with Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
February 11, 2021
There is an aesthetic thread that runs through all the Zen Arts from the gentle art of flower arranging to the warrior arts. Art historian, Shinichi Hisamatsu in his classic work Zen and the Fine Arts was the first to write formally of seven primary characteristics of the Zen Aesthetic: no rule, no complexity, no rank, no mind, no bottom, no hindrance, no stirring. Tonight we’ll take a visual tour of these qualities and their ability to unlock our powers of direct perception. We’ll contemplate the images and see how Zen Masters applied their insight to painting, calligraphy, ceramics, poetry to inspire, awaken and delight those who choose to look. To paraphrase Alan Watts, Zen Art is the “art of artlessness, the art of controlled accident.”