Seek a deeper understanding of the fundamental and enduring questions that have been raised by thoughtful human beings in the rich traditions of the East.
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Oxherding
The set of poems and drawings known as the Oxherding series presents a parable about the conduct of Buddhist practice. In the most common version, attributed to a 12th-century Chinese Zen master, there are ten drawings, the first of which shows a young herder who has lost the ox he is supposed to be tending. In subsequent images he finds the ox’s tracks, sees the beast itself, tames it, and rides it home. In the seventh drawing the ox disappears: it “served a temporary purpose,” the accompanying poem says; it was a metaphor for something, not to be mistaken for the thing itself. The herder too disappears in the next drawing; the image simply shows a circle (Japanese, enso), a common symbol for enlightenment. The ninth drawing implies that the person who has achieved enlightenment does not then retreat from the world; called “Returning to the Roots, Going Back to the Source,” it usually shows a scene from nature. More » -
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Duane Michals
Photographer Duane Michals lives in New York; his books include Now Becoming Then (Twelvetrees Press) More » -
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Heart Print
WHEN BRICE MARDEN SAW the "Masters of Japanese Calligraphy" exhibition at New York's Asia Society in 1984, he was so captivated by the beauty and authority of the work, by the living energy of the drawn lines, that he kept a copy of the catalogue with him wherever he went. For the first time, he saw calligraphy as drawing. And drawing for Marden—like calligraphy for the Japanese and Chinese—is "the most direct form of all artistic expression." Long a believer that art is a form of spiritual communication, Marden felt an affinity with this work, which evolved in a kind of inspired state. In fact, the Chinese expression for a piece of Zen calligraphy is "heart print." More » -
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Wiley Mind
Boo Dada Bar BQ 55" x 33" x 33" Listening to the radio I hear .. Coyote Roshi a known collector of.. wooden buddahs received a letter from a student of Bhag Wan Shree Rahjneesh saying .. "You collect wooden buddas .. why not come here and meet a living buddah?" Coyote Roshi wrote back .. "Living buddahs are all over .. but a good wooden buddah is hard to find .. " Can't quite remember the question .. the person asked of Trungpa Rinpoche .. It was some thing about a life situation .. and he or she was asking advice. Trungpa said .. "But why would you want to do that?" "To save my life" the person said. Trungpa replied .. "What are you saving it for?" Just as the fire that burns all through the night in the morning it is not the same flame nor is it a different one. Memory quote from the book—What The Buddah Taught—on how things change and remain the same. More » -
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The Zen Circles of Kazuaki Tanahashi
These images are best viewed in the digital edition (pages 64 through 69) of the magazine. More »
