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The Poxiang Lun lays it bare

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the style you drill for a lifetime

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may just be ego clinging

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there is an elderly painter and calligrapher

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who suddenly shut himself away these past years

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no visitors

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no contact with peers

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he cut off almost all lateral exchange

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the studio door stayed closed for years

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outsiders guessed all kinds of things

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some said he had run dry

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some said he had lost heart

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only he himself knew

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he was not running from anything

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he was contemplating one question

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the question sounds simple

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even a little absurd

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does brush and ink have a nature of its own

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hello

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hi everyone

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I am Leo Wang

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this old man wrote me a very long message

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he said he has done calligraphy and painting all his life

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after years of practice cross checked against Buddhist teaching

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a big question grew in him

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can calligraphy and painting carry Buddhist wisdom

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or the other way round

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be carried by it

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he found

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once painting is forced into a Western aesthetic frame

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style school technique and master keep slicing it up

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and by the end of all that slicing

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it turns into a new attachment

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inside that whole system of concepts

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the real self gets thinned out

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or vanishes altogether

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he said

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look at almost every artist working today

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all of it stays on the physical level

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however fine the technique gets

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it is nowhere near Buddhist wisdom

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let alone applying it

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then he read a small book the Poxiang Lun

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and the road suddenly felt wide

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but from that point on

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fewer people wanted to look at his work

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in his letter he said

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he was glad

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you might find that strange

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what is there to be glad about

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for someone in the arts

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is a bigger audience not always better

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the logic we grew up with goes like this

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an artist must have his own style

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the more distinct and recognizable the style

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the more it proves he has made it

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open any history of art

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and when it reaches a master

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the first line is always which school he founded

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and what made his brushwork unique

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students are told over and over from the start

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find your own face early

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sharpen your technique

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be clear about your school

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make your personal label stick

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that is the unspoken success formula for nearly every creator

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critics need a label to write anything

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the market needs a signature to set a price

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and audiences need a familiar look to recognize you instantly

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the logic sounds airtight

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because art education the market and criticism

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all keep confirming this common sense

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but this old man

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got stuck right inside that formula

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he found

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style should be a trace the mind leaves once it arrives somewhere

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but once style becomes a goal you chase build and defend

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something quietly changes

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you are no longer using brush and ink to see yourself

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you are using it to manufacture a self that stands out

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the two look identical from outside

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both are writing painting and studying brushwork

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but the direction behind them is opposite

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one starts from the mind

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and lets the appearance grow on its own

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the other picks the appearance first

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then goes back to assemble a mind for it

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this is what the Poxiang Lun set out to dismantle over a thousand years ago

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tradition credits it to Bodhidharma who faced the wall for nine years

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but a batch of old manuscripts unearthed at Dunhuang

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led many scholars to lean toward the view

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that it came from another major Zen master Shenxiu

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scholars still have no verdict on this

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personally I think

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that is the perfect footnote to this text

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the insight in the words

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never needed a famous name to back it up

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the text opens with a question

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if someone truly wants to seek the way

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which practice is the most essential

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the answer is four words

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watching the mind alone

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contains every practice

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and is the most essential

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in plain language

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there are countless methods in the world

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but if you keep watch on this one mind

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everything else is already inside it

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then it offers an image

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the mind is the root

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every practice is a branch flower or fruit growing from that root

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if the root is strong

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the branches thrive on their own

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and the flowers bloom bright

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if the root withers

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no matter how many flowers and ribbons you tie to the branches

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one gust and they fall off

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the text spends a lot of space puncturing a common attachment of its day

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the idea that building temples copying scriptures and making offerings are the practice

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and it is not polite about it

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these people do not understand

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they never work on the mind

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they only seek outward

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circling the pagoda round and round

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until they are exhausted

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and the true mind gains nothing at all

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a thousand years later

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swap the temple for a studio

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the scriptures for an art catalog

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and the line still holds

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technique school style and the title of master

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are not wrong in themselves

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just as building temples and copying scriptures are not wrong

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what goes wrong is this

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the moment they stop being traces the mind leaves

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and become objects the mind chases and flatters

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they turn into what the text calls appearance

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the deeper you burrow into these appearances

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the thinner the real self becomes

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there is a wonderful passage in the text

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it takes the six perfections giving discipline patience effort meditation and wisdom

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and reads them all as work against the six thieves

