The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Seven (82 page)

3. Genuine heaven.
The blank paper invites you to begin with your first dot. If you start with “first thought best thought,” you can invite a genuine heaven.

4. Earth.
Earth has a grounded quality, a sort of mother earth principle.

5. Pregnant earth.
We could create a pregnant earth that encompasses everything it encounters. But that could also bring up problems. A gentleman who becomes too involved with the household could be reduced to the level of a housewife.

6. Gentle earth.
A very gentle earth can accommodate anything, even chaos.

7. Man.
We can introduce man at this point. Man can be daring or possibly cute, particularly as babies—unless you forget to change his diapers.

8. Man in love.
Wounded man, or, you could say, man in love—which is saying the same thing. A man in love has been wounded already. In this calligraphy man is just an individual entity without any reference to heaven or earth.

9. Potential man.
Here man is open and strong at the same time. He is daring and good. Potential man. He might be able to relate to visual dharma or become a Buddhist, It reminds me of Mozart for some reason.

10. Kingdom.
We join heaven, earth, and man together. If we include a king this particular calligraphy becomes monumental.

11. Union.
Heaven, earth, and man joined together in the third stroke.

12. Universal monarch.

Perception and the Appreciation of Reality

W
ELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
.

We are discussing this evening perception and the appreciation of reality. In the ordinary sense, when we talk about a work of art, we generally regard it as requiring
talent
. Some people begin to reject themselves because they feel they don’t have talent. It could be even sewing, cooking, painting, interior decorating, photography, or anything that involves aesthetics. Of course, flower arranging is included. But we are not talking about talent as such. Generally speaking, we believe that everyone who possesses the appreciation of sight, smell, sound, feelings, is capable of communicating with the rest of the world. In Buddhism we talk about the sense perceptions, the sense organs, and the sense objects, which actually work together. The perceptions begin to project, through sense organs toward sense objects. It could be regarded as film in your camera. The film could be regarded as sense consciousness, and the camera itself could be regarded as sense organs, and the view that you see could be regarded as sense objects. Anybody is capable of doing this and perceiving such perceptions.

And then there is your upbringing, in terms of parents, of schooling, and of life in general. Some people have experienced tremendous claustrophobia through schooling, parents, life, job, etc. But on the other hand, some people have felt the experience of space—sometimes too much space, in fact. They haven’t had enough experience. Everything has become vacant and they feel they haven’t explored the world enough.

Such things as space and perception are expressed in this particular form, flower arrangement, and we could say that ikebana is a way to enter into the general social phenomena—phenomena of sense perceptions and how to handle one’s life and artistic discipline altogether. Ikebana allows us to develop some sense of discipline and it reflects back how much general appreciation and general sense of being in the world one has managed altogether. Ikebana discipline is not just arranging pretty flowers or organizing a beautiful arrangement. But it is a reflection of oneself. Sometimes we might find ourselves so embarrassed that we actually manifested ourselves on a flower-arranging dish. From that point of view, it’s much better than going to a psychiatrist.

This particular style of flower arranging, ikebana, is from the Sogetsu School of Ikebana. The Sogetsu School in Japan does not only pay attention to flower arranging, but also it pays attention to sculpture and to creating an environment out of a variety of things. My meeting with my teacher in England (Stella Coe of the Sogetsu School) provided me with a tremendous shock and surprise that such a new dimension of working with reality could be presented in terms of ikebana. The first time I saw a flower arrangement I was quite amazed that dignity and reality could be expressed by means of that particular arrangement. There is beauty and there is cruelty. Maybe there is invitation, there is seduction, and in fact the whole thing is like the Buddhist teaching. So, it is not just purely a work of art. It is a manifestation of reality which can be presented in a simple but very spacious fashion. Ikebana practice teaches how to go about your life. It requires a great deal of paying attention, nonaggression and not being speedy. I think I have said enough and you might be confused if I said too much. Maybe we could have a discussion on it.