Project: Buddha touching the Earth Part 2

**RichardH** · 04-29-2016, 02:51 PM

Hi. Thank you for participating here in the Art circle. I apologize for not being more engaged at the start of this. There has been a lot going on with the Shukke Tokudo, and there has been much to take-in getting a sense of the study and training that lays ahead. I am truly a beginner.

Going forward with our project it is a good idea to be clear on my role, and your role. When it comes to the Dharma subject matter of our projects, I am just like you. What I have to say about the Dharma through art is personal, said as an artist-student. It is not said as a Priest or Teacher. We are in the same boat as student-explorers. When it comes to Art, ideas round creativity, and the creative process, I do have the work experience and can facilitate, but I am also a student of you, learning from you.

So.... What's next?

Lets toss around ideas! We have looked at the Buddha touching the Earth. How can that story, and what it means to you personally, be expressed? Nature is a great place to look and one really good source of inspiration is Andy Goldsworthy who Anne points to here.. http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...l=1#post177845 He touches the earth in amazing ways that look nothing like a "Buddha touching the earth", yet for me it somehow evokes it so beautifully. There are also countless traditional, canonical, representations of the story to draw on. There may be images that pop into the mind, silly non-sequiturs, what do they look like? Invite it, and things appear. So whether it is abstract or representational, a chicken-scratch drawing of a stick figure, a Buddha made of wound up twigs, a photograph of ..... something..... that “rings true” to you, please do make it. This is not a big deal or a final result that is going to be judged (it never will be judged), it is just the process of creative play. Lets play like children who do not know what “correct” and “incorrect” are. There is no need to know anything, except what is joyful to see, and what rings true, even if you don't know how it rings true, and never will.

Lets make something...simple.... just to begin, and post it here over the coming days.

Gassho
Daizan
sat today

Just a note: I will be away at a workshop and offline from later today until Sunday night.

**Geika** · 05-01-2016, 01:04 AM

Letting my hand play while I think on the subject:

**Jakuden** · 05-01-2016, 01:49 AM

My inner child really wants to make a sculpture with horse manure. It's a product of the earth that is taken into a living being, enters a world where microorganisms ferment it and make some of its nutrients available for life, exits back to the earth, then decomposes in a big pile until ready to be put in my garden to help me grow yummy veggies.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

**Myosha** · 05-01-2016, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by Jakuden

My inner child really wants to make a sculpture with horse manure. It's a product of the earth that is taken into a living being, enters a world where microorganisms ferment it and make some of its nutrients available for life, exits back to the earth, then decomposes in a big pile until ready to be put in my garden to help me grow yummy veggies.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

Hello,

A GREAT shitty idea.^^

Gassho
Myosha sat today

**Cooperix** · 05-01-2016, 03:52 PM

Jakuden..

Manure Art. I love that idea! really. it's ephemeral, organic, a perfect median for non attachment! A totem in your garden. you might even get some plants to grow around its edges. real land art!
not sure you are serious but if so go for it...please do wear gloves and a face mask.
_/\_
Anne

**Jakuden** · 05-01-2016, 04:09 PM

Haha thanks Anne, no I wasn't really kidding although I was hoping that Daizan wouldn't find my idea insulting. lol! There has always been something appealing and earthy to me about grass, hay, silage, manure.... and in my field, we preoccupy ourselves a lot with poop in general because there is so much information to be gained from it. (If I have to handle it with anything besides my pitchfork though, yes I would certainly wear gloves

)

Unfortunately I can't start this project today because it is raining and the horses are out in the field. I could go in with the chickens and start with them but their manure is just not as aesthetically pleasing... although it grows nice asparagus for me....

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

P.S. LOL Myosha!

**Cooperix** · 05-01-2016, 09:00 PM

Is it Thich Nhat Hahn that talks about looking at compost and seeing the flowers? Nothing at all wrong or disgusting about manure. But you are right about chicken s***... although even there is the sunshine and flowers.

check this out...https://www.google.com/search?q=art+...w=1215&bih=687

happy sculpting!
Anne

**RichardH** · 05-02-2016, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Jakuden

Haha thanks Anne, no I wasn't really kidding although I was hoping that Daizan wouldn't find my idea insulting. lol! There has always been something appealing and earthy to me about grass, hay, silage, manure.... and in my field, we preoccupy ourselves a lot with poop in general because there is so much information to be gained from it. (If I have to handle it with anything besides my pitchfork though, yes I would certainly wear gloves

)

Unfortunately I can't start this project today because it is raining and the horses are out in the field. I could go in with the chickens and start with them but their manure is just not as aesthetically pleasing... although it grows nice asparagus for me....

