The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives
Buddhist
Hour
Script No. 374
Radio Broadcast live on Hillside 88.0
FM
for Sunday 27 March 2005CE
2547 Buddhist Era
“The
Way of the Brush” (Part 1)
This week we have a very special program for you. Our
Chan Teacher, Melba Nielsen, has written an account of the way in
which she was taught Chan by our founder, John D. Hughes.
Melba
Nielsen has more than 20 years of experience in the Chan tradition of
Buddhism, and she now teaches Chan painting at the Buddhist
Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. and the Chan Hall of Four Seasons,
both located in Brooking Street, Upwey.
For more information
on Chan painting classes you can consult
www.bdcu.org.au/chanacademy/chan2005.html.
We will now begin
with the first part of our two part series entitled ‘The Way of
the Brush,’ written by Melba Nielsen.
Chan
painting, known as `one-breath’ painting, is based on the
brushstrokes of the Chinese classics and the applied ethics of
Chan/Zen Buddhism.
Just as the Zen monk holds his rake and
mindfully rakes the paths of the stone garden at the temple, the Chan
painter holds the brush, dips it in ink and makes a stroke in the
tradition of the great Chan ink painters and calligraphers. For both,
the aim of this task is for no grasping - no controlling, just
`doing’.
On the first Sunday of each month, from 1-2 pm,
at Chan Academy Australia in Upwey, Victoria, after offering dana,
which refers to the donation of service and goods such as food,
flowers and rice paper, and after requesting to be taught, students
are instructed in the basic brushstrokes of Chan painting.
Students
are first introduced to the four friends: bamboo, plum blossom,
orchid and chrysanthemum. The basic strokes used in these can then be
applied to subjects within an Australian context - our own
environment.
The aim of the Chan Academy is not merely to
mimic ancient and cultural traditions from other countries, but to
respect them and learn from them and apply the knowledge of the Chan
painting path to our present country, in our own reality, in the
present moment.
The aim of the Chan Academy is to teach
liberation via the `Way of the Brush' and through the truth, harmony
and beauty of Chan painting and Sho-do (Japanese brush calligraphy),
which is the `Way of Callligraphy’. We have the ideal
conditions to teach the Buddha Dhamma this way, as we live in the
democratic and fortunate country of Australia. We aim to become
financially independent, producing good quality artists and making
causes to have the Four Friends in the future.
Annexed to the
Chan Academy is the Chan Hall of Four Seasons, where resident Teacher
Melba Nielsen teaches fortnightly classes on Saturdays from 10 am - 2
pm and by request, on Sundays at 11 am. Sumi-e painting, Master Andre
Sollier, also teaches how to paint rocks, trees, clouds,
watercourses, flowers, landscapes and a variety of other subjects at
scheduled workshops at the Chan Academy.
THE CHAN HALL OF
FOUR SEASONS works towards holding four exhibitions each year, in
Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, for sales of Teachers' and
students' work, and also holds a fundraising dinner convivium.
Students and guests can enjoy a classical recital and art auction at
these events, and can learn the skills of how to prepare and present
and market their artwork.
Melba Nielsen, who is the CHAN HALL
OF FOUR SEASONS' resident Teacher, helps Geshe Tseren Lhawang
Gyaltsen of the Asral charity in Mongolia to provide food, education
and shelter from the cold to children of destitute families, and
encourages students to do the same. Chan Academy Australia has also,
for many years, collected donations for the support of a children’s
orphanage in Bangladesh.
During the practice of Chan painting
many artistic and social skills are learnt. We learn from each other,
the Teachers, seen and unseen, the Four Friends and the Four
Treasures, which are the art materials of the scholar painter's
studio, but most of all we learn to be aware of the needs of others,
and we learn respect, how to respect our Dhamma friends, and how to
respect nature. Just as nature evolves and renews with the four
seasons, so does the Chan painter.
Any concepts one has about
ink brush painters must be thrown out. To begin with, discard
concepts regarding `Sunday painters’ and art as of little or no
consequence practiced by idle people. Unfortunately, this is a common
view of the impoverished culture that most of us have grown up with
in Australia.
