Sorry, I think the original wording in the subject line of this thread has gone
astray; I try to be careful when replying to posts, but receiving the digest
form of the list makes that a bit more difficult.
Mark Miller <markm@naropa.edu> said,
> Pitch, tone, timbre, breath, posture, etc- all of these aspects of flute
> playing are the form of our practice and are therefore very important whether we
> focus primarily on music or spirit. Whether we call it suizen, zazen or
> music, these practices lead us in the same direction, toward what Kobun Chino
> Roshi called "unrestricted being" (I may not have the phrase exaclty, but
> that's the essence). [...]
>
> Music is an outward expression of beingness. [...]
With respect, I think Mr. Miller and the late Kobun Chino Roshi may have been
over-influenced by Heidegger or his ilk. "Beingness" ...?
I conjecture that the spiritual sensations brought on by shakuhachi playing are
mostly due to repeatedly taking deep breaths and then exhaling slowly and with
fine control through a tiny opening between pursed lips: changes blood-gas
levels. (Compare the various methods of breathing used to allay anxiety or to
assist exertion in childbirth.)
Listening carefully and trying to control/modify the sounds produced by those
exhalations through a notoriously finicky instrument -- in other words,
concentrating on a physically simple but subtle and demanding, self-assigned
task -- results in the pleasant sensations associated with successfully rising
to a challenge.
The sound produced by shakuhachi-playing is not too loud, and what I might call
soothingly quasi-stable: hovering on the boundary between (human) predictability
and surprise, which is a prescription for something that will continually engage
the attention and thus tend to produce the calm that comes from sustained but
relaxed concentration.
(I suspect that the rapt attention certain animals seem to give to shakuhachi
music is due to its higher, humanly inaudible partials.)
If (any of) this is true, it does nothing to infirm the beauty or value of
shakuhachi music and playing. Explanation need not be denigration or dismissal,
though it might sometimes (but not by me, here) be intended, and is often
construed, as such.
Windsor Viney
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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