TAO/ZEN

On 13 June 2012 02:46, Martin Law <martin.rainbowmaker@gmail.com> wrote:

Zen (tho who am i to...) is something like that. Tho saying so it's not.
Like the novice walking with the Head Monk (Sensei/ Roshi) in the woods, said "isn't it such a pleasant evening". Roshi-  "Yes but it's a pity to have to say so".
We're so verby in the west. What they called "like putting legs on a snake", i.e. superfluous.  When we know, so much goes on is body language tele-pathy (distant empathy) intuition.
Zen was, or is, originally, in contradistinction to official doctrine: "A direct transmission outside the scriptures not depending on words and letters."  memory unquote. More like renegade trickster get the job done and no bullshit. Tradition is full of eccentic artist monks living alone in mountain huts getting together for painting parties and wine wowing the full moon and sparring like hilarious children over  hair splitting nuances of insight in wild ping-pong flashes knocking the other off his perch or stance to 'come off it' and have a good belly laugh and "have a cup of tea" classic blend, no discursive logic allowed. Thats in Kerouacan beat language.
Then there were the two legendary mad zen monks Shitoku and Jitoku' depicted in numerous scrolls with accompanying haiku poem,
typically laughing like joyful children and tossing the autumn maple leaves into the air enjoying them as they sail and flutter down like snow each one just so in their perfect place. Kinda serious fun huh?
Till the japanese, you know how they formalize and regiment, there's even a book of perect answers to koan questions. Which is a cosmic joke cos it's all about being spontaneous, authentic, original, innovative and no logic but profound intuitive knowing of one's  true empty nature at all times there are no 'all times' , just this, and when you say that, it's instantly not so. So it's all about real 'nots' cos what it is, is never the word.
Oh shit i've done it again.Written a thing.
Might be of use? According to Hui-Neng (?) higher zen is about use.
No point being uselessly wise if it's not applicable.
Memory quote: "When the right wo(man) uses the wrong means, the wrong means work in the right way."
Wisdom is just common sense. It's just not very common.
i said that. (which is precisely THE delusion.)

Miss Elaine Eous.

On 11 June 2012 23:15, Martin Law <martin.rainbowmaker@gmail.com> wrote:

