Art and Zen

Survival

I might live another thirty years.  Will that be enough time to ... do nothing.

A talk on Ted suggests that doing nothing for ten minutes a day, otherwise known as meditation, is good for the mind.  We are no longer present in the world, he says, and we miss out on ... I forget what. 

"Now" is underrated, he says, juggling three red balls.  Doing nothing doesn't change anything that happens to us, he admits.

I wonder if sitting in front of the television counts.  One can spend ten minutes flipping channels. 

Anyway...  I can't juggle. 

I can't knock the theory though.  I realise now that drawing did not spring from innate creativity. I never thought of my drawings as anything more than doodles. It served the same purpose as juggling three red balls. One can draw and observe the most predominant thoughts at the same time.  One can even speak and watch movies at the same time. My creative periods fell into the blocks of time fraught with predominantly untoward thoughts.  It subdued my ego's demand for reaction.

Is the sum of man the action he takes to observe and then subdue his worrying thoughts?  Happy is the man who chooses an action that produces something which others think they need.  Are artists not all tortured souls?  Is work not art?  The engineer, the scientist, the doctor, the plumber ... All work is art for whatever it is we choose to do, there's an art to it.

Moving on

A bedroom scene. Relationship.  Hello my lovely.  Don't speak to me. I'm still processing the last thing you did.  But, I did this new thing. For you! Oh, really?  Yes.  Oh, that's wonderful. Joy. Smiles and then kisses.  No nakedness. No raunchy sex.  None of that. 

Is this a test? Jason Bourne asked.
"It's all a test," Man with clipboard said.

Global Front

Once you get onto the street, you get to stay on the street.  Ask any street person. 

Just a Thought

A boy gets a horse. Everyone says that is wonderful.  The Zen master says, "We'll see."
The boy falls off the horse and breaks his leg. Everyone says that's just terrible. The Zen master says, "We'll see."

Mr Hoffman's character, Gus, in Charlie Wilson's war.