Challenge for Pictures in a Series: Motif or Concept Describe what makes an image ZEN in 50 words or less!

[Asher Kelman]

Please describe what a Zen picture could be!

 

[Asher Kelman]

We can start with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:


a: “suggestive of the teachings or practice of Zen Buddhism Paddling, itself, is a Zen art: Anyone can do it, yet you can spend a lifetime perfecting it.— Jim Albrecht


b: having or showing qualities (such as meditative calmness and an attitude of acceptance) popularly associated with practitioners of Zen Buddhism

 

[Asher Kelman]

My concept:

A Zen-like Picture should support a calm oneness with the present and infinite openness to everything beyond that.

It must be free of blockages, distractions obvious trickery, trivia or other intent.

A gong struck or our meditative thoughts would then resonate beyond the edges of the universe.


Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Now please add your own comments and concepts!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

So more than a few these “Zen pictures” I think are failed and over decorated compositions, showing no intuition, just planning:

This uses obvious trickery

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Here a blatant pretty decoration of a flower is added

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Here a genuinely Zen design is objectified as just another equal component in a collection of designs in a garden. Thus the meditative essence and worth of the design is objectified and lost:

Of course, these are merely my opinions. What do you think?

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

This from reefs.com, might fit a Zen mood creating image:

But you could argue that the two elements are already complicated. But at least this might suggest some boundaries of what we can add thought overpowers intuition!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Here we can listen to water.

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This design although planned is more like a votive offering or prayer than a deceit. So I have no visceral objection to the placed leaves on the black rocks in the still image in the sound video.

or the stack of rocks in among the water plants in this still:

 

[Asher Kelman]

What are your ideas of Zen imagery?

How much extra detail or artificial flourishes do you find agreeable?

Asher

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

I realize that perhaps my pears image doesn't fit what I believe to be zen- but the smoke photo would definitely fit.

Zen:
An image that is minimalist without too much distracting detail; or specific object so one can simply let their mind roam
without thinking, hence creating interior peace. Allows one to leave anxiety behind and create a stress free space. Abstract
photos would work well.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I realize that perhaps my pears image doesn't fit what I believe to be zen- but the smoke photo would definitely fit.

The pears are already full of compassion. That is f’ing amazing! You do that with tulips as easy as a croupier dishes out cards and gathers in the cash for the house!!

It’s a start. You have done well with the pears. Can you have less but keep the feelings. Can the feelings allow for openness. Look up “Openness” in Goldbergs “Big Five” human traits that define all people in all languages cultures studied.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Zen:
An image that is minimalist without too much distracting detail; or specific object so one can simply let their mind roam
without thinking, hence creating interior peace. Allows one to leave anxiety behind and create a stress free space. Abstract
photos would work well.

Worthy definition!

I think “specific objects” might be fine as long as they don’t seduce ones attention, like a winking “hot” potential date or fruit for sale or a “stop” sign!

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

What is not in the frame.

 

[Wolfgang Plattner]

I think, there is nothing like a "zen image" as Zen is not static.
There may be images about Zen or images which lead to Zen or create Zen ...

 

[Asher Kelman]

I think, there is nothing like a "zen image" as Zen is not static.
There may be images about Zen or images which lead to Zen or create Zen ...

That’s so true, Wofgang!

Zen appears to be an “attitude”, a state of mind, in reference to an image, but outside of it, as just suggested so succinctly by Jérôme.

In Yiddish, we use, (in our old-German Hebraized language), the word “Menche”, to describe a person who is not merely a man, but

“decent, trustworthy, reliable, true to his word,”

too, all terms, unrelated to the actual physical body of the man.


So we say something is “Zen”, we do not refer to the physics of the sand and stones.

Rather the “transcendence“ of the moment where one can be tranquil and “leave” that place!

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

I tried to give a Zen answer to a Zen question... but the idea, I think, is to leave out all what is not essential. Therefore my answer.

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

Worthy definition!

I think “specific objects” might be fine as long as they don’t seduce ones attention, like a winking “hot” potential date or fruit for sale or a “stop” sign!

Asher

I think I may have not phrased it right, trying to make sure the description would be under 50 words. But I really don't think there should be any specific object that pulls your attention.

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

That’s so true, Wofgang!

