3 April 2005: The Way of the Brush (Part 2)

The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

Buddhist Hour
Script No. 375
Radio Broadcast live on Hillside 88.0 FM
for Sunday 3 April 2005CE
2547 Buddhist Era

“The Way of the Brush” (Part 2)

Today we continue with Part Two of the teaching by our Chan Teacher, Melba Nielsen, who has written an account of the way that 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.

If you tuned into the Buddhist Hour last week you may recall part one of ‘The Way of the Brush’, written by Chan painter and teacher Melba Nielson concluded with the following.

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.

Now we shall continue with part two.

Taking refuge in the Teachings of the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha renews our strength, brightens our mind and gives us protection. As worldly contingencies will always try and get in the way when you undertake to do this, it is best to do one action that you would not normally do in order to go against this stream.

Yogi Chen sets out a way of setting up your altar, remember, we do not worship images, we pay respect to a great human Teacher. The Buddha image is above the offering altar; then, one requires 7 brass bowls for offering drinking water, 7 for bathing water, for the long life of the teachings, vases of flowers, have 5 blessings on them, incense for a pleasant environment to practice and light to brighten the mind. (Safe candles or electric light can be used).

Full prostrations are a Mahayana practice that places the practitioner's forehead on the ground. Paying homage in this way diminishes the ego and the humility makes us able to learn with more ease. Full prostrations are also a Buddhist yoga and keep us fit. You are then practicing Buddha Dharma Sangha refuge with body, speech and mind. Complete instructions of this are available at the Buddhist Discussion Centre, taught by Frank Carter.

The Chan student is encouraged to observe the 10 Chan Hall Rules of conduct on entering the Chan Hall. After removing the shoes and ritually washing the hands from a stone bowl, they can then set up their ink, inkstone, paper and brush on a felt base and begin to mindfully grind the inkstick on the inkstone.

Washing the hands in the traditional stone water bowl represents the action of washing off the days toil and brings the student into the present to cognate a precious hour of rare Chan Teaching. The ten Chan Hall Rules of conduct are to be observed as a method of learning, but without allowing the mind to cling onto them with discursive comments.

Then ten Chan Hall rules are:
1. Pay respect to Buddha, Kuan Yin, Chan Teachers, protectors and Devas.
2. Observe mindfulness.
3. Cultivate a quiet and peaceful mind.
4. Sweep thoughts aside continuously.
5. Cultivate lightness of mind.
6. Cultivate gratitude and request to be taught.
7. Maintain concentration.
8. Be aware of and respect the needs of fellow students.
9. Be mindful during merit making activity.
10. No idle chatter.
There is also an ancient rule of Chan Temples: `Leave your weapons at the door’. This rule was to not discourage wandering bandits of the Buddha Dhamma Teachings, and is now an analogy for leaving the weapons of your worldly mind at the door in order to be taught.

There are no knives or scissors used during our practice; rice paper is cut by a brush dipped in water. Now that we have got thus far and are encapsulated in the beauty and satisfaction of Chan painting, it is good to examine the fourth perfection - diligence - which is also described as `joyous effort’, and RIGHT LIVELIHOOD.

Right livelihood involves activity that does not break precepts, for example, no killing. It is better to work towards a profession that does not harm others. It is possible to run a business with no lying. We know this to be true, as one of our Teachers has done this successfully for years. Our daily livelihood can give us an opportunity to examine all the precepts and practice the Noble Eightfold Path.

We all have the same resource - 24 hours in a day. It is what we do with those hours that makes a difference. We can create a brain surgeon, a healer of men, or a drug addict, a stupid thief. We can become rich, or if we choose to waste this resource, become poor. From an active Buddhist's point of view, you can do more good if you're rich than if you are poor.

Chan Buddhism is action. `Carpe diem’, seize the day, or more accurately, `non-seize’ the day, but `know’ the opportunity. Chan is simple - too simple for the discursive mind that is constantly creating ideologies and excuses. An old Chan calligraphic exercise with the brush says, `One day no work, one day no food.’ We can learn to take control of our own life, for if we don't, somebody else will.