>Re sponding,
(word, "ephemerality" in my previous message not the exact word. But the "ph" was right so i planted it. Was thinking of epiphany, with an "ality" on it.)
So. Oranges. Yes, have eaten whole orange, peelpithanall. Only thing is if they're sprayed.
As you went to the van i did notice the Countesthorpe Herald text. Assumed it was perhaps a duplicate. But will post to them, maybe tomorrow.Presume
simply address and post?
Methodical itemizing... I do have a right-hand inverted comma ( ' ). Had assumed i was missing a left one, but now i see it is not curved like a comma, so is both a left and a right. That's quite funny... Hangover from handwriting.
Reason a friend asked me to call round was to get my take on second occurrence of waking from a dream, to a " presence" and play of coloured lights outside on bedroom curtain.  She, thinking now it's angelic rather than ET.  Said she thought of opening curtains to see but was too scared.
Ha !  Seems obvious thing to do, look out the window. Maybe they wanted to ask where i lived. So i with-held (funny word) what i'd meant to say, as it
was past it's sell-by date, not of the moment.
Don't recall the JLL with the "Chan" in it.  Something i'm familiar with though.  Bodhi-Dharma, founder of zen came from India 5th century to pass on Gautama Buddha's insight teaching. The Chinese, being pragmatic mystics morphed it into 'Ch'an', meaning, 'meditation'.  As so does the sanskrit word, 'Dhyana', which later became the japanese word, 'Zen'.  As in ,'Za-Zen', sitting meditation.
You know, to a large extent, my being waterproof to kristiun and kathalik doctrine, is that, since dropping out of sunday school, which was boring as hell, soon as i left Leicester i was straight into zen and meditation via the 'beat' poets and Kerouac at age 19.  So followed it up reading Alan Watts, starting with his first book, 'The Way of Zen'. Written as a studious prodigy at age 21. i think. Then all his many other books. Reading repeatedly right up to 1982 or so.  Along with explorations into any  zen-related, Tao,
Advaita (non-duality), Lao-tze,  Chuang-Tze, and dozens of others, zen haiku poetry, and deeply into zen and Tao landscape painting and spiritual principles. So that's most of my background.
Subsequently read the larger background to  christian doctrine, people like Gardner, and Watts too wrote many books from that angle, because he got caught up again later, even becoming a minister till he had a rude awakening. He explored what they call 'comparative religion' first hand, and did a huge amount to make zen and tao accessible to the west.
Blending with that, quite easily, the native american way is virtually synonymous with the tao way, with the addition of being embedded, and rooted in a long tribal tradition of earth and sky, and one with the spirits of the creatures and elements.  All excellent proof against patriarchal doctrine.
Would be good to share vocal discussion of all this. No doctrine to untangle. Simply the spirit nuances of the wild and natural. (Though indians didn't consider the 'wilderness'to be 'wild'.  The white men, 'wasicu', were wild because unrooted and unbonded as well as evidently hypocritical and blind to the natural sacred.  So all this synthesizes easily and comfortably for me. The indians were permaculturists and pagans. Some white settlers regarded them as 'a nation of saints'
I have a bit of an intuition all this could be of help untying knots that somebody else tied. From my perspective it is a bit puzzling why such knots might persist as a problem to be untied. Though it's obviously important research so you can say ,'there, that's how it's done'. 'Easy'.
Was thinking,(as they say) about this, earlier. Like, what is it exactly (trauma apart) that makes the web sticky?  And felt the urge to ask, .... could you boil it right down to one, or two sentences? Like when you're, say,
up against the wall.  Totally, radically definitive, explicative, denunciatory.
I know you've probably done more hard work than me in that regard.
Perhaps it's a bit like, it's only a paradox to be resolved as long as it's felt to be something that needs resolution.  Like trying to remember a name. Till you say , oh fuck it  i really don't care. And then it resolves itself. That's a typically zen thing.  You get it when you no longer need it. And find it was always there(here) anyway.
Did six hours on the back garden the other day. With just a trowel , like it was a paintbrush. Totally weeded. Edges sharpened. Round lawn clipped.
Just like painting. Looks sublime. My notion is to create a sanctuary, an enclosed, bushy oasis in the midst of the rectangle jungle. Envision a holy concentric round fertile place for blackbirds to herald the dewy dawn.
Started on the front lawn, plucking out, with plunge and leverage of trowel, dandelions, plantains, buttercups, though they'r all useful herbs and it feels a bit eugenic. Bet the guys could make the perfect tool for that. But trowel's fine. Maybe concave chisell would be good.
Talked with a good friend a bit outside Bakehouse today. Her lad pulling on her and timing us, "you've got 3 more minutes!" Said to get in touch. Another friend walked past earlier, second time without stopping.
Continually curious (for years) about this talk of a 'shift in dimensions'. Was listening to talks by Mark Kimmel. All these people leave something to be desired sort of feeling. Suppose it's simply that, ... the word is not the experience itself. "The map is not the territory".  (Quote: Bullminster Fucker.
))))) That's what i'm getting at with the 'eden' thing. Befoer i went in to town, i just typed in, the world beyond civilization. And there was pages of people thinking the same thing.  It's symptomatic of a groundswell.
I'd be quite happy to upgear into a finer resonant frequency, maybe that's what we're designed for, here for. If we so choose to commit, orient, and align and practice towards that.....    lots of other tangenitals.....
Taking a break..... hope all good, house-healing, make it shine triumphant.
That's a bit like the word, elephant. Maybe 3 elephants.
Love, clarity, and people power.......... rainbowwhatsit*
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'The Lash of Rain'.