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

P.S. LOL Myosha!

There was a great old post by Jundo, I'll try and find it, pointing out how life's manure is transformed through practice and pointing to a picture like this.. tumblr_inline_n4au6g1rvp1rn5ji5.jpg of the Buddha's beautifully ordered hair.. resemble anything?

Another old post...one of my favorites, was about how our teachers appear even in the worst places, even in the most "bad" people.. Note the mudra... article-2495452-17569E79000005DC-86_634x408.jpg

I've got my eyes open this week for unexpected "Earth Touching" sights and sounds and will post here....

Gassho
Daizan

sat today

**RichardH** · 05-02-2016, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by Geika

Letting my hand play while I think on the subject:

Beautiful!

Gassho
Daizan

sat today

**Meishin** · 05-02-2016, 02:44 PM

Hello Daizan (and a belated congratulations to you. Is this project open to photography as well as painting?

Gassho
Meishin
sat today

**RichardH** · 05-02-2016, 03:05 PM

Yes! It is open to any and all mediums

Gassho
Daizan

Sat today

**Byrne** · 05-02-2016, 04:56 PM

I'm imaging Shakyamuni touching the Earth as a sort of baptism. A baptism for the whole Earth.

Gassho

Sat Today
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**Meishin** · 05-02-2016, 05:27 PM

Yes. We had just finished shooting photos near a lake and were walking to the car. Turning around there was this image, earth touching moon, moon touching earth. Finger pointing to the moon.

moon at SFNP.jpg

Gassho
Meishin
sat today

**Jishin** · 05-02-2016, 06:04 PM

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

**Cooperix** · 05-02-2016, 06:15 PM

Ink from the earth.

Working on making ink from the red terracotta clay I have gathered from northern New Mexico. It will be used as part of a land art piece that will be installed later this year.
2016-05-02 001 2016-05-02 002.jpg

the earth yields all in great beauty.

bowing.
Anne
~st~

**Byrne** · 05-02-2016, 09:32 PM

a project so nice I did it twice. This is fun.

Gassho

Sat Today

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**Jishin** · 05-02-2016, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by Byrne

a project so nice I did it twice. This is fun.

Gassho

Sat Today

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Didn't know you were Christian. Looks like Jesus.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

**Byrne** · 05-02-2016, 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by Jishin

Didn't know you were Christian. Looks like Jesus.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Not my thing. I'm just grooving on a theme. My parents used to have rubbings from old tombstones that looked like this dude.

Gassho

Sat Today

**Rich** · 05-02-2016, 09:54 PM

Thanks everyone. Enjoying seeing all such beautiful pictures.

Sat today

**RichardH** · 05-03-2016, 11:47 AM

A pen doodle of sky and earth . This has been a habitual doodle subject for a long time... saw it in a cut in half orange.

sky earth.jpg

Gassho
Daizan

sat today

**RichardH** · 05-03-2016, 12:19 PM

Here is a another pen doodle of the living earth... living earth.jpg

The city where I live is dense but has a network of deep, heavily forested, ravines... I'm going to find time this week to play with some rocks down at the creek!

Gassho
Daizan

sat today

**Byrne** · 05-03-2016, 06:00 PM

Those who don't know don't edit. I wasn't digging my ancient Jesus-looking Buddha touching the Earth. Too busy. Bad rhythm. So I cut him up, added some gray and I dig it more. It looks waaaaaay less Buddhist. It looks specifically Christian. But I don't care because it looks good to me and the content is what it is. And Buddhists dig circles too. Everyone digs circles.

Gassho

Sat Today

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**Jishin** · 05-03-2016, 06:47 PM

I like your art Byrne. It's very nice.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

**Byrne** · 05-03-2016, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by Jishin

I like your art Byrne. It's very nice.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Thanks homey!

Gassho

Sat Today

**Byrne** · 05-03-2016, 07:11 PM

Thanks Homey.

I like your Buddha Hammer.

I might steal it.

I might...

Gassho

Sat Today

**Jishin** · 05-03-2016, 07:39 PM

If you can catch it it's yours.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

**Jakuden** · 05-04-2016, 05:33 PM

Oooh! Lots of awesome things posted here since I last looked! This is going to be fun. Byrne what did you use to make your pictures?

Daizan, the picture of Walt from Breaking Bad made me LOL. Mudra with a capsule of ricin I think??

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

**Byrne** · 05-04-2016, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by Jakuden

Oooh! Lots of awesome things posted here since I last looked! This is going to be fun. Byrne what did you use to make your pictures?

Daizan, the picture of Walt from Breaking Bad made me LOL. Mudra with a capsule of ricin I think??

