Zen in the Japanese arts

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Zen in the Japanese arts

The next poem is very similar to the first one:
In the utter silence
Of a temple,
A cicada’s voice alone
Penetrates the rocks. (123)
I would like to attempt a reconstruction of the depicted event. In my opinion, this poem should be approached by the analogy with the poem about the frog. Once again, it seems that Basho was sitting absorbed in meditation when a voice penetrated through him and made him aware of the emptiness. Once again, there is no trace of pretenses or deliberate symbolism or metaphor. Yet, the depth of the expression would allow a reader to find many meanings. For example, it could be discussed who was the rock – was it just an object or, was Basho himself the rock? But, from the point of view of the author of the words, obviously, there is neither distinction nor a hint that a distinction was perceived or suggested. On the contrary, there is neither difference nor any allusion that there could be a difference between the author of the poem and the rock. Once again, the voice alone allows the recognition of the silence. Once again, only through form the emptiness is recognized.
#3 The last form of Zen art that I would like to discuss is the art of gardening. I would like to say a few words about the garden that fascinates me for years – the stone garden of Ryoan-ji. As I mentioned before, Petersen discussed it. He explained the philosophical meaning of the garden referring to the famous verse of the Heart Sutra – “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” I would like to follow his example since I don’t think that I can do better nor that anyone has offered a more profound comment.
The garden is a flat rectangular covered with sand and it contains fifteen stones in it. The stones are arranged asymmetrically, informally and they are uneven, like there was no formal rule to follow. The garden is simple, with no extra details and minimum variation of the elements. It contains only sand and stones. As in all forms of Zen art, something must represent the emptiness. Here, of course, that is the sand. Now, a rhetorical question could be asked: – If the sand represents the emptiness and the representation of the emptiness is the goal of the Zen art, then, what is the purpose of the rocks? Petersen raised the same question and answered that rocks were there because only through form we could realize emptiness. Just as Basho became aware of the emptiness only after the resonance of frog’s plopping into the pond, here the viewer could realize emptiness only through the stones.
Approaching the conclusion, I would like to say that for many years I am fascinated with the Buddhist philosophy and the famous Heart Sutra was always a puzzle. I read all existing Tibetan commentaries and many Chinese commentaries, but I did not find a thoroughly convincing one, at least, not as simple and powerful as the one by Petersen. Now, I am convinced that the stone garden helped me to understand the most profound point of Mahahana philosophy – the relation between the form and the emptiness. That leads me to a conclusion that Zen art has to be seen not only as influenced by Zen philosophy but as the most successful explanation of the Zen philosophy. It seems that Petersen was right when saying that, “The idea of emptiness is not a concept reached by analytical reasoning, but one that must be perceived in aesthetic terms. Aesthetic form is pre-requisite to conceptual perception” (107). In other words, it is impossible to think of emptiness in abstract terms. As soon as we abstract it from the art form – we lose it.

Works cited
Basho, Matsuo. The Narrow Road to the Deep North. London: Penguin Books, 1966.
Dumoulin, Heinrich. Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume I: India and China. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1988.
Fisher, E. Robert. Buddhist Art and Architecture. Thames and Hudson. 1993.
Hisamatsu, Shin’ichi. Zen and the Fine Arts. Kodansha International Ltd. 1971
Keene, Donald. “Japanese Aesthetics.” Philosophy East and West 19 (1969): 293-306.
Petersen, Will. “Stone Garden.” The World of Zen. Nancy Wilson Ross, ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1960, pp. 104 – 111.
Wilson Ross, Nancy. The World of Zen. New York: Vintage Books, 1960.
Williams, Paul. Mahàyàna Buddhism: The doctrinal foundations. London: Routledge, 1993.

AuthorDraško Mitrikjeski
2018-08-21T17:23:35+00:00 October 1st, 2002|Categories: Essays, Literature, Blesok no. 28|0 Comments