At our Centre we have experts in drawing up life plans and goal-setting, who will help if requested to do so. Personal goals must be achievable, worthwhile, measurable and believable by you. Practicing Chan Buddhism and worthwhile goals need clarity of mind, so if there is no clarity, start with a process that is believable by you to clear the mind of intoxicants or wrong view. This must be done by you alone, and naked, just like the day you were born.

The steps you plan must be achievable by you. Keep it simple, change the habits that lead you to intoxicants and the people who use them, and remember, there IS such a force as unconditional love in the universe that makes this goal possible. Professional help is available at the detox level and even if this takes the rest of your life it will be a worthwhile life. Endure, simplify and work your plan, plan to take step one. No more is needed at this stage, but it is good to start now.

All this work brings us to pleasure, planned pleasure. Our cultural conditioning for this is the same as `Sunday painters’; pleasure is either of no consequence, indulged by idle people or to be `grabbed at’ when the occasion rears its head, and usually involves breaking precepts, involving intoxicants, idle chatter and instant gratification. This method is living on the edge of loneliness, addiction, regret and ill-health, not to mention the raging hangovers.

The other extreme is work, work and more work, and unfortunately this seemingly moral activity can lead to similar dangers if the middle path is not practiced. It is good to put in your life plan a day, a week or even one hour of harmless fun regularly. If time out is too stressful to contemplate, again, keep it simple, such as a one-hour bubble bath or a video/DVD and popcorn, just something to break the habit, but it is good to start now, and turn off the phone.

The Pali translation of the Buddha’s description of the ascetic practices in part, is thus; `The blessed one praised roots of trees as one of the dependencies. [And when the tender leaves are seen, bright red at first, then turning green, and then to yellow as they fall - he sheds belief once and for all].’

Chan Buddhist practice is being aware of nature, the changes in the four seasons. At the end of their life, the red leaves fall, the frost crystals cover all, the wind blows, the daffodils and the green leaves bud, and then the warm tea tree blooms. To not have time to wonder at the miracle of a spider web or a feather is poverty indeed, and suffocates the soul.

Soul’ is not terminology that Buddhists use, but culturally speaking, it is our very core of meaningful perception. It is a rare occurrence in urban life, but springs onto us from time to time, for example the moment of the birth of our child. The `soul’ is where we abide when we relax our grip and take time off to walk, observe and paint, truly in the present - the Chan way. This makes the causes for equanimity of the mind, and for bliss to arise, a respite, so that we can renew our mind, body and soul.

The bird bath. Oh the joy in that tiny body- a flutter of feather and water. Then a preen -- beak busy in fluffed feathers-- each one a minuscule miracle.(Melba Nielsen 2003)

A `haiku’ moment (a 'haiku' being a short poem in the Zen tradition) is felt and written down in a `soul’ moment. The bird is gone - the birdbath empty, but the poem stays and makes an imprint. It is for you - a window to a precious moment - like a Chan painting.

The Chinese say that `to have a day of leisure, is to become immortal for a day.’ An example of the habit mind that keeps us from truth and beauty, and from being immortal, is not recognizing a `haiku moment’. Standing on the Seaford pier, this took me three minutes; Seagulls, Seagulls, standing in the sand. Like bits of storm clouds, with red legs. (Melba Nielsen 2005)

What does he mean? Bits of storm clouds? What have the clouds got to do with it? They're birds, aren't they? But with the brush and ink, when you paint storm clouds and see the storm colours of indigo and slate grey over white clouds, and see them on the backs of the seagulls, they become more than chip-eating machines.

Buddhist meditation, RIGHT MEDITATION and RIGHT CONCENTRATION, metta meditation and walking meditation help train and bring the mind to peace, or just a brisk walk on a natural path or past gardens will do in the interim, keeping in mind that an idle time for pleasure can mean `pain time’ for a lot of working men and women, who spend their one day off fighting the over-active mind and guilty emotions of the absence from essential work. They do not know how to relax, and only take time off when their stressed-out body and nervous systems give up and they get sick, which makes for time off when they're feeling lousy. These are the very people who tend to be committed, selfless, skilled, have integrity and are more likely to apply ethics to their lives than the opposite of their ilk. It would be good to help them. Write down on an A4 page of things that pleasure you, and plan to have time for healing pleasure.

