[MD] SOLAQI, Kant's TITs, chaos, and the S/I distinction

[Heather Perella]

     [Marsha]
> Don't get me wrong.  I think the idea is to use the
> intellect as the 
> best possible tool to make the best possible
> decisions.  Like the Zen 
> arts teach.   But that's way beyond what I know. 
> I'm a beginner.

     I find this pertinent:

     "Yun Nan T'ien (1633-1690), a well-known Chinese
painter of the 17th century, i.e. the Ch'ing Period,
on the significance of extreme simplicity in painting.
 He says:

     Modern painters apply their mind only to brush
and ink, whereas the ancients paid attention to the
absence of brush and ink.  If one is able to realize
how the ancients applied their mind to the absence of
brush and ink, one is not far from reaching the divine
quality of painting.

     The 'absence of brush and ink' may in a more
theoretic form be formulated as the principle of
non-expression.  The principle stems from the
awareness of the expressiveness of nonexpression, that
is to say, the expressive absence of expression...
Hence the great achievements in the field of ink
painting in the Sung and Yuan Period in China and the
Kamakura and Ashikaga Period in Japan, when Zen
Buddhism attained its ascendancy in the two countries.
 And hence also the development, in the tradition of
this form of pictorial art, of the technique known as
the 'thrifty brush' and the 'frugality of ink'.  These
two phrases originate from the realization of the fact
that, in order to express the serenity of the mind in
its absolute purity and in order to depict the reality
of things as they really are - in their natural
Suchness, as Zen Buddhism calls it - the painter must
eliminate from his drawing all non-essential elements
by using as few brush strokes as possible and by
sparing the use of ink to the utmost limit of
possibility... traditionally known as 'mysteriously
hazy painting' (wei mang hua).  [Essay VII; Chapter
Two; "Toward a Philosophy of Zen Buddhism" by
Toshihiko Izutsu]

     
     After this long quote, this quote means not much
unless one has found for oneself a way to understand
that non-expression, the speaking of dq, is a train of
intellect upon the cutting edge.  I experienced quiet
before any of Pirsig's writings, before this book I
quoted from above.  Sure quiet has been here, but I
didn't realize the significance of quiet til some
time, yet, this time was before reading Pirsig, etc...
etc...  Eventually, something will work for somebody
and that will be their way to experience "this absence
of brush and ink" with trees, birds, and water
splashed upon paper.
     This is intellect at work.  I know you affirm
"...intellect as the best possible tool to make the
best possible decisions."  I don't doubt this.  Quiet
is simple.


all cloudy for the third time today,
SA     

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