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| From WoodenZen |
Mary with our CSA for the week. Is it great having farmers working for us producing such superior produce, or what. Russell and Kelly do such a great job and it brings so much joy and happiness in our lives.
This time has been really uplifting to both me and Mary as we have learned the valuable lessons of the love of each other and all our many friends. I am so held in the hearts and mind of all my friends.
My heart is heavy and my life seems small. Egypt is in transition and my hopes for her are that her people gain creativity and community. The world is changing and with it comes opportunity.
I’m currently reading Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation by Carl Bielefeldt – 1988. Dogen was a 13th century Japanese Zen Buddhist philosopher. Dogen’s Zen philosophy is the foundation for the practices used by many of the western Zen centers including the one I practice in. So far this book has been an academic presentation of the background to just one of Dogen’s fascicles, Fugazazengi or Zazen Universally Recommended. I’m looking forward to tearing into the actual text.
In this particular document, Dogen describes the actual practice of Zazen, what some call sitting meditation. According to Bielefeldt, in Dogen’s time, it was somewhat popular for Zen teachers to write these “zazen-gi’s” or zazen manuals both in Japan and in China. Sounds almost like they were writing Zen self help books, as these were targeted at the monastic and the lay community. Previously to Dogen’s time, Japanese Zen and Chinese Chan had gone through periods where the actual techniques of the practice of zazen were kept secret and only shared with monks. Dogen wasn’t the first of his fellow teachers to let the proverbial cat out of the bag but maybe the most eloquent.
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Some vocabulary extenders.
1. prolegomemon – a preliminary discussion inserted at the beginning of a treatise
2. vulgate – a Latin version of the Christian Bible
3. provenance – birthplace: where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence
4. hagiography – any biography that idealizes or idolizes its subject
5. desultory – lacking in consistency
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I’ve finished plowing through (enjoying) “Nonsense on Stilts, How to Tell Science from Bunk” by Massimo Pigliucci. My pleasure at reading this is multilayer. The one layer I want to talk about is Professor Pigliucci’s unwitting penchant for sending me (and I suspect others) to the dictionary. Mind you I’m not complaining, on the contrary I find it exhilarating to be presented with complex ideas and arguments, eloquently written out, without over simplification. He uses words and phrases to express complex ideas and arguments in a concise fashion.
Words I learned today.
1. Verity, from the Latin veritas – truth (Veritas is also the name of my favorite woodworking tool manufacturer). Verity is the condition of being true or real. Related words that are more common are verify and verdict.
2. Cabala, a Jewish thing. After looking this up in the dictionary, I realized that I had heard of it before but Professor Pigliucci used it in unusual and creative way. Cabala primarily understood to be the practice of Jewish mysticism. My guess is that Jewish mysticism is shrouded in secrecy as a derivative meaning of cabala is any secret doctrine.
3. Empiricism, the only way to know is through the senses. This seems to separate data from hunches. This is a huge topic for a Zennist, who would refer to the senses as the 6 senses, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. Including the mind complicates things.
After writing this I realize that I might seem a Simpleton to those who already understand this lingo, jargon and specifically these words. So be it. I’ve made room for those of you on the right hand side of the Bell curve. Laugh if you want but I’ve enjoyed having my mind exercised by Massimo’s writing and I look forward to more.
Thank you Massimo.
Mary loves the blowing of bubbles in the cold weather.
My poor, long neglected blog. Over the last several months, my web activities have been more and more divided among various social media sites and definitely has leaned more towards consumption instead of creation. I’ve been feeding on the contributions of others without doing my fair share.
Seeing Richard Querin’s new theme and blog reset has inspired me. In fact I copied his great idea to use the Wu Wei blog theme. It looks simple and I was plagued with the same problem as Richard. I had hacked together a theme when I had much more time for such things. Now I need something simpler so I can concentrate what little free time I have for this into creative production and sharing. I hope Richard won’t be mad that I’ve copied him.
I’ve gotten as HTC Desire Android phone and I have to say that there are a small number of things that are holding me back from loving it.
I’ve exercised the battery and while it did vastly improve the battery life, it still has a hard time making through the day. I find myself rationing my use of the phone. Part of my problem maybe that I live and travel on the fringes of the cell network. I’ve heard that cell phone batteries drain faster when they have to continually search for a cell signal.
Podcasts are how I tolerate my daily commute. I’ve tried Doubletwist and Winamp both desktop clients but neither are vary satisfying and Google’s client streams the podcast which is a problem when traveling on the fringes of the cell network.
Google books is not yet fully baked. It losses it place from time to time. It will not remember my preference for flowing text and when switching from phone to desktop it will not remember my place. Also I have noticed some weird formatting issues around tables and illustrations.
Mary is getting anxious for some snowshoeing action so we’re off.