Geshe Michael Roach said, `We really only have three seconds’ [of our life], for that is what we perceive. We can react and make karma or not react, and, in spite of our expectations, life can change dramatically in three seconds. Ask anyone who has had a heart attack.

Chan painting is actually a path for busy people. It is a path of action - action against our negative minds. Single flower meditation takes two minutes per day and is one of the most effective meditations a person can do, and yet, because of Mara and negative habits, most of my students cannot give me two minutes of their time per day.

Students are encouraged to set up their painting table, setting their ink, inkstone, paper and brush on a navy blue felt in a quiet corner or room at their home, especially reserved for practice. On this felt, place a bowl of water with a single flower. Here, brushstrokes can be practiced with water if there is no time to mix the ink. A few minutes a day (before running for the train!) allows the brush to become part of your hand and gives you confidence when there is more time for painting and classes.

So with no time, there is always a place to start. The habit of pleasure `time out’ is essential for you to do Chan painting. The old Chan Masters learnt this revolutionary method of ink painting by observing nature; they found out how to paint bamboo by observing bamboo, and a grasshopper with the same strokes. They used the analogy of a lotus rising up from the mud in a lily pond able to flower into the exquisite bloom of Buddha Dharma enlightenment.

They wrote poems by observing nature, in beautiful brush calligraphy. They were so enamoured of their brush and painting tools that they called them the `four treasures’; the brushstrokes to paint the bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid and plum blossom, the `four friends’, who opened up a whole new world to them. They could paint anything and create beauty, and out of their virtue and the causes made of their gift of truth and beauty to humanity, they lived in their own pleasure mandala, created by their own minds. They become immortal.

You can do this, as this Teaching is still here, now, and is impermanent. The beauty of the Chan path is that it is not all hard work. During the development of the six perfections, the four friends and their brushstrokes come to help you.

The bamboo, the `noble grass,’ is always the first to be practiced, as he is a survivor. The bamboo bends with the wind in a storm and does not break, unlike the mighty oak. We paint many aspects of bamboo, sometimes with rocks and orchids, and learn from the great Masters of bamboo painting. In the initial stages of bamboo painting however, I will not teach the techniques of 'wet’ bamboo, as I find the students minds droop with the strokes. This is why in Chan painting we learn not to touch with our mind. Bamboo teaches you to `let go.’

We are now practicing all the perfections in Chan meditation painting that lead to the final one of wisdom. Plum blossom has in its roots the enduring strength of patience and the truth of the potential of dormant energy programmed to push out a canopy of full blossom and then fruit. Then the first blossom appears. `A single flower can transform a barren field’, wrote Phra Sandhitittho.

The plum blossom reveals the four seasons to us, of dormancy, rest and restraint of the mighty trunk, to first blossoms as a light in the sober gloom of late winter. Then in the first blue days of Spring we are overwhelmed by the whole tree in full flower; a perfumed wedding dress full of bees. Then the green shoots of renewal, new young leaves for Summer shade and onto the filling generous fruit, to succour and provide seeds for the next generation. Its leaves turn russet and fall and the sap retreats into its dormant state once more. Note how the cycle never ends, and even in a venerable old death, the tree gives life to many organisms. Plum blossom teaches you patience, and the knowledge that when your energy is mindfully directed into virtue and generosity, one must fruit.

Chrysanthemum is the flower of royalty and of good fortune, and was treasured in ancient China. There are some cold dry provinces of China near Mongolia where flowers cannot grow, and I have read a description of one forlorn red paper flower blowing down a dusty street. If we lived there, we would see a real flower in its true light, its miraculous nature.

Here we have gardens full of chrysanthemums. It is the flower of individuality in its many forms, like human beings. When the woody stems are painted, they are painted with truth and morality, as the strength of morality is needed to support the salubrious flower heads of chrysanthemums without breaking. To be able to enjoy the flowers of our practice of right view and right action is what the chrysanthemum teaches.

Orchid, the fourth friend, is the elegant gentleman, whose precise and then free strokes brings refinement to the painter. Orchid is portrayed frequently surviving in crevices of massive trees and formidable rock edifices, hanging like jewels.

