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Anglo Zen Calligraphy & Poetry:

CREATIVE PROCESS OULTINE: First, there is zhanzhuang (站桩) standing yoga – where the whole being expands into the infinite heavens on the in-breath – in harmony with the expanding hara, and on the outbreath, the toes gently drill down into the earth like a tree – as hara shrinks naturally, and the whole being ‘dies’ back into the soil as the respiratory gas leaves the body. If not yet the final breath, though, the tree remains standing to expand into the heavens again, and the process continues. The Taoists (Chuang-Tzu and Lieh-Tzu especially), called this ‘standing like an uncarved clod of wood’ (雕瑑复朴，块然独以其形立) – carrying the state of ‘pu’ 朴 natural simplicity. The pu 朴 character's left radical: 木, means tree and the right radical:卜, means ‘prophesy’ – resembling a crack that would appear on a bone or turtle shell during divination. This is what the starting position of every karate, taichi, and taekwondo kata is – standing like a tree prophetically – aiming to return to harmony with pristine natural brilliance. Once the body and mind are on board that flow – after around 10 minutes, a recent natural scene and a Taoist transcendent riddle are fetched, which are then blended together to create a haiku. The haiku is written down once it has become clear, and is then polished a bit after finishing the standing yoga. Then, the rooted tree posture is used to 'do battle' via the calligraphy process – using the brush as a sword – in order to carve out incense dragon tree words onto the paper – the haiku poem created earlier. This is by no means a new practice. It has been documented for more than 1500 years in China. For example, Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 (303–361 AD), writes, in Brushwork's Dynamic Posturing Discourse (笔势论): ‘Indeed, the paper is the battle formation, the brush is the sword and lance 夫纸者阵也，笔者刀矟也, ink is the military armour, watery inkstone is the fortress with moat, 墨者兵甲也，水砚者城池也' After meeting highly accomplished masters in Beijing, I carry and continue on with what they passed down to me in this ‘Anglo zen’ way. In Chuang-Tzu, Chapter 33 – ‘The Heavens’ Lower Realm’ (TiānXià 天下), a man called Shèndào follows the Taoist path, gains access to the Tao as a result, and his resultant situation, or condition, is described as follows: ‘Released and liberated without movement, and yet still not being the heavens’ lower realm’s great sage – tempered and patted down whilst remote and detached – along with nature’s creations as they wind and circulate – abandoning ‘is’ along with ‘is not’ – remaining casual and thus able to be free – uninstructed in knowledge or prudence, and therefore not knowing before or after – standing alone naturally flowing on and yet having reached the end! 纵脱无行而非天下之大圣，椎拍輐断，与物宛转，舍是与非，苟可以免，不师知虑，不知前后，魏然而已矣。 Pushed and then only after that moving, pulled and then after that heading towards a point – akin to the whirling winds' rotating – like a feather as it twirls, or like a grinding stone via its hollow shaft – wholly integrated and without any wrongs, moving with grounded tranquillity and without overstepping – and so never committing crimes. 推而后行，曳而后往，若飘风之还，若羽之旋，若磨石之隧，全而无非，动静无过，未尝有罪。 Now, this is all due to what causative elements? Well, such people lack mental formations' objects – lack the foundations of passing away's catastrophicness, avoid employing mental formations' binding entanglements, move with grounded tranquillity and yet without being dissociated from practical logic – therefore acquiring a full life without being glorified. 是何故？夫无知之物，无建己之患，无用知之累，动静不离于理，是以终身无誉。 Thus, he said: “Arrive at existing akin to lacking mental formations' objects, and nothing more – without a use for worthiness or sagacity, even – as such clods do not lose the Way.” 故曰： “至于若无知之物而已，无用贤圣，夫块不失道。” This is all still a practice for me. There is a long way to go, but the path feels so nourishing. I hope that you can feel nourished by this way also – and perhaps even achieve something more with it.

Gulls on the river,
Crowding out the swans and ducks,
For one small minnow.

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