Nelson.
You may well be seeing a circularity to the whole discussion. Mind you,
any number of nutritionists would be very happy to enlighten you
regarding rice. There is a definitive way to distinguish the very real
difference between white and brown rice.
I also tend to agree with your statement that spirituality is a matter
of personal perception and as such is totally subjective.
But you are thrusting my argument in the wrong direction here. Yes, as
you say, if someone says playing hochiku rather than shakuhachi makes
them more spiritual who are you to argue. But if someone says that
playing hochiku rather than shakuhachi makes them more spiritual THAN
YOU, assuming that you play shakuhachi, then you might be more willing
to disagree.
Furthermore, you missed my real message.
At the risk of sounding apodictic, my real message is this. Many of us
folk who do play shakuhachi have muddled our personal perception of
what is spiritual in our bamboo flute playing activities and what is
music. One consequence of this is that the music aspect frequently
suffers.
I tend to think that the spiritual aspect may suffer too, but as you
point out, what is my folly might be someone else's brown rice.
Best regards, Riley
Dr. Riley Lee
PO Box 939
Manly 1655 NSW Australia
Tel: +61 (0)2 9976 6904
Fax: +61 (0)2 9976 6905
mobile: +61 (0)414 626 453
www.rileylee.net
> From: Nelson Zink <zink@newmex.com>
> To: <Shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: Re: Shakuhachi vs Hocchiku; Suizen vs Music
> Message-ID: <BA5CC52B.1F1D%zink@newmex.com>
>
> Riley,
>
>> shakuhachi and hochiku
>
> There's a circularity to the whole discussion. Is there a definitive
> way to
> distinguish between shakuhachi and hochiku? Or are we just taking about
> white rice and brown rice?
>
> The distinctions I've heard aren't definitive and tend to emphasis
> methods
> of construction rather than aural characteristics. Are we talking about
> degree of refinement as it applies to instrument, sound, etc.?
>
> I understand your observation that making and wearing rice straw
> sandals may
> not get one any closer to heaven. But spirituality is a matter of
> personal
> perception and as such is totally subjective. One person's
> spirituality is
> another's folly.
>
> So while I agree with the general thrust of your message, at a deeper
> level
> I don't. If someone says playing hochiku rather than shakuhachi makes
> them
> more spiritual who am I to argue. But I think your real message is
> about
> elitism whether it be spiritual or otherwise. Yes, it's annoying. But
> the
> reverse snobbery is endearing: I'm better than you because my flute is
> worse
> than yours.
>
> And it shouldn't go unnoticed that Zen itself got it's start, in part,
> with
> the rejection and repudiation of Chinese ornamentation. Maybe what
> we're
> really taking about is the self-satisfaction asceticism can provide.
>
> Nelson
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