The orchid teaches us the `grace notes’ in life, the subtle touches that make up the sum of refinement. Surviving with ease of plan amongst might, hanging by a few tendril roots, needing little sustenance, this monk of a flower provides delicate and understated beauty. Orchid teaches us absence from greed.
During the painting of the four friends, the four treasures are used mindfully; we reflect on the effort needed by the ink, inkstone and brush- and paper-makers to create these materials for our use, sometimes at the risk of their lives, for instance gathering the best stones from deep streams. We grind the ink with gratitude, as these materials are from the labour of many beings. This is also the Buddhist `grace’ we say at our student meals after class: 'This meal is the labor of countless beings, let us accept this offering with gratitude.’

The paper we use is traditionally rice paper and has a beauty in its own right. Papermaking from recycled paper, rag, cellulose and bark for example would not only be a creative art form but RIGHT LIVELIHOOD for someone. At the moment, most of our paper is imported from China and Japan.

Paper allows us to learn from the special aesthetic. The space broadens our view and the reflected light brightens our mind. The art of calligraphy requires us to see and place the inked brush onto the white paper with ink and paper spaces in balance and harmony. This is why the mind is cleansed by the paper and in harmony before the stroke is made.

As well as your physical Teacher and Chan Teachers seen and unseen, you have eight other Teachers guiding you; the four friends, and the ink, brush, inkstone and paper. The special aspect of the paper also teaches you balance after your painting is finished by the placement of name seals.

Name seals are family, monastic or poetic names carved into stone, metal or wood by a master seal carver, traditionally in archaic seal calligraphy. These are pressed into red seal ink and onto the finished painting as a grace note or a signature. Sometimes you see a treasured ink painting with many family name seals, placed there by the owners of that work of art down through the centuries.

In the Chan Academy Australia tradition, the student is given a series of three painting names as they progress to Chan mind. These can be poetic and describe the individual. For example, our director Julian’s first name is `Happy Bamboo’, as he is so busy and makes so much merit that when he paints bamboo it is strong and he is happy to have the time to paint it. `The way of flowers’, is another poetic one, but if the student grabs at a name, the name can be quite a surprising statement and part of his or her practice.

The late John Hughes, my Teacher, would at times make the students do a whole class painting with water instead of ink if greed for sensation was too strong. The student could do his or her best work in water only to see it disappear in front of him when dry.

Chan painting can be confronting at times, but with the four friends and four treasures, when the brush dances with the four seasons and reveals the four elements in the four directions you are then painting in Chan mind and with the viewless winds. To quote in part one of the poems of W.B.Yeates: `Though you have the will of the wild birds, but know your hair was bound and wound, about the stars and moon and sun’.

Buddha said, `We create the world with our thoughts,’ and taught the power of the `Truth asseveration’ through the Vattakaparitta, The Quail’s Protection:`In the world there is the quality of virtue, truth and purity and compassion too. [With wings that do not fly] I, in accordance with truth, shall make an unsurpassed Truth-asseveration reflecting on the power of the Dhamma and calling to mind the Conquerors of the past. Depending on the power of truth I make a truth-asseveration: The `Way of the Brush' is well worth the effort, courage and endurance needed to create your world of refinement, with a beautiful compassionate mind in your own mandala.

To have refuge in the Buddha Dharma Sangha is the way to learn from `insight wisdom’ and not dogma. Buddha Dharma is for each one to perceive for him or herself, and refuge in the Triple Gem helps us to dispel doubt and all the hindrances to bright mind.

As the roots of hatred, greed and ignorance in their more subtle (and therefore more insidious) forms are pulled out by diligent practice and merit, and the guidance from our Teachers, `insight wisdom’ becomes more profound, and we approach the wisdom/compassion mind through the seven factors of enlightenment, EFFORT, INTENTION, CONCENTRATION, JOY, SAMADHI MEDITATION, WISDOM and EQUANIMITY, and live in this mandala where we are indeed a blessing to ourselves and other living beings. A coat I made my song a coat Covered with embroideries Out of mythologies From heel to throat But the fools caught it,Wore it in the world’s eyes As though they wrought it. Song, let them take it. For there is more enterprise in walking naked. (W.B. Yeates)

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 Neilsen, and edited by Anita Hughes, Leila Igracki, Leanne Eames, Julian Bamford, Julie O'Donnell, Lainie Smallwood and Alec Sloman.

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