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The Perfect Flaw
lobster
Crusty Veteran
I thought wabi-sabi was a Japanese fish sauce . . . m m m that might be wasabi . . .
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi
The Buddhist ideas of beauty in the flawed, might be more mature or just different to the classic Western search for perfection in art, that we inherited from Greece. Maybe Buddhist wabi-sabi is a form of Zen punk art . . .
The only art forms I practice are photography and the occasional poem.
Is your music cracked? Are you like Gilbert and George a little potty? Is your cooking, home or sand castle a mandala? Maybe nature/life is art? Not your thing? What then is beauty and its relationship to dharma?
What is your aesthetic?
Gold and broken pots welcome.
:clap: .
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Comments
@ Hhhmmm. Does that make meditation the guilding of our imperfections?
I once turned some dinosaur goo into what I thought was art. It was called lace-amatic and thousands of copies of it circled the globe carried by evangelicals hoping that laziness might be the next new thing but no amount of enthusiasm made it any more than that.
Now I measure the worth of my art by how free of my own attachments it can be.
I like the idea a lot. There seems to be two ways to fix broken stuff in the world.
I personally favor the second. Specially if I can do it myself. Most times the idea is to mend it so that the original function and look are preserved but this reminds me of how the childrens grandmother mends their torn clothes not with a patch of a similar color to the old cloth but with patches with different contrasting colors and patterns.
It really looks nice! It makes the clothes even better looking in my opinon than the originals!
Sorry I do not have a picture to show you.
This is healthy thinking.
/Victor
Art for me has always been about a mode of perception rather than a tightening around concepts.
So for example when I forget to wear my trousers, my attachments do not make me free . . .
The photo of what you look like without your trousers definitely caused a tightening around my concepts.
It is said that the Taj Mahal (although one of the most beautiful and inspirational buildings on earth) is apparently 3 degrees off the vertical because only God can make perfection....
That's a beautiful concept @lobster, and one I had no idea of, in Japanese culture. What a perfect way to perfect imperfection - with more imperfection!
This is great! I finally have a use for all that previously useless gold that's just been lying around.
Tantram for Tantrums
Send demons
to turn them, petals at the feet of gods
Send flowers
Who will compost into bloom
This is such a great thread, rather trying to fix everything and always getting new and better, to just be happy and see the beauty in what is.
When I started meditations I was always chasing the lofty one pointed experiences thinking this was it. I was annoyed at the lawn mower or my mate turning up during the all important hour of meditation.
What a relief when I realised that I should just accept whatever there is, stop trying to change everything
Now the lawn mower sounds are just simply quiet beautiful.
Thank you all!!
I first experienced Gilbert and George as performance artists was I was in the first couple of years at university, and they blew my socks off! To be given (what was basically a very personal) live performance, on the top of a South London rooftop by them was an amazing experience - It was 1992 - and they were amazing!
I love mending things including buildings and machines because it's good for the environment and good for my wallet, a win-win situation!
The most compelling Buddha statue I ever saw sat in the midst of a stunning exhibit of statuary, paintings, calligraphy, clothing, and other arts held at the Asia Society in New York. It was about 18 inches high and clearly had been carved out of a short log that came off a wood pile. Knife and chisel marks were left unsmoothed. It was, as it seemed to me, a real labor or love that emanated what had gone into it.
Knocked my socks off ... though who knows, maybe the guy who made it was looped on sake and marking time during a boring evening. Whatever, it struck me as far more spiritually alight than all the refined Buddhas and bodhisattvas surrounding it in the exhibit.
^^^ How do we perceive the essence and not the form?
I would suggest through stillness.
When you unroll Mr Cushion, nothing there ...