April 27, 2009
- Back at it -
Still trying to collect myself together. The weekend was great, although really hard. As someone said towards the end of the retreat, “when it’s good it’s good, and when it’s bad, it’s good.” And there were times when it got really bad. I felt like I spent most of the time screaming at the universe “where are you, I need you!” and hearing back only the silence of its presence. Frustrating, but good. That’s the best description I can come up with at the moment.
Some odd loose ends:
1) Great article at the NYTimes about the value of friendships. Some key quotes (emphasis mine):
- Exactly why friendship has such a big effect isn’t entirely clear. While friends can run errands and pick up medicine for a sick person, the benefits go well beyond physical assistance; indeed, proximity does not seem to be a factor.
- Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone. The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.
2) Some quotes from Joseph Campbell’s Asian Journals (vol 2: saki and satori) (pg 55):
- “Where the gei-sha (“art person”) principle is repressed, civilization declines. Its fosterage leads to cultural adulthood, (India today is my example of an infantile culture).”
- “Where the gei-sha (“art person”) principle is repressed, religion declines – into vulgar image worship and psalm singing.”
- “The gei-sha (“art person”) principle is at the root of the glory of Japan; its motto: “What is it that you want or require? Can do! I can supply your demand in a humble, willing, likable way.”
(Leaving aside Campbell’s clearly stated preference for Japanese culture of 1955 over Indian culture of the same period, and also leaving aside the reputation of the geisha as simple a prostitute, what I take from this is that the artistic spirit is one of, ‘what is needed, we can do it” and that such an attitude needs to be applied to everything all the time, in order for a culture to mature. It is the belief that absolutely all needs can be met and properly integrated with all other needs. Not as a goal to be accomplished, but as a way of life to be cultivated. To do otherwise seems to lead to stagnancy and neotany)
And now for a short little picture show:
III. Perceiving the Bull
I hear the song of the nightingale.
The sun is warm, the wind is mild,
willows are green along the shore -
Here no bull can hide!
What artist can draw
that massive head,
those majestic horns?
That strikes me as really strange. What do you need? A Massage and a happy ending
Can do!
That’s the sign of a mature culture? I must be missing something.
Comment by Ted — April 27, 2009 @ 3:12 pm
One thing I do know id that Japanese have really liberal attitudes about sex but hardly ever have any.
I have a feeling that Arab muslim countries are the exact opposite on both counts.
Comment by Ted — April 27, 2009 @ 3:13 pm
I like to talk before I think and then figure it out as I go along. It can be annoying, I know. But I think I figured it out. I figured out Campbell’s point.
But really though, I think it has a lot to do with how long Japanese Culture has had agriculture, how self-domesticated they are. They tend to be non-violent also and undersexed.
So think about a really red blooded people, with lots of testosterone pumping through their veins. You know like these Arab guys with 5’0clock shadow at noon, carrying guns around wherever they go and covering the women up and making them stay at home. Is it all just based on philosophy? I mean is Sharia law “holding them back” or does it fit their physiology some how?
Think of Africa and how Islam is spreading there. Islam is probably a step up from animism, but backwards in relation to Advanced Western Democracies. Maybe cultures “grow up” in order to die out. You know, like how Europeans are so mature that they don’t reproduce?
America is a big melting pot with a lot of cold hard lumps. But what is the point of it all anyway? Is it just to produce a class of people how can have the time and resources to seek enlightenment? Is that the point?
Comment by Ted — April 27, 2009 @ 3:30 pm
Dunno if there is a point, really, to any of the cultural stuff.
What I was pointing out with those quotes was the importance of having the attitude that an integrated solution is possible for all problems, and that a culture that fosters and promotes artistic thinking is a culture that fosters and promotes such an attitude.
That is, that the reason for supporting the arts is not necessarily the arts themselves, but the attitude that the presence of the arts creates in the society.
Comment by Ian — April 28, 2009 @ 8:49 am
Cool.
Comment by Ted — April 28, 2009 @ 8:25 pm