and serve nature by choosing sustainable practices, living a minimalistic life-style and working on solutions which can be implemented by them as professionals. The idea might sound bizarre but it has its own merits.”

https://www.salzburgglobal.org/news/latest-news/article/roli-mahajan-making-the-case-for-mandatory-environmental-service

Again, inspiration from Japan…..”Japan pensioners volunteer to tackle nuclear crisis”. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13598607#:~:text=A%20group%20of%20more%20than,over%20the%20age%20of%2060.

A gift of words

Rafa (Rafael Cruz) has the gift of insight and words, which he bestows freely and generously. This is what he wrote about the piece I made at the Lucid Art Foundation.

“Watermarks, a fluid world where our human narratives and identities matter not. As Alison's brush hits the paper and the ink spreads, something happens that connects the artist's mind with realities beyond the surface of visible appearances, a world in perpetual motion. It cannot be pinned to any specific shape, as it is in constant flux and perpetual change. Alison´s art is not a search for a truth invisible to our human eye, but truth itself finding joyful random shapes. Her watermarks neither comment nor describe. They are not an instrument for change or a metaphorical representation of it: they are change itself. There is no thought or philosophical speculation, just action, and it is by acting that she taps with the primordial energy of creation, the ineffable mystery that is the origin of everything. The artist at one with the generative force of the universe. The result is both strangely beautiful and beautifully strange. These watermarks show the infinite contained in the finite, they are the breathing of life, the rhythm of fixity and fluidity as they alternate, the endless succession of the hidden and the manifest.”

My response: The piece you wrote on my work I did at the Lucid Art Foundation is so wonderful.  To be seen is a gift. At the time of creating the work there is a great energy, an expansion of the universe, and then often it is quite diffitult to remember afterwards.  I’m sure Norman experiences this too.  

You came along and breathed it all back into life with your living words.  Thank you.

Rafa’s response: It makes me so happy that you like my text. It took me a while to put it together, I let my ideas flow free first, trying to mimic somehow the creation of your work, then I chiselled it carefully, trying to get exactly what it means to me, but without forgetting what your art means to you, how you conceive it, as far as I understand it from our conversations and email exchanges. I think we are generally in the same wavelength about what art does and what it should do, but it is still tricky to put into words what is totally non discursive, a bit like talking about a symphony, i suppose. Music doesn't need words, that is the point of it, nor does the visual language of art. But I am a writer, so words are the tool of my trade. My challenge is to say what things are or feel like, in words. I always say I am a fisher of meanings, only in half jest, for I believe that the meaning of a text is mostly in the form, that's why poetry is, in my view, the only way in which truth can be apprehended, in words. Everything is a mystery, and to clarify and argue precisely about something is to falsify it, for everything is always in flow, and words are playful, treacherous even. Heisenberg said about quantum mechanics that if you think you understand it, you don't understand it at all. So, it was a responsibility to put into words that scroll you created in your artist retreat in California. But it was also enjoyable, a kind of translation. I like to think of myself as a medium rather than a creator. I channel the energies around me.

That you are so pleased with the result, makes it all worth it. Thanks for trusting me with your beautiful artwork. Such privilege!

The Many Noble Bodhisattva Mahasattva!

Returning from The Big One — the Climate March in London last weekend organised by XR, and then remembering….

Looking back in my sketchbook to July 2021. When my “river” work stood up, b came Beings, and gathered! An uprising!

1) “How do they relate to beings?

They are noble, self-contained, but intimate, empathic, sensing, radiating energetic stillness and depth. They are aware of the space they occupy and the proximity to others. They want to communicate and relate, but they do not want to lose their self-sense/integrity.

The many noble Bodhisattva Mahasattvas.

Bodhi svaha — awakening thus it is. Awakening ones, awakening ones, with Life awakening ones.”

2) Like a peaceful march. They are a force. Gentle and forceful. Walking. Picking up supporters on the way.

Walking towards….. No fear. That’s gone now.

Boji ya, boji ya, bi bojiya, bi bo da ya, Boda ya, boda ya, biboda ya, bi boda ya.