Chan painters are the exact opposite to this
concept, and through Chan painting one can learn to recognize the
absolute truths the human creative mind can reveal. It is the same
mind that learns everything that is inspirational in human endeavour,
and is as essential to our heart and soul as food is to our body.
No
actual artistic ability is needed to practice Chan painting; in fact
it is an advantage to have no pre-conceptual views of art. The Chan
painting path is about diminishing bad habits and finally getting rid
of them through understanding, and learning fresh ways of artistic
expression.
The `Way of the Brush' is taught through the
brushstrokes of the Four Friends, the Four Treasures (which are the
ink, the inkstone, the brush and paper), walking meditation, bell
meditation, the 'Way of the Garden', and a single flower. Mixing the
ink quietens the mind and gives us respite from a busy life - time to
do the five reflections and to do the Chan meditation of watching
thoughts that arise and fall away in the mind, knowing impermanence,
and then, the energetic practice of Chan is through painting with the
brush - no hesitation. When we say `practice ‘ we mean
volitional mindful action of a method taught by a Teacher. This
Teacher must first be requested to teach by the student, three
times.
Many hopefuls who expect to be taught Chan are, in Chan
terms, `a full cup’. They have read widely and know all about
Zen. They can spend a whole lesson not listening, and looking at
their own minds - an ideology of Zen. They are taught by their own
self-talk, which, without practice, is based on hate, greed and
ignorance. Their minds readily grasp onto platitudes such as; `those
who don't know, speak - those who do know, don't.’ Teachers use
skilful means to teach. It is out of compassion that they do speak to
their students. It is true that Chan is taught silently, by direct
transmission, but a lot of work has to be done first before this is
perceived. So the best initial practice the student can do is to make
him or herself an `empty cup’, to put preconceptions on hold to
allow the teaching to fill the cup. A little learning is indeed a
dangerous thing if one seeks to liberate one's mind.
Our
Centre had a visit from the Zen patriarch, the Venerable Seung Sahn,
whose teaching to westerners was simple - to every thought that
arises, say, `Don't know’. Indeed one of my student’s
first painting name (a carved seal), was `Don't know.’
The
practice of Chan painting is called the `Way of the Brush', as to be
accomplished, the painter embarks on a `way’ or a personal path
to liberation; liberation from the egocentric mind, liberation from
harmful, habitual behavior, liberation from mind and body actions
based on hatred, greed and ignorance, into a fulfilled life
developing the six perfections, therefore becoming not only a painter
that allows truth, beauty and harmony to manifest on paper, but a
blessing to oneself and others.
This `way’ of course
requires patience, time, effort and generous action to make merit,
and a sacrifice - the sacrifice of one's egocentric views and
opinions. The Zen patriarch again said what is needed is, ` Great
faith - Great question - and Great courage.’ We usually arrive
at this great courage when we know the first noble truth taught by
the Buddha; that life is suffering, or unsatisfactory. The second
noble truth is that the cause of suffering is grasping and clinging
with the mind; the third noble truth is that there is a way out of
suffering; the fourth noble truth is that the way out of suffering is
by following the noble eightfold path. The noble eightfold path is:
Right Understanding - Right Thought - Right Speech - Right Action -
Right Livelihood - Right Effort - Right Meditation - Right
Concentration.
At this stage, it is important to know the four
noble truths and to know that one CAN be taught and that it IS
possible for you personally. Buddhist Teachers who practice at the
Chan Academy in Upwey Victoria know that Chan Buddhist practice is a
path to liberation and that it DOES work.
It is futile for the
rational mind to grab at these statements in an effort to understand,
as Chan is free from the artificial barriers of the mundane mind,
however, our will to learn and our rational mind is initially all we
have to work with. We can use the mind to liberate the mind - and it
is not always rational.
Depending on one's kamma (the
universal law of cause and effect), and the good causes one has made
to make merit, it is possible to understand and make the first steps.
