Re: Shakuhachi vs Hocchiku; Suizen vs Music

From: wgviney@watarts.uwaterloo.ca
Date: Thu Jan 30 2003 - 01:39:23 PST


On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 12:02:31 -0500, Dan Gutwein <dfgutw@wm.edu> said (in part),

> I am so glad that this discussion is taking place. I struggle with my own
> inner conflict between "spiritually" playing and "musically" playing each
> time I practice. My inner dialogue may go something like this ...

[etc.]

I wish that I had a calligraphy of the kanji "hoge jaku" -- which apparently
means something like "Throw it down!" -- to remind me just to let it go and get
on with it (as I think several others have put it in other posts).

I do have a calligraphy, by Hanshi Haga (a very high-ranked iaido teacher), of
the dictum "heijo shin", which means "ordinary [or everyday] mind" (as
in "ordinary mind is the way"). It's remarkable and sometimes discouraging how
un-ordinary, and thus muddled, my ordinary mind is, but then muddlement is a
(large!) part of life, too.

(I understand that "shin" means both heart and mind -- are they different
kanji? -- in Japanese. I think it's really more affect than ratiocination that
is under discussion, here, but their relation is another and vast topic.)

Windsor Viney
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

----------------------------------------
This mail sent through www.mywaterloo.ca
____________________________________________________



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 06 2004 - 14:09:32 PST