2 December 04

Different Paths

I’ve been taking an online calligraphy class, my first. Roman Majuscules. The ones on the Trajan Column, beautifully proportioned and fiendishly difficult to do well—the basics are easy but everything, EVERYTHING is in the nuance, the subtleties. It requires a lot of practice.

The time I have to practice is early in the morning. This is also the time when I might be writing or meditating, and in practice it ends up being the time when I everyone else’s blog over several cups of tea. And get ready for work, having eaten breakfast. And taken a shower. And am late for work. And so on.

Meditation’s not easy for me; I am easily distracted and the thought of a week of Zen practice, let alone longer, is inconceivable (Lorianne has my admiration no just because she wrote a 50,000-word novel in the month of November…). All the uncomfortable sitting, thoughts whizzing through my brain…. Yet this morning as I patiently dipped the pen in the ink, strove for the 30 degree pen angle (but 60 degree on the verticals of the “N,” 20 degrees on the “Q’s” tail and the upper diagonal of the “K,” 0 degrees on the diagonal of the “Z,” I pondered on what a meditative exercise it was. Family groups, organized widest to narrowest; then the alphabet; then abecedarian sentences (I gravitate mostly to those in Latin, like “Trans zephyrique globum scandunt tua facta per axem,” which nonetheless leaves out “K” and “W” as well as “V” which should replace the “U”). Finally, I decided to try Michael Nagler’s suggestion of the prayer of St. Francis.

roman majuscules on the floorThere is no way to write these letters quickly. They build stroke upon stroke, over time, and the space between the strokes is as important as the shape of the letterform. They get absorbed, penetrate the psyche. It’s pure concentration: pure present.

Lorianne says a Trappist monk once told her Catholicism had lost sight of its contemplative roots. I’d like to think the invention of the printing press had a tiny part in that….

Since this photo gives a rough sense of what the rest of the house looks like, and the reasons I find to avoiding doing housework, this will serve as an Ecotone Wiki entry—this time it’s Housekeeping and Place.

Posted by at 07:59 PM in Design Arts | Link |
  1. I’m so envious.

    Did I tell you when I was little I wanted to grow up to be a monk? I thought there would be nothing more wonderful than living in some tiny cell in a huge cathedral and spending one’s life painstakingly making illuminated manuscripts. I was devastated when I found out this was no longer a realistic career path, and, too, that being that sort of monk required being male and some belief in the Christian religion. Still, I don’t think I’ve entirely gotten over that early dream. I have an obsession with calligraphy that borders on unhealthy.

    — Siona    2. December 2004, 21:45    Link
  2. Siona, you can still do it if you go to Thailand (or even here in Japan) if you become a Buddhist monk. In Thailand it’s still a big part of the culture.

    — butuki    3. December 2004, 03:05    Link
  3. Yes, I had an online conversation with Lorianne once about meditation and how much I admired people who were able to clear their minds of distracting thought processes. The creative process is a form of meditation in itself – I used to find painting an absorbing pastime I guess in much the same way you have found calligraphy. Interesting, I’d never thought of the monks writing their manuscripts as a form of meditation before, I always wondered how they could see with poor lighting and whether they used to feel the cold! Perhaps they were so absorbed in what the were doing they didn’t notice either hardship.

    — Jenny    3. December 2004, 15:25    Link
  4. A gathering of calligraphers, friends of our Sensei, held a party for us. They tooks turns creating calligraphy on specially prepared boards. Kneeling, huge brush in hand tipped straight down. Hovering over the board for perhaps minutes in meditative concentration. Then a sudden swoosh, like a tiger suddenly leaping out and catching it’s prey. Then much laughter and chatter amongst themselves, comparing. Almost 20 years later, it’s one of my most vivid memories of Japan.

    And if Siona has an obsession with calligraphy, I have one with Japanese calligraphy brushes.

    — mahala    4. December 2004, 09:54    Link
  5. I can see how it is a meditation. It would be for me as I am often quite rushed. I had a look at the online examples and I really liked some of them. I think being forced unsuccessfully into italics aged nine did my head in frankly and has put me off any idea of alternative scripts but I do enjoy messing about with typefaces in Photoshop. And I’d like to learn to write in Arabic.

    — Coup de Vent    7. December 2004, 10:46    Link

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