A lot of merit has already been made by you; in order to be born
human, to live in a country like Australia and to be hearing the
Dhamma requires a vast amount of merit. Merit made by you, the effect
of positive action made by you in the past, causes this opportunity
to arise in the present. Even an idea of developing one of the six
perfections is beneficial. The first one needed for practice is
generosity (dana), then morality, patience, diligence (or joyous
effort), meditation and wisdom. These will be explained fully step by
step on the path, but first I must explain `merit’.
A
lot of merit has to be made to even have one hour of Chan Teaching.
My instructions from my Teacher, the late John David Hughes are: one
hour's Chan Teaching for three hours dana work. `Dana’ can be
translated as `generosity’, the first perfection needed for
Chan, and `work’ means voluntary work at and for the Temple and
Teachers, for example gardening, cleaning, shopping and cooking for
fellow workers, guests and practitioners, tending the altars,
building, repairing, computer, filing and library work. Resident
Teachers are looked after by donations such as flowers, water, food,
incense, rice paper, art materials and personal requirements. These
generous actions not only help the Teachers recover their costs, but
also free up their personal time for more Teaching. The Chan
aspirant, by offering dana, makes the good causes (the intention) and
the merit required to be taught.
Chan was brought to China
from India by the great Buddhist monk Bodhidharma in the 6th century
and one of the places where this pure form is still taught is at Chan
Academy Australia founded by our Teacher, the late John David Hughes,
in 1986. Prior to this, John visited and taught at an ancient
monastery in China and received the Chan teaching by direct
transmission. In a Dharma ending age we are fortunate indeed to still
have this teaching active here.
Making merit can be a pleasant
pastime, developing friendliness and social skills. What is more
pleasant, to give a few examples, than giving and arranging vases of
flowers, creating harmonious environments, repairing a useful item,
putting a chaotic system in order, or cooking a favorite dish for
appreciative fellow workers or fundraisers?
Our fundraising
activities are also pleasant. Tending the stalls at the market and
selling flowers develop personal esteem, give us an opportunity to be
kind and appreciated and is a social day out, intermingling with
weird and wonderful people in a creative environment. We also collect
donations on site for our children's orphanage in Bangladesh. It is
not only a pleasant and useful pastime making merit, but helps us and
you by developing the six perfections needed for the Chan painting
path.
Our Centre is small, so the results of your activity are
very effective and apparent to our dedicated Teachers. It is also
very active in its Dhamma teaching goals and needs your help and
support. Giving dana also lessens greed and attachment and you are
now practicing a part of the noble eightfold path, that of RIGHT
ACTION. A lot of us are not parents, and have little opportunity to
practice the selfless generosity that they practice daily in bringing
up a family. Dana and RIGHT ACTION have a flow-on effect in your
personal life and lead to RIGHT UNDERSTANDING.
So there we
have explained the reasons for the first perfection, generosity, so
we can begin to learn, but before we continue, the second perfection
of morality needs some mindful and guiltless assessment.
If
you love the idea of Chan painting, of becoming a respected artist,
and wholeheartedly support the idea of generous activity, if you are
not prepared to mindfully check your habitual behavior and motives
and to consider the six Chan precepts of conduct - forget it.
This
is not as daunting as it sounds, and although not easy, you get a lot
of help in untangling the tangles of past unskilful actions. The
basic six precepts for Chan students are no killing, no stealing, no
lying, no slander, no sexual misconduct and no intoxicants that cloud
the mind, plus the seventh precept in the scholar painter tradition
of no idle chatter. This one quietens the mind by allowing it to be
free from the chatter of the `monkey mind’ and also saves
energy, as you say `no’ to chattering time-wasters.
