Merle,
*Very* interesting topics you raise.
Not enough *time*. Really, we must have Tea sometime.
Or, you teach a Master Class, and I'll listen from the sidelines.
For myself, I think what I must represent -- what I'd like to "say" through my
paintings, if not in them -- is something about the lovely aspects of vision in
Samadhi state, and then something about vision in the awakened state, after
samadhi breaks up suddenly.
In the Samadhi state, there are rolling and roiling and shifting clouds of
purple and pink, yellow, and Gold. The Great Golden Ocean-Seal Samadhi is one
I practiced for years.
At awakening, and afterward, vision is clear; there are no Samadhi clouds and
illusions, whether one is sitting or not, and no matter how deeply one is
sitting. (to see Samadhi clouds depicted, look at some Chinese Buddhist
paintings: they're everywhere in paintings showing Buddhas, or Bodhisattvas).
The awakening, or the awakened Samadhi, is clear and everything is sharp and
does not change whether one sits or not. This continues for weeks or months.
There is also the aspect of everything being bathed in Moonlight. In this
awakened state arise Wisdom and Compassion, spontaneously. The moonlight
aspect of appearances is what is referred to in Ch'an songs and gathas as, "The
moonlight of Wisdom." This is where that comes from. The moonlight is a
constant part of one's visual experience, and wisdom and compassion arise
according to circumstances. In addition to the milky or white-wax Moonlight,
there is also a very special character of SHADOWS. The _chiaroscuro_ aspect of
scenes is striking. Also, Blacks are exceedingly black. It's as if everything
is wetted, and all colors are saturated, including Black, and rich, without
powdery reflective dust upon them. One reason we wear all-Black (like Concert
Black, in an orchestra) on sesshin, and at Zen centers, is to appreciate the
depth of black, by, say, the third day, ...or by the END of 7-day sesshin! ;-)
If I can do something along these lines, it will be nice.
Paintings will probably come out looking different though, to others, depending
on whether I paint them in the Awakened state, or in Samadhi, or in deluded-Joe
State.
But probably I will paint them all in the State of Arizona.
Lots to paint here! For realists, un-realists, and beginners like me.
--Joe
PS I won't discuss artists, here. What they do is beyond me. I have no firm
ideas about what any of them were doing. But I know what their work does upon
ME. No, I'm not saying the pedestrian, "I don't know ART, but I know what I
like!" I'm a pedestrian, and as often a cyclist. What I mean is that (those)
artists' works simply urge me to take up painting AS A YOGA. Oh, boy, another
one. To me, taking up the Yoga myself is more important than what THOSE Yogis
did. Maybe that's a non-standard view or appreciation of Art; but that's
what's at the front of my mind, right now, as a Technician. I'm right at the
bottom step, Merle, before taking a step. It's like the practice of "hua-tou".
> Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
>
> picasso..opened doors into new ways of seeing...cubism joe..
> Â that's what artists do...the great ones..they are visionaries.
> how doth mark rothko and jackson pollock sit with you?.
> i believe it was pollock who said that technique follows after you have
> something to say
> i mean to say what are you going to say in your paintings joe?...
>  then  through that you find the technique..unless you are obsessed with
> "realism"..what ever that means... we could question this concept till we are
> "blue in the face"
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