Zen appears to be an “attitude”, a state of mind, in reference to an image, but outside of it, as just suggested so succinctly by Jérôme.

In Yiddish, we use, (in our old-German Hebraized language), the word “Menche”, to describe a person who is not merely a man, but

“decent, trustworthy, reliable, true to his word,”

too, all terms, unrelated to the actual physical body of the man.


So we say something is “Zen”, we do not refer to the physics of the sand and stones.

View attachment 6377​

Rather the “transcendence“ of the moment where one can be tranquil and “leave” that place!

Asher

This image to me, is not Zen, but shows how one may achieve Zen. Having a few stones and a blank canvas of sand, the act of not really thinking but just creating for creatings sake. A bit like doodling not descriptive things, like swirls and lines etc., where you are mindlessly doing something that pulls your mind out of your mind. I think a lot of images for Zen that you will find online, show you perhaps how one would create zen, or an empty space and are not actually images depicting Zen.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Maggie,

I think we agree that all we want to do is promote a state of Zen through a design that doesn’t lock us in to any self importance or demands of thought.

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This image to me, is not Zen, but shows how one may achieve Zen. Having a few stones and a blank canvas of sand, the act of not really thinking but just creating for creatings sake. A bit like doodling not descriptive things, like swirls and lines etc., where you are mindlessly doing something that pulls your mind out of your mind. I think a lot of images for Zen that you will find online, show you perhaps how one would create zen, or an empty space and are not actually images depicting Zen.

I agree,

Perhaps, Maggie, the random waves of the combed sand with the stack of polished stones serve distract us from mental burdens we carry

The actual waves require no specificity to be Zen.

In these conditions, our attitude potentially changes from concrete thought to Boundless intuition.

We might, perhaps, be permitting our inner consciousness to be free of “existential-guard-duty” thus allowing it to float from the specifics of the place.

IOW, this is the hypnotic pendulum of a pocket watch, swinging from in the hands of the hypnotist!

Asher

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

Also, openness to me, means allowing others to have their own opinions. In the past I have done images that depict images like the ones with stones above, and also Yin-Yang, but I think if you can let your mind drift with whatever, that is fine. I like Jerome's attitude: out of the frame. That which lies further outside of your mind's eye.

 

[Tom dinning]

 

[Asher Kelman]

View attachment 6398

This requires Zen glasses! But it works!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Tom,

it could be that you are teasing us or this is a sincere offering for the purpose requested.

If that latter, what size would you need to print this to be able to induce a zen relaxation mood in folk seated looking at it?

Is there a minimum size to the red dot to be noticed and serve its purpose.

If this is a joke, then, kudos to you and of course my question is naive and ignore it!

Asher

 

[Tom dinning]

Generally, western culture doesn’t get Zen, like they done get quantum physics or how we can have more than one type of infinity.
Western cultures like a picture.
The Japanese used paintings and writing to teach people about Zen but it was less about the painting or word and more about the act of doing then looking at what is done, then contemplating how ones mind deals with that without interference from previously accessed knowledge or perceptions.

The image I presented needs no explanation. It is what it is according to the viewers perception. If I point at the moon you might say it’s the moon I’m pointing to. I would say I am pointing, pay attention to that. You would say yes you are pointing. I would say no. You see me pointing but that is the external perception. I am thinking about chickens.

If you think this is a joke, then it is a joke. Now that you know what you think it is, it is no longer a joke and never was.

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality. Alan Watts

 

[Jerome Marot]

Generally, western culture doesn’t get Zen, like they done get quantum physics or how we can have more than one type of infinity.

We can prove that there is more than one type of infinity, but we cannot know which one.

 

[nicolas claris]

View attachment 6398

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[Asher Kelman]

We can prove that there is more than one type of infinity, but we cannot know which one.

Jérôme,

It might be argued that such a “proof” is at most a “viewpoint”!

By “The Principle of Indifference” the likelihood of one infinity actually existing is only 50%, given I have no evidence for or against such an hypothesis.

So then for the next question, (of more than one such existent infinity), the chances become less.

But if you know of evidence otherwise, then your position would be stronger.

But now I appear, to myself, to be taking a position akin to those who say “SARS CoV-2 is not a problem”, because they think such a statement is an “opinion”!

Asher