I should have said "as suizen," or at least as part of one's Zen
practice--in the original sense of dhyana, in contrast to playing the
shakuhachi as a musical instrument. In my experience, very often
players who play the shakuhachi as suizen are less concerned with
musicality than players who play it for musical reasons alone, or in
addition to playing honkyoku. So again, does that make sense? Should
such considerations as pitch, quality of tone, etc, matter? Why or why
not?
Then, while all music can of course be spritual, I was thinking of the
difference in intention and how that affects ones approach to not just
the thechnical aspects of playing, but the way one expresses the
honkyoku. For example, if playing shakuahchi as suizen, should it
matter how the piece sounds, are whether anything is expressed by one's
playing of the piece? I seem to hear that it doesn't from the suizen
players, and many others don't seem to be concerned enough to make the
efforts necessary to master these technical things.
To me there are differences between playing shakuahchi and playing Bach
or any other piano music--not to say that it's representative, but
that's the limit of my experience. Bach is also, for me, like the
Shakespeare of Western music, elemental and sublime, so I think it's
easier to speak of the spirituality of his music than of many other
composers. Yet, it's all his music, the expression of his person,
whereas for me honkyoku has an even deeper, more fundamental nature to
it; and the koten honkyoku, at least, ewere not composed by one person.
My piano playing peaked years before I ever picked up a shakuhachi, so
perhaps the difference is just in me, but the experience of playing
sublime pieces like the Chopin etudes or the Bach or Rachimaninoff
preludes, while it can be ecstatic due to the technical difficulties as
well as the quality of the music, doesn't match the experience of
playing honkyoku on shakuahchi as a Zen, or perhaps rather zen,
practice, and that's due to all of the aspects of the music as well as
the nature of the flute. Which brings me back to the same question--do
musical, or just technical, considerations heighten or detract from
that advantage, shall we say, of shakuhachi?
Peter H
--- markm@naropa.edu wrote:
>
>
> Does playing shakuhachi as a spiritual
> > pursuit obviate the need to worry about such musical things?
>
> In reading the recent threads about spirituality and shakuhachi
> playing (and
> not wanting to be a trouble-maker (until now)) I've resisted asking
> the most
> obvious question: What do you mean by "spiritual"? How is suizen
> different
> from zazen? In what way are these two practices the same? Can
> playing
> the silver flute be a spiritual practice? If not, how is playing
> Bach less
> "spiritual" than playing honkyoku? (Is the A minor solo sonata not
> spiritual?
> Would it be more spiritual if played on a bamboo flute?)
>
> Just sitting? Just blowing? Just walking down the street? Breath?
> Posture?
> Pitch? What's going on here?
>
> Best,
>
> Mark Miller
>
>
>
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