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the eye craves beauty

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not chasing it

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is giving

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the ear craves sound

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not indulging it

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is discipline

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all the way to the mind craving delusion

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staying awake and aware

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is wisdom

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it takes six outward forms of merit

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and pulls them back to the gates of the mind

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back into yourself to practice

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the same goes for painting

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whether you copy a certain master or school

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whether you use a certain technique

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these are choices on the surface only

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none is higher than another

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what really decides whether a sheet of paper has weight

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is the moment your brush lands

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whether the mind is being led around by outside names and forms

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so how do you keep watch on this mind

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the method in the text is quite plain

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notice the instant a thought stirs

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are you imitating someone else

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or expressing yourself

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this noticing does not require sitting cross legged

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you can do it the second you pick up the brush

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while copying the brushwork of a master

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check in

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are you using the brush to paint what you feel inside

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or just so people spot whose lineage this is

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in the first case

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brush and ink are a raft

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and you are crossing the river

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in the second

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you are not even on the raft

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but you already love the ticket

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this road

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has been walked before

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Master Hongyi was born Li Shutong

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before ordination he was the finest all round artist of his era

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music theater painting and seal carving all of it

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back then he wrote in Wei stele script

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square hard and full of edge

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every stroke told people how deep his skill ran

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after taking vows at Hupao Temple in Hangzhou in 1918

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he lived a different life

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after ordination

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the sharpness faded bit by bit

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his late writing is thin and pale

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almost like a child wrote it

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all the force pulled inward

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he called it plain quiet and unhurried

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if you call that a decline in skill

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it is the opposite

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he was letting go of the urge to prove himself

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the writing

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is just the footprint left once that urge relaxed

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in Edo period Japan there was a Zen monk named Ryokan

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who called himself Great Fool

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poor all his life

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living in a drafty thatched hut in Echigo

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he courted no powerful men

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and kept no social rounds

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his writing is strange

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it breaks the rules

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crooked and wobbly

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experts shake their heads at it

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yet it moves people most

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what he hated most was writing that screams calligrapher

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that kind is all strain to look like a calligrapher

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he did not chase that

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so his writing kept the innocence of a child

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in Yunnan there was a monk called Dandang

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born into the Tang family

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his given name was Tang Tai

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he failed the imperial exams as a young man

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and studied painting under Dong Qichang

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a superb craftsman

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after the Ming fell

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he became a monk in his fifties

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living for years around Mount Jizu and Gantong Temple

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he painted landscapes for half his life

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and his brushwork got simpler and simpler

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until he barely painted anything

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he once inscribed a line on a painting

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if a single stroke is painting

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it is not painting

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if not one stroke is painting

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that is not painting either

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it sounds tangled

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but the meaning is plain

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clinging to whether a stroke looks like painting

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is already wrong

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and not daring to make one stroke

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is just as wrong

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he wrote something even blunter

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there is no Zen in painting

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painting only leads to Zen

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painting itself holds no Zen

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it is only a road toward Zen

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not the destination

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Ni Yunlin was one of the Four Masters of the Yuan

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he was a compulsive cleaner

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famously fussy

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they say after a guest left

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he wiped the seat several times

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he even had the courtyard trees washed constantly

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his painting was the same

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brush and ink extremely spare and pale

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with wide empty space

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he has a famous line

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loose careless strokes

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not seeking likeness

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just to amuse myself

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later people made him sound lazy

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it is the opposite

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how could a man who washed his trees daily be lazy

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when he painted bamboo

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he never cared whether it looked like bamboo

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he was letting the breath in his chest out through the brush

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that obsession with cleanliness and that spare style

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are two branches from the same mind

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these four men have wildly different styles

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one is lean

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one is childlike

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one is rough

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one is minimal

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but the force behind their traces is identical

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they did not fix a style then fill in content

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the mind arrived somewhere first

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the work is just the shadow it left passing through

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from the Yogacara view

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we unpacked this mechanism in our Yogacara episodes

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we carry a manas consciousness

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whose only job is claiming things around the clock

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this is mine

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that is mine too

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style is its favorite thing to claim

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because style is visible touchable and sellable

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far more solid than saying I am talented

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once you can say this is my style

285
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the manas has a respectable place to stand

286
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but the tighter you grip that spot

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the mind that actually watches feels and paints

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gets wrapped tighter in the label my style

289
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this does not only happen in the art world

290
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over the years I have seen many founders and brands

291
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and plenty of investors too

292
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all circling the same pit

293
00:10:18,986 --> 00:10:21,188
everyone talks about differentiated positioning

294
00:10:21,505 --> 00:10:23,968
building a personal label and a moat

295
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which really means style and school

296
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some founders do make the persona stick

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the market remembers him

298
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but the company itself grows hollow

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the persona stands

300
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the person is gone

301
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if you are building something for the long run

302
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this part may send a chill down your back

303
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honestly

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running this channel

305
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I face this temptation every day

306
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viewers remember a persona named Leo Wang

307
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a style of talking Buddhism and cognition

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used well that style is a tool

309
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it delivers what I mean to your ears

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but once I speak to protect the persona

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and pick topics so viewers are not disappointed

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the persona goes from tool to master

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and the real me has to live at its mercy

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this is not a disease unique to art

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anything institutionalized marketized and professionalized

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is almost bound to hit this wall

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academia has it

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business has it

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and honestly

320
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so does the world of practice

321
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founding a school can become a new layer of appearance

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this is where the Poxiang Lun is most ruthless

323
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it does not even spare practice itself

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that must break too

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back to the old man who wrote me

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he said he has kept his door shut for years

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entering something close to Zen contemplation

328
00:11:45,521 --> 00:11:49,904
technique school and style are no longer his goal

329
00:11:50,001 --> 00:11:51,583
they became a revelation instead

330
00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:56,223
he is not imitating Hongyi Ryokan Dandang or Ni Yunlin

331
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or how any of them looked

332
00:11:57,881 --> 00:12:00,503
he is looking through how their traces formed

333
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back to the force hidden behind them

334
00:12:03,481 --> 00:12:05,944
he said there is no ready made framework for this

335
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the search excites him

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and pains him

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I understand that pain

338
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breaking appearances is never a one time act

339
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today you break the appearance of needing a style

340
00:12:17,551 --> 00:12:19,734
tomorrow a new one may grow

341
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called I am the one who chases no style

342
00:12:22,551 --> 00:12:24,035
that pit is deeper than the last

343
00:12:24,352 --> 00:12:25,511
because it hides better

344
00:12:25,512 --> 00:12:27,295
and is more worth showing off

345
00:12:28,174 --> 00:12:29,376
look again at that line in his letter

346
00:12:29,733 --> 00:12:30,612
fewer readers

347
00:12:30,613 --> 00:12:31,597
and he is glad

348
00:12:31,774 --> 00:12:33,236
now I get it

349
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a big audience

350
00:12:34,374 --> 00:12:36,477
is not proof the mind got through

351
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often the appearance just pleased more people

352
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a small audience

353
00:12:40,374 --> 00:12:42,236
does not mean the mind traveled less far

354
00:12:42,294 --> 00:12:45,797
maybe this time he finally flattered no one

355
00:12:45,813 --> 00:12:49,077
and honestly painted what was inside him

356
00:12:49,333 --> 00:12:52,557
this kind of few is nothing like the few from bad work

357
00:12:52,774 --> 00:12:54,496
the first means the raft was built narrow

358
00:12:54,733 --> 00:12:56,212
so it carries fewer people

359
00:12:56,213 --> 00:12:59,597
but everyone aboard was truly moved by that mind

360
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so

361
00:13:00,573 --> 00:13:02,096
does brush and ink have a nature of its own

362
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my own sense is

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brush and ink never had a nature of their own

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their nature is the mind holding the brush

365
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wherever the mind is

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that is where their nature is

367
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hunting for a nature that exists apart from the mind

368
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is the same as circling a pagoda for merit

369
00:13:17,854 --> 00:13:19,836
wrong direction from the start

370
00:13:20,542 --> 00:13:23,444
this question is not only for artists

371
00:13:23,542 --> 00:13:25,020
whatever you have been polishing for years

372
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a craft a career

373
00:13:27,381 --> 00:13:29,845
or a persona you keep up online

374
00:13:29,902 --> 00:13:33,804
that style you cradle that difference you treasure

375
00:13:33,861 --> 00:13:36,341
is it the shadow your mind naturally cast

376
00:13:36,341 --> 00:13:38,705
or an appearance to prove you existed

377
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I have no answer to this

378
00:13:41,141 --> 00:13:43,164
I leave it for you to sit with

379
00:13:43,788 --> 00:13:44,390
what do you think

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00:13:44,827 --> 00:13:47,050
share your thoughts in the comments

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I am Leo Wang

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see you next time