Awakened Ones, Awakened Ones, with Life-awakened Ones, with Life-awakened Ones,

Awakening Ones, Awakening Ones, with Life-awakending Ones, with Life-Awakening Ones. (Bu hin Shu Dharani)

3) They are on the move! They are coming home. They are walking, processing, others are joining, Rising up. Silently, purposefully, joyfully, seriously, moving together. Lit from within. They many Noble Mahasattva Bodhisattva. Bring them on! Call them in!

4) and 5) From Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra, from Zen Art: Mountains and Rivers Sutra by John Daido Loori.

“It is because the blue mountains are walking that they are constant. This walk is swifter than the wind. the blue mountains are neither sentient or non-sentient, the self is neither sentient of non-sentient….

The blue mountains commit themselves to the practice of walking. The East mountain commits itself of the study of walking over water….”

6) ….”These are beings, sensitive, complex, shining, mysterious beings. Strong and silent but expressive. Messages from the future. Voices from the future…. From the past and the future — coming from both directions. …. They will march for the right cause…..”

7) …”Movement is impossible… Movement is possible…. No-movement is not possible……”

Water language

Water language.

Paynes grey Golden Fluid Acrylic on Japanese wash.

This spech/language is soft and half heard. Thought forms rising and dissolving. Call and response. It is absorbed into the paper. I paint on both sides. The echoes from the other side can be half seen. I pull them through by brightening them with a single layer of blue coloured pencil.

An open language, free from concepts. “It has no agenda apart from its sheer aliveness, and as such is not messaging or divisive. This is how people, connecting for the first time after a major resetting of the world (which could even be after a nuclear or climate catastrophe), might try to understand each other, with care and compassion.” (From a dialogue on Norman’s Mystery Language between Norman Anderson, Rafael Cruz, Yuen Fong Ling and myself a year ago.)

The 5th Force

Matter moving…. communicating…. Stone waking up……from a deep, long silence.

Stuart Kaufman, from the Santa Fe Institute, poses a “fifth force in the universe — self organisation. “Matter inherently has in it the ability to self organise and its that self-organising drive that is behind evolution. And that is a drive towards higher states of being, towards more complex categories and modes of being and existence….. only with that kind of drive can you explain the emergence of the successively higher and higher states of complexity and unity….” Philosophers call it Eros, religions call it Spirit…. “It’s that internal driver that pushes people from the state of ignorance and unenlightenment where everything seems to be a separate thing and a separate event to a state where this dismemberment is re-membered and everything is felt as a Unity, One Taste, part of the spiritual texture of the universe. …”. From fragmented, separate, alienated to total, unified, whole….

The movement towards connection, concern, compassion, emergence, super-abundance, love.

Ken Wilber, Love and Evolution — Integral Life. https://integrallife.com/love-and-evolution-2/

WATER//ENERGY//LIFE//ENERGY

WATER —ENERGY — LIFE — ENERGY

It becomes a question of how do we expend this (precious) life-energy?

The artwork made at the Lucid Art Foundation

The roll of paper full of marks made at the Lucid Art Foundation has arrived via post and is sitting in our attic room. I will take it to the studio and unroll it sometime. As to whether I will show it in some way, I don’t know. It was my response to a specific place — the Lucid Art Foundation, a specific space — the beautiful light-filled studio looking out onto the landscape, and in particular a specific artist — Gordon Onslow Ford. At a particular time.

There were calligraphies in the space. The long roll of paper was filled, over 12 days, with marks. Sometimes it was a river, with eddies, bubbles and splashes. Sometimes there were primitive forms of life. Something happened — an outpouring. And then it was done. The space empty again for the next artist.

I know I have been changed by being there and making this work. And subsequent work will be informed by this experience, this learning.

Rooting out negativity

My eye fell on this book in the San Fransisco Zen Centre book shop, and I sat reading it for several hours outside my favourite coffee shop the morning I was due to fly home.

First it opened up the question again of “activist art”. See separate post.

It is this passage though that really struck me.

“In my twenties, the I was a beginning artist looking for a spiritual guide, I read Dogen’s poems and essays, which blew my mind. Here is the passage that inspired me most:

‘Birth (life) is just like riding in a boat. You raise the sails and row with the pole. Although you row, the boat gives you a ride and without the boat, you wouldn’t ride. But you ride the boat and your riding makes the boat what it is. Investigate a moment such as this. At just such a moment there is nothing but the world of the boat. The sky, the water, and the shore are all the boat’s world.”

