Japan

tea ceremony

ikebana

screen

Noh stage

I recall my time in Japan (10 years) as a time of learning about emptiness and silence. I was interested in the arts. There's no culture in which emptiness plays such a big role. On the last screen of a row of screens there's often only one falling leaf to be seen, the rest is all background. Yet the image is irresistibly compelling... When studying calligraphy I learned about the balance between black (ink) and white (background). They are equally important. In Noh theatre the silences are so long that even Eckhart Tolle would think: what the heck is going on here? This all appealed to me strongly. And then there was Zen of course. That mysterious, complex, rich Buddhist tradition with it's temples and rituals. How I loved it! How little did I understand it!
The ikebana (flower arrangement) and tea ceremony are about silence and emptiness too.
And it's all about form.
How I loved it.