On 14 June 2012 17:14, Martin Law <martin.rainbowmaker@gmail.com> wrote:

> hmm... The Lash of Rain..." (13)
Random ruminations in a room during downpour.  The heart and the hearth. Flickering flame reflections on the pane curiously creates a burning bush in the wet garden. A quite convincing optical effect.
Photographed it once but the flash on glass obliterates.
Listened to Lash navs 11.  So enjoyed my "rancour" is the right word, piece, that i sent it to him (+ to 6 or 7 others) with a succinct invite to my blog and site. respectfully simple with respect to not syncopate his nocturnal timelessness of epm.  That done and overdue.
My cheap dictionary says, 'rancour'= "bitter hate".
I conceive it more like a mother with cubs in this inst.  Righteous protective without the relig.+/  Rancour.  The sound has a raptor's  curved hook of a beak. A raptor's rampage of righteous rage.  A black blood-tipped carrion crow of a word.
Paleo diet.  But for the lash of rain i'd take a trip out for more meat.  I do that periodically, to 'subsidize my vegetarianism', so said i to the butcher who knows me of many conversations and he laughed. The importance of 'fat', i said. Far from him to disagree.
The indian word for white man: 'wasicu' (wah-shee-choo) also meant
'takes the fat'.  You can hear the word in Dances with wolves when Costner enters the camp. " Wasicu!  Wasicu!" Gathering up her kids from the creek. Watched that in slowmo ten times. Hunting for images.  What will i paint?         ...?
Enjoyed your message.  Thinking to send C- Herald coupla CD's.
The butternuts are pro-life-erating leafily strong looking. Everthing a right degree of moist.  Yellow pepper's bigger. East to south exposed.
Do i need write extra or will blog potential suffice?  I do like my 'An ancient path' painting.  Total imaginary. Bracken as good as Vincent.
A REALLY ancient path.  Took photos of my garden, in evening gold last blast through sombre shrouds.  Shots of rose blooms for ref.
Thought of doing same at night. With a flash in the black void. May do that.  Lashing has lessened.
5.00/   Have you checked 'future primitive'?  I came up with same title long before hearing of Lash, about ...1997?
My 'Rant', one facet extrapolation of an overall guiding imagination orientation.  The Earth is ALWAYS ancient despite 'ephemeral' (correct use of word) infrastructure ticky-tacky trash.  Need more grasp of validity of this shift to redeemed Earth /eden concept.  Now Lash is hinting at that with downpouring of Pleromic Love.  We need to go from paranoia to metanoia.... Like 'Albion Awake'.  Looks like they're going to 'mimic' that at the O-limp-ix !
I take a break. Must say, i much enjoy this process. Thanks ever.
Augmentations~~~~~~~ Wal Nitram. (apologies to Leonindo Da Varci)

Worlds without end

On 7 June 2012 23:19, Martin Law <martin.rainbowmaker@gmail.com> wrote:

