I never realized before, but the years I spent doing sumi-e were meditation. Stilling the brush, stroking with the brush swiftly. Being so deliberate in your strokes that you let the paint manifest the painting, like Athena from Zeus' skull, like Aphrodite from the all father's penis.
These are the parts the mythology leads on to, that the concious mind, and the limbic brain driven institutions attempt to suppress. All in a natural attempt to perpetuate themselves.
You can't rush the trascendent. If you seek it, you shall find it. Ask of it, and you shall receive. Knock, the door will be open unto you.
But you must come to that space with a calmness of mind, not out of clinging to desire, or because of escape, so that you have the clarity to see all there is to behold. And glory in the magnitude.
This is where the true saint lies, in understanding so completely the joy of creation that the whole of creation becomes a focus of her or his compassion. Working completely in unity of self and expression, knowing that which you do for the least of your brothers and sisters, that you do unto yourself.
Sumi-e helps make that understanding of the sublime more intentional, the brush strokes your own creation and not your own creation. When both the soul and the mind can understand the probablistic nature of the universe, I believe great insight can be attained.
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