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I was looking at an ad/news about "nine rooms designers" created.
And it made me think of the fashion runways where angry-faced, too-skinny women parade one kind of clothing or another.
And the same question arose in my head: Who actually lives in these rooms? Who actually wears these clothes? Not one of the rooms had bookshelves with books that had been read on them. Not one bit of clothing related to the daily life of anyone relatively sane.
No doubt someone will have a snappy response to my questions, but the thing that interests me is how much we rely on someone else's taste or persuasion or religion. Of course there are good hints in what others do and think and say, but I believe a morgue has more character than the designer rooms and a bum is more creative than the runway ads.
And that's the point, I think. Suggestions are suggestions ... just suggestions for you or suggestions for me. No need to rely on them. If you want to worship snakes, go ahead ... just be good at it. Relying on someone else's designer snakes or religion -- well, how much useful sense does that make?
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You know, sometimes it might be better to do research than to muse and form opinions based on the superficial knowledge from one's insignificant corner of the universe!
ReplyDelete“Fashion design is a highly technical industry, requiring great attention to detail and patience. It is this aspect that students often find most challenging.”
- Mary Stephens, Fashion Design Department Chair, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising
Taken a couple of ways fashion & design could be "Zen in Action" and "Zen in Daily Life"
Two snaps and twist from the waist for you, honey! Oh yeah, ah huh!
"Insignificant" is such a wonderful way to describe Zen. Who in his or her right mind would take a blog as anything other than opinionated insignificance?
ReplyDelete"Who in his or her right mind would take a blog as anything other than opinionated insignificance?"
ReplyDeleteRight mind, eh? Now who's being sensitive?
Since this blog permits comments, one was sent back at you in defense of all brothers and sisters involved in the world of fashion and design.
"...but I believe a morgue has more character than the designer rooms"
Fashionista would never demean the skills of a mortician. What's your beef?
"'Insignificant" is such a wonderful way to describe Zen."
I wonder if Bodhidharma would agree. When the Emperor asked Bodhidharma the supreme truth of the Dharma. Bodhidharma replied "Vast emptiness; nothing holy." Does "Vast Emptiness" imply something Insignificant?
Your blanket denouncement of style and design and fashion is totally thoughtless (and I don't mean that in a good way).
To paraphrase a 20th musician who was a Zen Buddhist:
Nothing is accomplished by designing a piece of clothing
Nothing is accomplished by looking at a piece of clothing
Nothing is accomplished by wearing a piece of clothing
(Props to John Cage, student of D.T. Suzuki)
And yet few things are as universally appreciated as a well designed piece of clothing, or a well designed room.
May you be content with your cozy and functional, if drab apparel.
But as you enjoy coziness and functionality thank the designer.
"Does "Vast Emptiness" imply something Insignificant?"
ReplyDeleteOr significant either?
I'm a dog, so, don't wear me out, on Sundays.
ReplyDeleteUnless we switch places dog/god, or do go, and go do, with less, arfs, and... ahh....s.
Clothes go to my head, then I wash em, dirt and all, until the garden creates, a spotless ball, called earth, or just hearth... he hear ear th...
Woodsman, the way you treat your clothes sounds like someone who aspires to true style.
ReplyDeleteEvery Zen student should "know" that
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
I maintain that if the tao was truly insignificant, then we would not bother at all; it seems Genkaku knows otherwise.
Woodsman, can you speak a word on the identity of "insignificance" and "vast emptiness"?
P.S. The designer has said no thanks is necessary, but appreciates the payment.
I smile and chuckle, but only hear that, as not having said a word, to anyone but myself, as an identity not needing external validation (chuckles again in memory), beyond the body with all its sounds and sensations of being, as it is temporary, thermal, arising from nothing, as is all sound. What is, is not, over anything else, a fixed state, but moving, even in silence.
ReplyDeleteEvery Zen student should "know" that
ReplyDeleteThe tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
Are not all buddhas and sages, all bumpkins and fools this so called Zen student?
Why should they "know" anything at all?
I need a shave and a haircut, and my strawberries still need transplanted! Rowboat needs winterizing, and put on blocks out back!
ReplyDeleteFirewood!
Broom corn harvested!
Buts first some T! ahhhhhhh___.....,,,,,,;;;;;;///
aww gone... (scratch scratch)
dog needs in
"Are not all buddhas and sages, all bumpkins and fools this so called Zen student?"
ReplyDeleteMay all beings develop and maintain the great faith, great doubt, and great resolve to understand this so clearly that they can go far beyond just chuckling to themselves.