Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Basho wrote his haiku in the simplest type of Japanese speech, naturally avoiding literary and “highbrow” language, so creating a style which made it possible for ordinary people to be poets. Bankei, his contemporary, did just the same thing for Zen,
Alan W. Watts • The Way of Zen
The Zen movement developed hand in hand with the arts it was inspiring. And it was Takeno Joo who, having received instruction in the ways of tea from Shuko and Jotei (the reputed son of Ikkyu), then transmitted his teachings to Sen no Rikyu.
Andrew Juniper • Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence
Jiddu Krishnamurti • The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti
“Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
After Michelangelo died, someone found in his studio a piece of paper on which he had written a note to his apprentice, in the handwriting of
Poetry is a problem of form and emptiness. Ze moment I put one word onto an empty page, I hef created a problem for myself. Ze poem that emerges is form, trying to find a solution to my problem.” He sighed. “In ze end, of course, there are no solutions. Only more problems, but this is a good thing. Without problems, there would be no poems.”
Ruth Ozeki • The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel
Music has been described as the spaces between the notes, and in art, too, the areas that are not actually used can be just as important as those that are.
Andrew Juniper • Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence
The inherent superiority of emptiness over form and stillness over activity, as well as their indivisible interdependence, is a salient point in many Asian philosophies.
Daniel P. Reid • The Tao Of Health, Sex, and Longevity: A Modern Practical Guide to the Ancient Way