I had been studying European literature and philosophy, the writings of the Existentialists in particular. Camus points to the impermanence of life, in saying that we are all on death row. In my view, the Existentialists expressed helplessness, despair and boredom because they tried and, by and large failed to find a “way out” of a helpless situation after they declared “God is Dead”. When I saw Dogen’s positivity, it was as if he were presenting the next step to an existentialist understanding.” (p178-9)

I am grateful and glad to see this articulated. I studied English Literature at Sheffield University 1976-79, and in the final year I spent a lot of time reading read such works, including Camus, TS Eliot — “The Wasteland”, and the Theatre of the Absurd playwrights…

The Theatre of the Absurd (French: théâtre de l'absurde [teɑtʁ(ə) də lapsyʁd]) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style of theatre the plays represent. The plays focus largely on ideas of existentialism and express what happens when human existence lacks meaning or purpose and communication breaks down. The structure of the plays is typically a round shape, with the finishing point the same as the starting point. Logical construction and argument give way to irrational and illogical speech and to the ultimate conclusion—silence.[1].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Absurd. Accessed 20/2/2023

I remember Sartre’s phrase “Hell is other people” ….!

I have expended a lot of energy and It has taken many years to root out my own negativity and depression. I will need to continue to practice — through zen practice, calligraphy and art — and life activity.

To experience the oneness of life. To taste and be supported by the vastness and magnificence of existence, the “lively energy of life itself”, to feel it blooming within my body as the whole world. To be able to express it. What a relief!

And gratitude to Gordon Onslow Ford for articulating the joy and aliveness of marks, which “express the state of good fortune in being alive”.

"Zen and the Energy of Life"

Another book which I knew I needed to reread on my return — the concluding insight from the residency/journey….. So much in it, but these sentences shone out….

空 Ku = sky, vastness of space. Emptiness, the original nature of being, the “lively energy of Life itself”.

“The lives of all beings, animate or inanimate, are supported by that magnificent energy of being, which is called Buddha……”.

“That is real Buddha, the pure energy at the depth of existence. When you fit into the rhythm of the great energy of being, you feel relief.”

“You realise that you are allowed to live, you are permitted to exist in this world, because the whole world is blooming within your human body”.

“The Light that Shines Through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life”, Katagiri Dainin, Shambala, Colorado 2017

I know this magnificent energy, but it has felt hard to hold. Now I know the above to be true, feel integrated, know this lively energy as the core of my being. It’s rhythm is extraordinary but completely natural. It brings relief!

At home in the City

Left the Lucid Art Foundation at midday, Sina led the way in his car to San Rafael where I returned the car to Quality Used Car Rentals , following instructions to“leave the keys under the driver’s mat and make sure the doors are locked” as Art was not in the office after 12.00.

Sina drove me to San Fransisco — over the spectacular Gold gate Bridge - and left me at Hayes Valley Inn, my home for the next week. The digital key download via the OpenKey app business failed to work, but luckily a staff member called Maria was there, hauled my case up three flights of steps and gave me a physical key, then disappeared. A comfy room, but I was a bit daunted at the thought of spending hours in it — envisioning I wouldn’t be out late in the city at night.

I wandered out — a good area, lots of trees, people of all sorts walking about — with dogs, kids with scooters, a few shops and plenty of restaurants. Just 10 minutes away, the San Fransisco Zen Centre where I was shown around by Denise. Daily schedule — Evening zazen from 5.40 to 6.20pm followed by a service. Morning zazen from 5.40am to 6.20am, followed by service, and breakfast. So this will be the backbone of my week in the City. After breakfast at the Centre, I will go about my day and return in the evening.

I slipped in for evening zazen and service — chanting of the Daihi Shu Darani which Richard and I chant every morning. Had half a pizza and a beer on the way back. People are out eating, drinking, walking - benign. If only Sheffield were like this! I will shower in the evenings and slip out early in the mornings. Sitting in bed now, with a cup of tea and a hot water bottle. At home in the City.