Sublime

What do Japanese artisans, engineers, Zen philosophy, and cuisine have in common? Simplicity and attention to detail. It is not a lazy simplicity but a sophisticated one that searches out new frontiers, always taking the object, the body and mind, or the cuisine to the next level, according to one’s ikigai. As Csikszentmihalyi would say, the key is

The beauty of Basho’s prose, however, took the negative aspects of old age, loneliness, and death and imbued them with a serene sense of beauty.

To love and live with a painter means marveling at the space between the things they see that you cannot see, that they then make. White canvas, blank walls, his vision.

The bodhisattva’s journey does not end until all beings are liberated. But if this is to work, the category sattva (being) must be expanded to include all beings.

too, a favorite theme of Zen artists. But the main importance of this sutra for China and for Zen was the point that perfect awakening was consistent with the affairs of everyday life, and that, indeed, the highest attainment was to “enter into awakening without exterminating the defilements [klesa].” There was an appeal here to both the Confucian

The great American-born woodworker George Nakashima has built his work around the principle that each piece of wood has a perfect use, and it is up to the woodworker to find that use and to allow the tree to live on through his craft. His work revolves around the natural beauty of the wood, and working it in such a way as to give full play to the c

Music has been described as the spaces between the notes, and in art, too, the areas that are not actually used can be just as important as those that are.

sabi communicates a deep and tranquil beauty that emerges with the passage of time.

It is felt that traditional Japanese homes at their most artistic, for example, should have plenty of spare room and too little rather than too much furniture, illustrating the “less is more” preference for simplicity.