>Thoughts thinking themselves,
in the present, (where else?), re-playing the bit of our, more than thirteen hour long discussion, where you mentioned in passing, the notion that perhaps i had delivered into the world enough of a body of artworks, that i could, (what?), somehow take a rest from the perpetual output.
I may well have paraphrased that incorrectly, and it might not be exactly what you meant. But it's interesting, and the mind typically played with it.
So, what does the mind playfully think?
It seems to feel there is no end, and wonders even if there was a beginning.
If anything has been relinquished, it might only be the notion, once held, perhaps, that the world at large will take any notice, or even see what i'm doing. You know the stereotype of what's called "an artist". The cliche notion of "gaining recognition", becoming "established". All sounds funny to me at this stage. Even "posthumous" recognition. Doesn't it all sound like vanity and self-image obsession? Not much different from every bird wanting to be famous for singing. A bird sings because singing is an intrinsic aspect of the mysterious phenomenon we call bird.
The same with what we call human. Or tree, or flower, for that matter.
When i found myself to be singing and painting at a young age, i had no thought of doing so for some other reason. Later on, that's where society,(so called), invites you , pressures you, into all these other reasons for doing what you do naturally. It could be,livelihood,(as if you weren't lively already).
It could be fame, recognition, wanting to be noticed as being different. (As if you weren't different. As if everybody, and everything wasn't different already.)  It could be the urge to communicate something one feels to be of value to others, and in the service to the well-being of all life.)
There's a sort of maturation process perhaps, in the progression through the various justifications for doing what you do naturally anyway. I don't know if birds go through such a thing. They may start out singing for hunger and and continue for the joy of it. But outside of such academic anthropomorphisms, that's mere assumption of the mystery we call "bird".
It was Pablo Picasso who said, "I paint as the bird sings". But he did have a pretty astute manager.
Another thing i may well have let go of, through experience, is the notion of "the art world". Some sort of club. Having as much to do with business and commerce as art. Take "art movements". Whether or not they start with a mutual communication between "artists". They tend to become historically crystallized by critics ,dealers, and historians, who like to put everything in a box and put a label on it, not to mention a hierarchical price tag.
While i have painted for sixty-six years,(since age 4 at least), i've no reason to not do it.  It's life energy, and continual transformation through curiosity and otherwise invisible ever evolving enthusiasm.
When you've done that many hundred experiments, you don't want to do the same thing too many times more than once. It is about the created object for itself. But equally, if not more so, about the process itself, and more specifically about the challenge of perception. To perceive, to see, and feel the world in ever deeper ways, and to explore other possible (or seemingly impossible) angles, from a spirit of imagination viewpoint.
It's a way of, not only staying outside the box, one's own past boxes as well as other peoples assumed boxes, as well as becoming exponentially "box-proof" to the so called "culture" that has a way of imposing more and more "life-proof-boxes" on unsuspecting people.
So, it's not only what first-nations-people call, "the beauty way". Picasso also called it, "a weapon of defence against the enemy". And lest you bring up the "new age critique cliche" against "us and them". The "them" in question continually demonstrate and openly declare, they don't regard themselves as us, and have every intention of getting rid of us "the people".
You do have to know your enemy when they declare themselves to be such.
Look around at what they do. Self declared enemies of all life. And we still vote for them!

So, i do expect to take ever-evolving creative curiosity into whatever dimension of worlds my natural resonance orients me to. And if others don't see it, then they will have to learn to feel it. It's all about resonance too. Takes two to resonate. Resonance, and radiance. Two good key words to orientate by.
So no, i'm for pushing the envelope. Or, more exactly, in resonance with the Tao, not pushing at all.  Letting the envelope dissolve by not acknowledging it's relevance, as an imagined limitation. It's not the form of the envelope. But the content. And that is invisible to whoever doesn't already acknowledge the equivalent within them self. You have to be it to see it.
That's resonance. Harmony. Communication.
I never know what i may create next. Any more than how i may complete this paragraph.  Chances are, it won't be like what came before. I'm capable of being bored without getting unduly restless.  But i've no intent to bore myself by impersonating a machine.
That's important.  Don't let mechanical-digital- box-consciousness dictate your life. You're organic ! You're spirit. If your gadget starts telling you what to do and think, go and make mud pies.  Walk barefoot through wet grass.
You're Human. Not a robot.  That's what creativity is about.  True "materialism", is loving the undeniable truth of material. Everything is alive.
Plants see and hear and feel and respond. Robots don't.
Creativity is inherent in all that lives.  There is no such thing as separation.
All is "inter-dependent". So don't ever rest your head on "a writer's block", or "an artist's block".  Or you'll lose it.  If you want to go with the flow, (the Tao), you already just did. But tried to take the block with you, thinking it was yours. "The way which can be spoken (about) is not the true way."
The way is that from which you can never deviate.  The delusion that you have deviated, is also an aspect of the way from which you can never deviate.  It's "not being so, is it's being just so. SO.  Flow on.  Just SO. ~~~
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artwork :  Medicine Dream,‏ martin law, July 2010

               Apache Mystery 1, martin law, November 2008

               Apache Mystery 2, martin law, November 2008
               A Rainbow Union, martin law, May 2009
               Butterfly Girl, martin law, August 2009