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I put 'progress report' in quotes because I'm not sure that anything that take over 30 years to make modest 'progress' can be called progress. Considering how long it takes, perhaps I should call it a 'Maturity Report'.
Anyway, I may have finally slowed down enough, vis-a-vis the shakuhachi, to deal with a thing while it is still nothing. The 'thing' this time is timeliness in Honkyoku (i.e., 'blowing Zen'). I wouldn't have thought this would be a concern considering the s-l-o-w nature of the HonKyoku 'tempo'. But, perhaps that actually makes it worse... who knows. Worse in the sense that the issue can be easily overlooked. Specifically, in regards to the shakuhachi, being as careful at the end as at the beginning is my big, albeit daily, breakthrough.
Could a teacher have clued me in to this decades ago. Perhaps, but so what? In my view, the only 'learning' that really matters is that which we discover within ourselves, i.e., 'listening' to the teaching that uses no words. We can learn techniques and become most skilled, yet still remain completely ignorant 'parrots'. The point is, 'true progress' is not the way that seems to lead forward. Indeed, turning back is how the way moves. When I can 'move' with the way, I realize what I need to know naturally when the time is ripe. Truly this way is easy! Expecting more is simply taking the lead in robbery!
Do you have any recordings of you playing the shakuhachi? You gave me one of someone else once and I've looked and looked and can't find it. If you don't have your own recording, can you recommend one to me, maybe on Amazon?
I had to read your post 3 times before I understood what you were talking about. You could have been talking about anything! Such a globalist you are. I think you are saying that you have got the timing right and you take as much care at the end of each note as you do at the beginning.
So now I realize that when I paint, I rush to the end of the painting before I do the middle. I do the beginning and jump to the end and never do the middle at all, because I want to see what it will look like. That's not good.
Lynn Cornish:(1)... Do you have any recordings of you playing the shakuhachi?
(2)... I think you are saying that you have got the timing right and you take as much care at the end of each note as you do at the beginning.
(3)... So now I realize that when I paint, I rush to the end of the painting before I do the middle.
(1) Here are the Shakuhachi recording I've posted so far. The first eight, Ban Shiki Cho, Kumoi Jishi, Hi Fu Mi, etc., are 'Zen' Honkyoku.
To save them to file, put the cursor on the file name, right click mouse and select SAVE LINK AS... which saves the MP3 file to the hardrive and from there one can burn a CD or just listen.
The 'Miscellanious Tracks' are simple Western folk music, which didn't fit onto the Blowing Zen CD.
(2) Well, to get the "timing right", I realized I really needed to be as careful at the end as at the beginning! This is true of all action; easy to say, however, applying principle to all action requires a significant degree of turning back. Ah, life's work is never done, is it? The irony here, of course, is that the true work we need to do is actually rest, i.e., stillness. Our problem is that we 'work' at it (contend) too much!
(3) That's the ticket. When we realize that 'it' is all connected, as in the thread running through the way, we can actually begin to apply the teaching that uses no words to our every living moment.
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