Lecturer at Dharma Gate Buddhist College
(Zen Meditation, Zen Koan, Zen Seminar, Shakuhachi)
When a guest steps into the inner space of a traditional Japanese teahouse, their first glance falls upon a small alcove where a hanging scroll and a flower arrangement are placed, always suited to the occasion. The inscription on the scroll is most often a so-called zengo, a Zen Buddhist epigram, while the flower is simply one that is in bloom during the current season.
If you now step into the inner space of this brief writing about me, the inscription chosen for the occasion reads: “Gei dō kore butsu dō,” meaning “The way of art and the way of the Buddha are one and the same.” In front of this inscription, as part of the composition, several characteristic tools of Zen arts are arranged: a Japanese bamboo flute, a taiko drum, ink and brush, a Japanese sword, and a few instruments used in the tea ceremony.
Strange, isn’t it? How can art be the same as the Buddha’s path? How can these objects become tools of Buddhist practice? How can artistic activity become a form of practice? And going even further—how can any work, any activity, be transformed into meditation?
These questions can be answered in theory—we discuss them often—but in my practical classes, the primary goal is for participants to truly experience that sense of freedom when Zen meditation, artistic creation liberated from the anxiety of performance, and work freed from its burdens all merge into the same activity.
