Buddhist Hour
Radio Broadcast 240 for Sunday 1 September 2002
on Hillside Radio
88.0 FM
Glossary
Canvassing: discuss, examine fully,
seek to ascertain.
Desiderata: (Latin) plural of desideratum,
a thing for which desire is felt, a thing lacked for and wanted, a
requirement.
Dada: of or pertaining to an international
movement in art and literature about 1915-1920, which repudiated
conventions and reason intended to shock.
Dadaism: the theory
or practice of Dada.
Middens: plural of midden, a prehistoric
refuse-heap of shells and bones and often discarded artefacts.
Today’s program is titled:
Reading Chan
Landscape Pieces
“Canvassing the Four Seasons” is a collection
of art pieces by John D. Hughes for which a choice was made to
capture some scenes of our Australian coastline and the inland
heavenly garden at his Upwey Temple in the mountains of Victoria,
Australia.
For John D. Hughes, what factors determine his
choice of location to paint or not to paint?
Economically,
transport and accommodation costs and the time to paint and the
available time of an attendant place great hardship on John D. Hughes
to paint.
The fact he has financed himself to paint for 50 years
shows remarkable determination.
At 71 years, he needs a
suitable patron to fund future canvassing of paintable
locations.
Technically, enormous chi is available to him by
the guardian gods and goddesses of the place selected and this is the
main choice characteristic of his pieces threading his works. This is
a great blessing that results from years of offerings to such beings
and their retinue. This supplying chi factor has not diminished with
age because of his Dhamma dana. His mind does not age.
His own
professional international life reflects a powerful life-force
permitting him to educate over 1 million students in 14 countries
over two decades. He is Vice-president of the World Fellowship of
Buddhists and a Council Member of the World Buddhist University
Council.
Before he visits a country, his practice is to send
loving kindness to the protectors of that nation.
The gods
and goddesses of those countries and their retinue, help him form a
decision to visit or otherwise.
Similarly, by such
methodology, the Great Gods of the Mountains at Coles Bay, Tasmania,
Australia and the Dragon King god who lives at the Nobbies, Phillip
Island, Victoria, Australia invites him. He does not visit without a
genuine invitation. Hence when he gets there, he and his attendant
can be safe.
Some high grade paper is expensive. He relies on
donations of materials from his students and friends. He appreciates
the gifts of fine paper and painting materials that comes to him and
wishes these gifts continue.
The artist uses a variety of
donated materials including black Chinese ink on rice paper, water
colour on silk paper and black texta colour on gold plastic
paper.
The pieces of the exhibition up for auction are from
the private collection of artist John D. Hughes.
This
exhibition illustrates how traditional Chinese art desiderata
continue as a living tradition that extends beyond the land of its
origin, as it is now practised in Australia.
The artist
founded the Chan Academy at Upwey, Victoria, on 6 February 1986.
Our
goal is to be an international Centre for Chan painting and
calligraphy.
Our Teacher, has mastered the classical Chan
landscape genre. John felt intuitively opposed to the “look and
put” drawing methods taught at the time, at his Mordialloc High
School.
By the conventional art school teacher, one of the
exercises in the art drawing class given to the pupils was to draw
the outline of their hand. Our Teacher could be ambidextrous, as he
was not trained out of it. He was thus able to draw using a soft
pencil in his left hand, the outline of his right hand.
He
felt stifled by the rigidity of this drawing method. He wished to
display chi, the unseen delicate force that moves through the human
body and the environment, usually unseen and unnoticed but always
potent. However, he could not find any method within these
constraints, of making an exquisite pencilstroke.
The method
of holding the pencil and the splitting of the attention between the
left hand drawing and the right hand modeling inhibited the display
of chi. With due respect to his art teacher at the time he noted,
that her drawings of her hand, although showing the outline with
meticulous photographic type accuracy did not display chi.
The
exercise in shading taught the stressful practice of thickening and
thinning the pencil stroke for the outline. John sensed this method
to be a heavy approach equivalent to the overuse of strokes,
destroying an impressionist vision of the drawing.
It seemed
to our Teacher at the time, that a single even thickness outline
reflected more lifeforce than the method being taught. The art school
teacher rejected the single outline drawing as it did not meet the
teaching goal.
Our Teacher pursued mathematical, science,
English and French language subjects in later years at the high
school and dropped art studies. When our Teacher left high school and
worked in a technical position studying chemistry part time, he
directed his spare time to reading about Western art and Western
philosophy.
The first desideratum in reading a Chan painting
piece, is that the reader must view the chi strokes within the
painting; in which direction is the chi flowing?