The
second perfection is morality. Personal morals cannot actually be
taught; the person concerned must teach him or herself by knowing the
habit-mind and volitionally changing bad habits. Help in this noble
intention comes from taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha
teachings, and in RIGHT MEDITATION guided by a Teacher. Putting the
responsibility of one's own moral or immoral behavior onto someone or
something else doesn't work. `Political correctness’, an
ideology of indirect descriptive expression, is a good example of
failure. One must be responsible for one's own morals. This is easy
to say but can be hard to do. RIGHT MEDITATION and the knowledge of
how to send `metta’ - loving-kindness or unconditional love, to
oneself and others, helps in this aim.
To create order out of
chaos, civilized society must have laws and rules of conduct. The
negative forces in all of us, (created by ignorance and called `Mara’
by Buddhists) are only too ready to manifest when given the
opportunity to do so, or in response to an unexpected `trigger’
to which we react. This is why Buddhists work on themselves, in order
to pull out the very roots of hatred, greed and ignorance, in both
their obvious and subtle forms, and need the discipline of
mindfulness and the nectar of loving-kindness (metta) meditation.
When one understands the universal law of kamma - cause and effect -
and knows the first noble truth, that life is suffering, one
perceives that an effect on our personal life now must have had its
causes in the past. This statement requires a vast undertaking in
Buddhist meditative practice, and in this introduction, if you are in
confusion and suffering, it is best in the interim to just
concentrate on making the causes to stop making bad kamma and to
cease acting on the habit-mind that keeps you in ignorance and
suffering. What is on your mind now, is your future.
Lama
Tshedrip said, `Every single moment of our life, we are creating
ourselves, if we think we can give that responsibility to somebody
else or a needle or a smoke or the bottle, we are deluding
ourselves.’ So first of all we stop blaming others. It IS
possible to forgive. The mind is able to do this and to perceive
profound insights, and deserves better treatment than making it
stupid with intoxicants. It can hurt, and it is true that life can
sometimes be a cruel joke, but there is compassion in the world and
truth and beauty too.
Don't waste energy on guilt; it is
negative conditioning. To feel `moral shame’, however, is a
positive, and puts you onto the path of healing yourself. We grow up,
we take responsibility for our own life and get on with it, we `get a
life.’
John David Hughes said; `May beings make the
causes to be happy, to know the metta minds, to know wisdom and
compassion minds, to know sympathetic joy, to practice Buddha Dhamma,
with body, speech and mind and take refuge.’
In this age
of the expectation of instant gratification and belief in the fake
existences portrayed by the popular media, we can feel like a failure
and can get depressed. When we don't fit the image and the false
identity created by a reality-bankrupt system of editing in popular
television, if our life is chaotic and confusing, or if we are just
downright sad, we tend to turn to intoxicants that cloud the mind and
dull the pain, a cruel system that leads us to more pain, as this
behavior leads to addiction. This addictive habit-mind behavior is
one of the hardest negative behavior patterns we have to get rid of;
hard for the ego, that is, but it IS possible.
This is where
we learn the perfection of patience. John Hughes said; 'The ego can
strangle itself for all I care, it's the habit-mind that has to be
trained into not picking up hate, greed and ignorance and using it as
a weapon. According to kamma, the hate mind will arise and go of its
own accord, the greed mind will arise and go of its own accord, the
ignorant mind will arise and go of its own accord. This is anatta -
no-self. It is what we DO with these phenomenan that is
important.’
Anicca -impermanence, Dukkha - sorrow, and
Anatta - no self, are the three characteristics of existence. At this
stage we can perceive the vows and the help we get from meditation in
the azure blue realm of the healing Buddha. Attaining the perfection
of morality can take a perceived lifetime, and we need all the help
we can get from Teachers and Dharma friends, but it is good to start
now.
This brings us to the cause of our suffering. The second
noble truth is that the cause of suffering is grasping and clinging
with the mind. This is the unconscious habit of the mind’s
propinquity to grab at anything that is of self-interest, and hold
on. We can understand the virtue of relinquishing our grip onto a
fashion concept, an argumentative opinion or a chance of pleasure, no
matter the cost, however it is harder to understand the wisdom of not
grasping and clinging onto the good things in life, for example,
mothering. The selfless love of a mother is an essential and
wonderful thing for a helpless infant and child, but if this
entrenched habit is hung onto and does not mature, and is applied to
an adult child, it can cause all sorts of problems for both parent
and offspring. This is an example of the passion we can confront and
why we need Great Courage and RIGHT EFFORT. No grasping means no
grabbing at both good and bad. It is a middle path, and in the middle
there is peace and wisdom.
