Wabi-Sabi

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Wabi-Sabi
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Emptiness vs. Nothingness

• Allphenomena are intrinsically void and yet
  this Mind with which they are identical is no
  mere nothingness.
• -Huang Po, Zen Teaching of Huang Po

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A History of Obfuscation

• the zen of things
• dharma transmissionfrom mind to mind
• wabi-sabi as ineffability to explain is to
  diminish
• reason is subordinate to perception in matters of
  art

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Defining the Indefinable

• wabiabandonment, misery in nature
• sabichill, lean, withered
• an evolution toward a more positive and
  aesthetic value
• the hermits life as an opportunity for spiritual
  enlighenment
• the ten-thousand things either are devolving
  toward or evolving from nothingness (emptiness)

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Wabi-Sabi

• Observation of nature
• All things are impermanent
• All things are imperfect
• All things are incomplete
• Greatness exists in the inconspicuous and
  overlooked details
• Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness
• Acceptance of the inevitable
• Appreciation of the cosmic order

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Wabi-Sabi

• Get rid of all that is unnecessary
• Focus on the intrinsic and ignore material
  hierarchy
• Material Qualities
• the suggestion or natural process
• irregular
• intimate
• unpretentious
• earthy, murky and simple

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Modernism

• A reaction against classicism
• Abstract and lacking intimacy
• Mass-produced and modular
• Control of nature
• A confidence in techne and machinery
• Minimalist and geometric
• Artificial materials

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Modern Wabi-Sabi
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Modern Wabi-Sabi?
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Can Mars be Earthly?
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Gardening Zenwise
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Kare-sansuiwithered landscapes

• setting-off and framing
• familiar paths and vegetation are replaced by a
  stark rectangle of flat racked gravel, grouped or
  single stones, and space
• a sudden, almost deathly stillness
• soothing and shocking

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• A questioning of reality In a garden we may
  open our minds in the face of nature, stilling
  our preconceptions and opening up the possibility
  of viewing ourselves and usual ways of thinking
  from an entirely different perspective.
• An aid to meditation Zen gardens serve as
  perfect backdrops to empty ourselves of our own
  frivolous clutter, our clung-to experiences and
  passionately-held views

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Raku Drinking Tea as Art and Meditation
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Drawing with Zen Mind
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Mountain
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yhpargotohp nez
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Wabi Sabi or Not?
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Modernism Antithesis or Collaborator?
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Modern wabi-sabior Wabi-sabi modern?
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