It is better
to start off looking at classical Chan painting of bamboo and note
how the chi arises from the ground moving up into the stems and
outwards into the branches and flowing out through the tips of the
leaves.
Chi is created when, for example a Monk sits in deep
meditation and observes his breathing; each time a Kung Foo Master
delivers a well-delivered blow; when the artist makes an exquisite
brush stroke; in each of these activities a special kind of inner
vitality accompanies the movement making each of these actions
distinctive and superior.
One of the great collection of
classical Chan paintings is housed in the Taipei National Gallery.
These ancient pieces painted centuries ago still display a freshness
that comes to the observer’s mind because they exhibit such
great Chi.
If a person practices Tai Chi the reality of Chi
flowing in the body will soon be established. If a person is touched
by a great spiritual healer, the flow of chi from the healer to the
patient is vivid.
A painting without Chi is a sad thing
indeed, no matter how well it has been technically accomplished.
Recent coaching books refer to the Tao of coaching. There is
a need to revive a nurturing environment where coaching can flourish
for professional development.
The second desideratum is
likeness to nature.
Pieces must be truthful. They must not
suggest dada. To make things flower out of season is a downright lie
-- it cannot happen unassisted in nature.
Water does not flow
uphill for long. The water in waves must flow down quickly.
Dadaism
technique is opposed to Chan.
Rocks must not look as though
they fly in the sky. They must rest firmly on the ground. The
technique of bedding rocks on this desideratum may include the well
known “axe handle” brush technique.
The third
desideratum must be the piece shows some indication of classic form
and reflects some ancient values.
Just as an English phrase
with too many words is considered florid and lacking in style too
many strokes or grace notes are thought to be tasteless. In Chan,
over use of strokes destroy what we might call an impressionist
vision of painting. For example, unless great care is executed autumn
clouds may appear in a winter sky piece on the day one goddess of the
season leaves and the other goddess of the next season takes her
place.
Excess clutter does not stay in nature. The jagged
rocks smooth their edges, the powerful waterfall widens its course,
pathways appear on mountains over time. All rocks become
smooth.
Accordingly, the refined artist has no desire to paint
razor sharp surfaces that are a hazard to humans and animals. Is this
not the ultimate in occupational health and safety?
Mountains
are painted with a safe path to the summit, no blocked
thoroughfares.
You may think it fair comment to ask a painter
who is his or her Teacher, or what school he or she follows. But that
is too narrow for Chan.
John D. Hughes reasons that the bulk
of his present brush technique flows from his brush practice in past
lives and his self recovery of the Chan style in this life blend from
lifetimes of learning.
In western society in the 19th and
20th century, only fringe dwellers thought past life claims were
real. Those who have practised the “Way of the Brush” over
the millennia understand such claims and may reply “many”
(with a laugh).
There is nothing oppressive about a series of
Chan Teachers.
Remember Chan painters do not practice to be
miserable.
Mature Chan artists respect all Teachers and
practice because they are interested in learning about the material
qualities of the characteristics of kinds of material productivity,
continuity, decay and impermanence.
For each part one or more
Teachers may appear, humans, gods and goddesses.
There is a
lot to be learnt from the gods and goddesses. They remember events
about a place over their long life span. They are the true historians
of the world.
A lifetime assembling a private quality
geological museum reflects this global interest of John D. Hughes.
His formal graduate studies in chemistry and physics allow
him to visualise the subatomic “stuff” of nature within the
Western models.
Contrary to what many believe, rocks do not
have minds of their own. Mountains may be under the protection of
gods and goddesses, so it is the minds of these gods and goddesses
that we can experience.
The brush shows mainly the life-force
of the painter rather than the life force of the rock. But under the
right conditions chi may be supplied to the artist by the gods and
goddesses of the mountains.
Sometimes, when the mind holding
the brush becomes tired, the brush seems to laugh and dances over the
paper bringing pleasant feeling to the user. But to the superior
person this laughter means conceit in the present and strong effort
is made to overcome this pleasant hurdle. From the Chan viewpoint, to
not become intoxicated by the pleasant feeling of laughter is
virtuous. This error of virtue is the downfall of many young artists.
They need enlightenment equanimity.
Seeing the fundamental
landscape is composed of four great elements, all of nature including
our bodies and painting requisites contain mixtures of these
elements.
We are secondary derivatives like trees and further
derivatives like flowers that spring from these. But we have a series
of minds, some of them trainable by Chan.
The Chan artist
seeks to practice in quiet places away from the flurry and worry of
everyday commerce. His or her main workshop is under the clouds in
the solitary places. It is expensive to mount painting excursions to
such places. The Chan artist needs patrons for this purpose.
