Shodo: The Quiet Art of Japanese Zen Calligraphy, Learn the Wisdom of Zen Through Traditional Brush Painting

The art of the inner work, which unlike the outer does not forsake the artist, which he does not “do” and can only“be,” springs from the depths of which the day knows nothing. EUGEN HERRIGEL, ZEN IN THE ART OF ARCHERY

Art is regarded as a way of life altogether, not necessarily as a trade or business.

the Japanese arts go back for their inner form to a common root, namely Buddhism.

Sen no Rikyu’s eye for aesthetic balance and his predilection for the simple and unadorned helped to change the focus of the tea ceremony from a display of culture and wealth to a communion of kindred spirits seeking purity and truth.

In chado, the way of tea; shodo, the way of the brush; kado, the way of the flower, and kyudo, the way of the bow, the suffix “do” means “way.” These arts were called ways because they were disciplines or paths of polishing the artist’s understanding of him or herself and the nature of reality.