Facets of a Diamond – Blog

Lafcadio Hearn writes of “the question which all the sages have had to face: Is the universe moral?”

“Whether moral or immoral the cosmic process,” there must be one conviction: “the certainty that man should pursue the highest moral ideal with all his power to the unknown end, even though the suns in their courses should

I exist
to heal.

If this is not a mere grandiose delusion – as well it may be – then there are certain corollaries:

1. The particular modality employed with any sufferer at any moment is utterly unimportant.
2. Basic to the healing is helping the sufferer to find his Soul, and thus reduce his

I believe that to overcome our anguish (the Buddha’s First Noble Truth) we must find our Souls, our Buddha-Nature. And this comes through finding our mother’s Soul, for we were – and still are – of her. Are her.

One Way to her as

No tune for the composer,
no subject for the painter.
Free! Free! At last.

The twentieth century’s
great gift to the Arts.

“The reason we find nothing to dislike in the drawings made by children is that in them the inherent nature of man finds expression without being thwarted or frustrated.” 

— Soetsu Yanagi

And it is the subject that thwarts and frustrates the painter’s free expression of his inherent nature, his Buddhahood, his

“The reason we find nothing to dislike in the drawings made by children is that in them the inherent nature of man finds expression without being thwarted or frustrated.”* That is to say, they are free to express their Muse, their Souls unrestrained.

 But then, “The moment children become self-conscious,

As soon as the music starts, we search for the tune. We must find it, or else we reject the piece as “too modern.”

But what if the very need for a tune is itself a problem? Isn’t the music the equivalent of what is called in art “expressionism”? We have paintings – “modern” – without

If the painting
needs an explanation,
then it’s not realistic
– for life is Untitled.

What is Creativity?

1. It is the grateful return of Inspiration as Aspiration.

2. It is the active meditation arising out of the still.

A Zen master who is also a photographer has had published a book of his photographs, each accompanied by a Zen commentary. The book is called Hearing with the Eye.*

I photograph for the viewer not to hear, but to heal. Hopefully, my book could be called Healing with the Eye.

* John Daido Loori (Boston: Shambhala,