N talked about Buddhism tonight, in French.
Peace is not the contrary of fighting, he said. It's more important as a state of being.
We started talking about what constituted "l'être humain" (the human being) and he pointed at his stomach. "Les émotions," he said. I laughed, "Elles sont là?" He was quite serious and continued to locate "le mental" and "le cæur" at his head and chest. 4 stages of evolution starting from "le corps physique" - and he insisted the development took human 1,000,000 years, with the last 200,000 years for the highest development of "the heart".
"Sadly most of the people stay at the level of the emotions, or just physical." Mind is quite separated from heart for him and how to use the latter, to make the right decisions in all situations, is where he thinks the heart of Buddhism is.
This is my fifth lesson in French with N. Le mot du jour: "Laisser-aller!"
The professionalism of the volunteers was just impressive and manner so heartwarming but, the grandiose setup and services seemed quite out of place for the emphatic theme about understanding the profound meaning and means of cultivating peace (WYPS). At one time I thought I should have brought my suit... but my sport-tees w/ old jeans. Am I stereotyping what "spiritual environment" could mean? Or UN, that initiates the event, is stereotyping itself?
A Hon decided to learn from U-Theatre how to run a performance group in various aspects. It's encouraging that the change from a performer's role to back-stage will not steal the light off him. It's really important for one to know, realise, accept, acknowledge, and understand his/her ability and use it on the right track.
The two ideas for the new performance project are pieces of a puzzle for me but Chan Ping Chiu described them as two ends of a pendulum. "Civil Beauty" which tries to relocate/rename art in the context of society and civil value is, yes, more suitable for visual arts project, considering its research basis. Yet the devicing approach may facilitate better the objective to question (myself) the idea about artistic deeds, regarding less to the form.
Chiu is obviously more interested in seeing the possible result of "combining my personal spiritual practice with performance" although my intention was much less aggressive - just to interpret based on daily life experiences the Tibetan Buddhist literature that illustrates the causes of cyclic existence (Diagram of 12 Causes). He said a couple of friends have been thinking about the attempt of such integration and I should take the step first. Another merit is the potential linkage between his project, My Dinner with Andre, with this, sharing the reference to Grotowsky in different ways. Indeed, the theatre master is almost religious for me, at least in the play.
The director-lab project seems already working. More concerned with concepts and means of presentation, as habits perhaps, I was freshly enlightened by Chiu's sensitivity and suggestiveness about the elements of theatre, especially the audience. He is paying great care with relevant experiences in formulating his experiment. An adorable and devoted artist he is.
Read Jamsen's observations of the difference between Japanese and Korean attitudes in general towards American invasion and domination in the 2 countries. Could not help writing down my "comment" as urged by his affecting tone that worried me. Claiming righteousness/legitimacy is no longer valid, or significant (except for political reason perhaps) , as manifested by George Bush's logic. I was about to write down "Remembrance of the others' wrong won't help,” immediately the annual vigil in Hong Kong for the massacre of 1989 in China came to thought.
To remember or not. History is inevitably part of the culture we live, in present tense. At the same time, pain could become cultural/personal asset, treasure in another word, only after it can be taken as a lesson for learning about oneself. I agree with you: it's pertinent and crucial to learn about one's own culture, but, instead of revolting the others'. At last I've put down,
"Endurance is one of the cultural values we should keep for ourselves, if there is a difference, than striving for "victory"- that's the way our culture survives I think."
I gave up writing diary 18 years ago.
Even entirely enchanted by the powerful interconnectivity and interactivity, I still have not got a convincing reason to write diary-like blogs, assuming writing any form of autobiography is mostly for satisfying the sense of self-being through narrative. Unless the writing is with a purpose, either reflective or advocating itself.
As a comment to my first attempt, Toby sent me the reference for good web-writing . Useful but not enlightening. Web writing should be more than DIY publishing. It is melting my concept definitely, but are we getting there and understand what network could mean. And the speed, what is it speeding up?
What impressed me today is from a book written in 1990 (almost stunning as compared to the up-to-the-minute web-publishing):
The illiterate of the year 2000 will not be the individual who cannot read and write, but the one who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." (Alvin Toffler, Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century)That's why I am starting here, I think.
First written on 15 June 2004 after four days in a Buddhist camp in Taiwan -
Sometimes a life is a day. Things could just repeat day by day which passes like the interlude between dreams… and I believe there is much longer way to go, "eternity before now" and "eternity after" as Nietzsche said (“The Vision and the Riddle”, Thus Spoke Zarathustra). Remember also the film "Groundhog Day"? "Moment" comes and goes which we should have grasped, to make a change for what we value. But I review, myself and some others, how successful or pitiful, admirable or miserable they are, most of the time we just repeat what we have been doing, for days, years or lives perhaps, NOT as a choice, but simply habit(s) - habits of the way of thinking, of liking, of value, and of desire mostly... As a result, our environment (culture) changes, resembling nature but not exactly, and in return affects more and more people.
It is not necessarily religious, I think, through which I am just learning as a process, about the world, people and myself. Maybe more about management so far. More important now, I feel desperate to share, as I never feel so strongly concerned with the people around, as they tide beside me across the platform in the subway… How many of us have given up those aspirations we have had because they seem too far after all? What will make us look at life in its face and seize the moment(s) that will make our lives, the best of ours and the others’? I am practising just to gaze at the moment.
Art may be more about freedom of mind where beauty, criticism, fun, sensation... are the keys. Reflections, of oneself, of people and things around, however temporary of a nature, compose a map.
MindScience: An East-West Dialogue
by The Dalai Lama (w/ Howard E. Gardner, Herbert Benson, Daniel Goleman, etc.)
The Virgin Fish of Babughat
by Lokenath Bhattacharya
The Infernal Machine
by Jean Cocteau
The Labyrinth of Solitude
by Octavio Paz
Kiss of Spider Woman
by Manuel Puig
The Meaning of Life (on-line excerpts)
by H.H. Dalai Lama
20 Beans + A Box (art group)
Squidfingers (Pattern, adjusted)