Alan Sondheim wrote:
>Speaking of knowing/unknowing/this or that - I'm curious if everyone on
>the list works out of a zen or otherwise context?
Not at all. Or, perhaps, "of course". I'm not sure I understand the
question the way it was phrased, because I think everyone does everything
in some context.
But as to zen, no. Not everyone. I'm a musician. I started studying
shakuhachi, when I had the opportunity to take lessons, because I liked the
sound of the instrument, and because I like learning new instruments to
play. At the time I started playing shakuhachi, I had been playing other
wind instruments for over 30 years. I've studied some honkyoku, and given
the free time and availability of a teacher, I'll probably study more at
some time, but I prefer playing sankyoku. And, even aside from the issues
of trying to play in tune with other instruments, it seems to me clearly
untrue that being concerned about pitch and things like temperature's
effects on it are "something that only pro shakuhachi players should
ponder/worry about." Not all of us are, or aspire to emulate, "monks of old".
I enjoy skimming the discussions of zen on this list, though I've never
done more than a slight casual amount of reading on the issue. Conscious
awareness of zen (is that an oxymoron?) is not anything that motivates any
of my activities, but I suspect that I'm experiencing a zen-like meditative
state, when I'm focused on playing difficult modern music on the saxophone
in the middle of a 60-piece ensemble, trying to pay attention
simultaneously to playing the correct notes, watching a conductor to keep
at the right tempo, listening to the rest of the band to stay in tune, and
trying to get some musical expressiveness along with everything else; as
much of a zen state as the monk playing shakuhachi honkyoku with no audience.
-- Morris M. Keesan - keesan@alum.bu.edu (Note new email address)_____________________________________________
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