The
Chan artist never seeks to get “back to basics” because he
or she knows these keep changing.
It is desirable to visit
the scene over the four seasons before a decision is taken to start a
piece.
Failing that, it is desirable to sit in the same place
for several days before commencing a piece. Chan artists do not
produce vast outputs.
The Nobbies, comprising Round Rock and
Seal Rock at Phillip Island, Victoria has been visited by John D.
Hughes for over 50 years. It is the place of the Dragon King god.
John D. Hughes and his students have made many offerings to the
Dragon King. The Dragon King god always welcomes him and his
attendant.
It is traditional for artists to thank their
benefactors. John Hughes thanks all those who have assisted him in
his practice of Chan art this life, including parents, grandparents,
and heavenly devas and devatas.
As a boy, John remembers
spending time with his grandfather when he created pieces of art. His
grandfather would chew plug tobacco and spit it into the spittoon,
and John would share 5X peppermints with him, and watch him as he
drew animals or faces using only the finest quality pastels.
On
his card, he listed his occupation as ‘gentleman’.
Gentlemen do not need to exhibit paintings.
The artist pays
respect to and thanks all Chan Teachers known and unknown and Master
Artists of the long past.
The artist thanks our Members who
helped prepare the “Canvassing the Four Seasons”
exhibition. The artists thanks all past Members and friends who have
helped him with previous exhibitions.
Finally, the artist
wishes that the merit of preparing and holding the exhibition bring
long life and health to his dearest wife Anita without whose caring
and healing he would have been too feeble to paint or write about
Chan.
May you be well and happy and enjoy “Canvassing the
Four Seasons” exhibition and auction to be held on 9 September
2002 at 2pm at 33 Brooking Street Upwey, Victoria, phone 9754 3334
for more details.
We invite you to come to visit with your
friends.
Today’s script was written and edited by
John D. Hughes, Anita Hughes, Julian Bamford, Leanne Eames and Pennie
White.
References
Book review of Landsberg, M.,
“The Tao of Coaching”, published by Harper Collins, in
“Business Advantage: the Optus Magazine for Small Business”,
Issue 3, 2002 page 10, Optus.
Brown, Leslie (editor in chief),
1973, 1993, The new shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Clarendon
Press, Oxford.
John D. Hughes, “Canvassing the Four
Seasons” Exhibition CD, Preview Catalogue of Paintings, Chan
Academy and John D. Hughes & Associates Pty Ltd.
Pang, Mae
Anna, 2002, Spring Flowers Autumn Grass, The Spirit of Nature in
Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Too,
Lillian, 1999, The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Feng Shui, Element
Books Ltd., Melbourne, Victoria.
Our Web
Sites:
www.bdcu.org.au
www.bdcublessings.net.au
www.companyontheweb.com/buddhatext
www.companyontheweb.com/buddhamap
www.bddronline.net.au
www.bsbonline.com.au
www.buyresolved.com.au
Document
Statistics
Counts
Words: 2140
Sentences:
124
Paragraphs: 69
Syllables: 3240
Averages
Words per
sentence: 17.3
Sentences per paragraph: 1.8
Percentages
Passive
Sentences: 20%
Readability Statistics
Flesch Grade Level:
8.9
Coleman-Liau Grade Level: 10.7
Bormuth Grade Level:
10.1
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 60.8
Flesch Kincaid Score:
8.9
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score as a grade level. See the Flesch Scoring Table.
Coleman-Liau
Grade level : Indicates the grade level of the document based on the
average number of letters per word and number of sentence per 100
words.
Bormuth Grade Level: Indicates the grade level of
document based on the average number of letters per word and per
sentence. These scores indicate grade levels ranging from 6.3 to
11.6.
Flesch Reading Ease Score: Indicates how easy the
document is to read based on the number of syllables per word and
number of words per sentence. These scores indicate a number between
0 and 100. The higher the score, the easier the document is to read.
See the Flesch Scoring Table.
Flesch-Kincaid Score : Indicates
the grade level of the document based on the number of syllables per
word and number of words per sentence. This score predicts the
difficulty of reading technical documents, and is based on Navy
training manuals that score in difficulty from 5.5 to 16.3. It meets
military readability specifications MIL-M-38784 and DOD-STD-1685.
Flesch Scoring Table
Flesch Reading Ease Score Flesch
Grade Level Reading Difficulty
90-100 5th Grade Very easy
80-89
6th Grade Easy
70-79 7th Grade Fairly easy
60-69 8th-9th Grade
Standard
50-59 High School Fairly difficult
30-49 College
Difficult
0-29 College Graduate Very difficult
(Reference:
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