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| A gentle reminder just how precious this life is. |
Robert Aitken was my teacher’s teacher. He died yesterday. He had been in poor health for a while. That does not make it any easier for his family and those close to him.
I never met him but through his writings and the stories my teacher told. One story that I remember was that Aitken used to record his talks in a cassette tape recorder. One evening he noticed that the recorder had malfunctioned and failed to record his teisho. Later after everyone when to bed, he stayed up an sat in the zendo re-giving and re-recording his teisho to an empty zendo. The advantage of his dependance on his notes.
This must have been an odd scene to come on. I don’t know, but this may have been one of his best Dharma talksr. It points to his dedication to spreading the Dharma in the Western world. He has done so much and now can rest.
We’ll have to wait and see what blossoms out of all his hard work. I dedicate the merit of my practice to you, Robert Aitken, Dai Osho.
Before taking up Zen, everyday life is just how life is lived. When you start to practice Zen, everyday life becomes a mystery, a thing unto itself. After ‘practicing Zen’ everyday life again is just how life is lived.
During the summer months my practice community is dispersed and we are involved in many family and social activities. I’m looking forward already to the cold, rainy and snowy month when my practice community will come together again.
You could depend on the moment or “the wood” to inspire you as you formed the spoon. Stand in front of the bandsaw or the chopping block and start whacking away. I call this the “Michelangelo Subtraction Approach” – start removing wood and seeing what develops. Lately this has started to feel a bit to ‘willy-nilly’ and this feeling intensified after working with Barry.
Alternatively, you could inject more intentionality.
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I’ve started to make patterns for my spoons. When thinking about what I want to accomplish, the drawing has been very helpful. As an activity unto itself, drawing connects me with my spoon making at times I can not be in the shop. Pattern making has already lead me to see design ‘opportunities’ I want to avoid using again. Notice the bottom pattern in the picture above. The curve in the handle looks graceful and suited to the size of the spoon. Using the pattern in fresh Red Oak, I now feel that the curve it too ‘curvy’ and the spoon feels funny ‘in the hand’. I’ll post a picture when done comparing spoon with pattern.
Another activity that adds intentionally is keeping a file of inspiring photos and clipping from which to draw ideas. My image file contains almost 800 images of spoons scoured from the web that I peruse from time to time, studying the work of others, some positive some as lessons of what not to do.
Sweet ‘hand-feel’ of a spoon is the ephemeral quality of comfort and connection you get when holding a well crafted spoon. I’ve held and made spoons that lack this ‘hand-feel’ or a ‘spooniness’ quality.
Which are you? A Michelangelo who removes everything that is not the spoon or someone who injects some measure of intentionality into you carving?
I must confess that I don’t know a thing about Zen. I don’t know why I practice. I can’t remember even why I came to the practice. Maybe it is transient, but I find my desire to hold ideas in my mind weakening even more. I have no idea about Zen and am comforted by that. Weird confession. The practice being so nebulous. To say it is “everything” or “your practice is your practice” is a cop out. I sit. That is about all I can say for sure.
There. — Your turn.
We worked in his shop and talk about design, technique and materials.
Here Barry is pictured roughing out a Buckthorn spoon. He has developed a notion of using the band saw as a carving implement. Barry uses a highly tuning the band saw with a few custom features. He uses special blades with high beam strength and frequently applies a wax lubricant to the blades. He has optimized his dust collection with custom shrouds under the table. He has filled in the miter slot and made a UHDP insert for the throat. A link belt and a custom study base that together all but eliminate any vibration. Extra lighting and a slow steady hand and a “roughed out” spoon is closer to its final shape.
Barry and his wife Barb, were gracious hosts and shared there home and dinner table with me. The conversation was delightful.
Now we’ll have to see if I absorbed anything.
Later in the week Barb, Barry and I drove the 300 miles or so to the American Association of Woodturners national convention in Hartford CT. We had some of the best pizza ever at a little place call Joe’s Pizza just outside Hartford.
The main reason for the trip to Hartford was to see and meet Norman Stevens the wooden spoon collector and see his “Gathering of Spoons” (PDF of catalog) exhibition.
Norman Stevens is a retired university librarian who has a long history of collecting and supporting spoon makers. His latest project, the recently renamed “A Gathering of Spoons”, is a collection of spoons by makers mostly but not exclusively from America. It was a real treat the see and hold spoons by Jogge and Wille Sundqvist. See so many spoons by so many makers all in one spot was inspiring. Below is a series of images I took original thinking I’d create a panoramic of the collection but I think it would be better to just publish them and try later to make a panorama.
Today we get a history lesson. “All Souls’ Eve” has its origins in ancient Europe. Culture to culture, eventually to England where “good-hearted celebrators dressed as ghouls or ghosts went “a-souling” door to door… to beg food for the poor.”
Sadly, yet another communal celebration bastardized by capitalism.