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

I use adobe illustrator.

Gassho

Sat Today

**RichardH** · 05-05-2016, 05:27 PM

Byrne's brought this one to mind, it's an older canvas. It is very different, but somehow the same in a way. I like to think that it is also musical. It hangs in the home of a soprano (as in opera singer, not mobster

) where she teaches music.

Bodhisattva 48inx48in oil on canvas (2).jpg

Gassho
Daizan

sat today

**Byrne** · 05-09-2016, 05:48 AM

A Hammer Striking Emptiness 2: Electric Boogaloo

Staring Bodhidharma

Thanks Jishin.

Gassho

Sat Today

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**Washin** · 05-09-2016, 08:15 AM

A Hammer Striking Emptiness 2: Electric Boogaloo
Staring Bodhidharma

Amazing..

Thank you, nice works everyone

Gassho
Washin
sat today

**Jishin** · 05-09-2016, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Byrne

A Hammer Striking Emptiness 2: Electric Boogaloo

Staring Bodhidharma

Thanks Jishin.

Gassho

Sat Today

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

**Jakuden** · 05-09-2016, 01:14 PM

That's amazing. Reminds me of Jundo saying, put down the hammer!

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

**Washin** · 05-09-2016, 01:16 PM

Byrne, may I borrow this awesome picture of yours for my e-collection? Thank you

Gassho
Washin
st

**Byrne** · 05-09-2016, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by Washin

Byrne, may I borrow this awesome picture of yours for my e-collection? Thank you

Gassho
Washin
st

Of course you can have it.

Gassho

Sat Today

**Sozan** · 05-09-2016, 07:02 PM

Enso

100_3215AA.jpg 100_3205AA.jpg 100_3152AA.jpg

Gassho,
Sozan

s@2day

**Sekishi** · 05-11-2016, 05:27 PM

Hi everyone,

I have done some work with all of your submissions (except yours Sozan, you hadn't posted yet when I started this -- I will circle back around and work on them soon). I'll be posting them a few at a time over the next day or so. Feel free to just enjoy (or be offended as the case may be) without reading the essay below.

For much of my life I've been interested in emergence, and have been playing with software that runs very simple rules on large datasets to find rules that result in "interesting" or "beautiful" new orders within the data. Generally I find the results most pleasing when working with cellular automata rules in images (but sound is also fun). For anyone familiar with computer science or mathematics, think Conways "Game of Life" or Ed Pegg's "Turmites".

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
- http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Turmite.html

Anyhow, on and off for the past few years I've been focused on processing individual pixels in images using simple rules that adhere to three commandments:

1. The rules must be "local" - for each pixel in the image, the rules can ONLY examine the 8 pixels immediately surrounding it (e.g. to the N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW). This means that any interesting higher-order patterns that emerge come from rules that only operate at a local level.
2. Images are treated as "spherical" and "continuous" (e.g. when looking at neighboring pixels at the edge of the image, we wrap-around to the other side of the image).
3. The rules must be "non-destructive". No pixel is ever overwritten, only swapped with a neighbor. This means that no "information" in the image is ever created or destroyed, only re-arranged.

The software I've been working on has a few dozen rules I've found that often produce interesting results. All of the rules compare pixels based on things like hue and brightness, and swap pixels based on the results of the comparison. By way of example, I only ran one rule on Meishin's photo initially to produce this result:

This is "Rule 17" (my numbering as I find interesting ones, no meaning here):

For each pixel in the image, starting at the top left, and looping through:

- If the pixel to the SE of the target pixel is more RED than the pixel to the S of the target pixel, swap the target pixel with the one to the SE.

- Otherwise, if the pixel to the S of the target pixel is more GREEN than the pixel to the SE of the target pixel, swap the target pixel with the one to the SW.

- Otherwise, if the pixel to the SW of the target pixel is more BLUE than the pixel to the S of the target pixel, swap the target pixel with the one to the NW.

- Otherwise, do nothing.

What exactly a given rule does is completely dependant upon the content of the image. Some rules will do nothing on a given image, some will completely rearrange the images in chunks and "streams" of pixels. Like Rule 17 above, which absolutely loved Meishin's photo and produced lovely chunks of color with little streaks through it.

Anyhow, each rule tends to move pixels in a general direction (again, not always, but it tends towards such), so I have them arranged basically like a joystick, and can just sort of surf from rule to rule watching them reorder the target image. Using this technique, I generated 10 images for each of your images, and then picked my two favorites out of the ten.

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

**Sekishi** · 05-11-2016, 05:52 PM

Jakuden's photo of the ZMM cemetery: