From: Jack Fulton (jefulton1@home.com)
Date: 05/15/01-09:04:15 AM Z
Much of what has been said about Minor is true : a conundrum. Allan
Coleman's diatribe was in a sense appreciated (by me) when he wrote it but
missed what Minor was ultimately about. Since there is a large Zen community
around me . . best friends, restaurants, experiences, a ranch owned by the
co founder of Polaroid has been the garden/ranch/center for years . . . it
is of great interest. To tap into one's spiritual self is not easy. I go to
the desert regions of the West.
Minor, who partly founded my department, and taught here for a few years,
did find thoughtful company in ideas perpetrated by Zen.
Alan Watts, who I delivered the newspaper to, said:
"Inability to accept the mystic experience is more than an intellectual
handicap. Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment
is a serious and dangerous hallucination. For in a civilization equipped
with immense technological power, the sense of alienation between man and
nature leads to the use of technology in a hostile spirit---to the
"conquest" of nature instead of intelligent co-operation with nature."
A young man in Canada (Toronto) for the Marshal Mcluhan conference is
wearing a hat w/a video camera on it and he has "become a camera."
"Just as the wheel is an extension of the leg, and radio is an extension of
the voice, so too, is the camera an extension of the eye, the computer an
extension of the brain, and wiring, circuits, and the internet an extension
of the nervous system."
Also, a movie came out in the mid 50's called, "I Am A Camera" written by
Christopher Isherwood. It had nothing to do with cameras but more to do
w/promiscuity.
Birdie (& then Darryl) hit is closest to the mark (in my mind) when she
wrote:
"Let the subject become its own photograph" =Capture a subject (rather than
create an image). This would appear to be a rejection of more abstract
approaches. "Become a camera" = Work in a controlled methodical way, as if
you are an extension of the camera, treating yourself as being subordinate
to the process. This could also reflect a certain . approach to life in
general.
That's (an) interpretation and not an expression of my own values, by the
way. Obscure metaphors rock my world."
Most of the answers and queries to Minor's interesting statement are
confounded by the ego and trap one behind the idea of perfection of
rendition vs the rendition of perfection. Now that is a koan eh?
Again, from Alan Watts:
"Lao-Tzu said 'the five colors make a man blind, the five tones make a man
deaf,' because if you can only see five colors, you're blind, and if you can
only hear five tones in music, you're deaf. You see, if you force sound into
five tones, you force color into five colors, you're blind and deaf. The
world of color is infinite, as is the world of sound. And it is only by
stopping fixing conceptions on the world of color and the world of sound
that you really begin to hear it and see it.
A sudden crash of thunder. The mind doors burst open,
and there sits the ordinary old man.
See? There's a sudden vision. Satori! Breaking! Wowee! And the doors of the
mind are blown apart, and there sits the ordinary old man. It's just little
you, you know? Lightning flashes, sparks shower. In one blink of your eyes,
you've missed seeing. Why? Because here is the light. The light, the light,
the light, every mystic in the world has 'seen the light.'"
There is, also, a wonderful short story that is an appendage to Herman
Hesse's 'Magister Ludi', or 'The Glass Bead Game' that is a fascinating read
and pretty much sums up what started this conversation.
Jack Fulton
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