We can learn non-grabbing through
Chan painting. Chan paintings are beneficial to live with as they
draw the mind into the mind of the Chan Master, that of emptiness and
equanimity. They can be truthful, peaceful, energetic, humorous and
beautiful, and can help reverse the mind's habitual behavior of
disrupting a moment of peace with idle chatter and critical opinions.
They are the opposite of contrived art. Great art has its place to
inspire human beings and a whole thesis could be written on this, but
`bad’ art, which, with a few exceptions, is the popular fashion
of today, can sadden the `soul’, and give nothing to the weary
viewer but 'more of the same'. These so-called `artists’, if
their work is based on deliberate negatives, chaos and ugliness, are
actually destroyers of art.
For obvious reasons, I will not
enter into any discussions on contemporary art. It is not because I
am not interested in critique, but because the focus of this
introduction is to give a Chan Buddhist method of liberation from
pain through Chan painting. This disinterest in discussion also
applies to the statements made on taking refuge and the causes of
unhappiness. These teachings come from personal experience and when
divulged to others, the howls of protest can be infinite and
arguments futile. This is a Buddhist way that works - from
experience. If other paths reveal the truth to you, for example,
Christian, please, with our very best wishes, practice Christianity,
but be a diligent Christian.
Anita Hughes, our Abbot at Chan
Academy Australia, will teach the meditation of Chan painting on full
moon days by request. For `insight viewing’ of a Chan painting,
watch, but do not touch. (This is illustrated on the world wide web
as `Blue rhapsody’, an ink painting of the moon shining on a
lake.) Blue Rhapsody is a moon in an indigo sky shining on an ink
lake. The moon is untouched by human hand - it is just paper, and
yet, we are viewing a painted picture depicting calm and wonderment
of a moment in nature.
If the painting is viewed `in the
moment’, one experiences the stillness of the scene - the moon
shining on still water - and yet, depicted in a few brushstrokes, it
is evident that the lake, like nature, is not dormant. There is a
current flowing and an evening breeze - shown by the rushes on the
bank. In a brushstroke in ink, the four elements are depicted; water,
earth, air and fire -(the energy in the wind), and if one does not
interrupt oneself with discursive thoughts, the viewer can experience
the mind of the painter. Chan art and `insight viewing' is a
beautiful way to practice non-grabbing, and to then come to the
perfection of patience.
Patience is also practiced in Thangka
painting every fortnight at our Centre, taught by Julie O’Donnell.
In this beautiful art form, Julie guides you in this way to enable
you to connect with the deities you paint and their teachings.
In
order to embark on the higher learning of the Chan painting path, the
basic perfections to aim for are generosity and morality, and after
the initial effort, patience. The perfection of patience can bring
happiness and joyous effort, and at this stage, gratitude can arise,
gratitude for our Teachers, our environment and the kindness (in
spite of their troubles) of our fellow humans. We have gratitude for
the knowledge of the way that creates beauty and liberates us from
pain. We now have Great faith, or refuge in the Teaching of the
Buddha in this world, the Dhamma, which is universal law, and the
Sangha, who are the Teachers of Buddha Dharma, and we who have begun
to `know the path, realize the path and follow the path' are well
onto the way to healing ourselves.
Please tune in next week
for the conclusion of the 'Way of the Brush.’
May you
come to know Chan mind.
May you dwell in Chan mind.
May
you know peace.
May you be well and happy.
This script
was written by Melba Nielsen, and edited by Anita Hughes, Leila
Igracki, Leanne Eames, Celestina Giuliano and Julie
O'Donnell.
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(Upwey) Ltd.