When I published the first Daoist Talk in October 2022, the poll failed to work. Perhaps I needed a course in “The Dao of WordPress”. Fortunately, the replies reached me anyway. Thank you for encouraging me to continue.
The first article began with a difficult question: how do appearances and consciousness relate? An older painting of mine brought me back to a related question from Zen: the sound of one hand. Daoism and Zen are distinct traditions; here I am following a painter’s association between them.
The kōan is associated with the Japanese Rinzai Zen master Hakuin Ekaku (白隠慧鶴, 1685–1768).[1] Often expressed in English as “the sound of one hand clapping”, its shorter form, “the sound of one hand”, is already enough to stop us for a moment. What exactly are we expecting to hear?
Does It Exist or Does It Not Exist?
For me, this is an invitation to examine the gap between an idea and an experience. We can form the thought of the sound of one hand. That does not mean we have heard it, or that giving it a definition will bring us closer to what the kōan asks of us.
My picture is not meant to solve the question by depicting a literal clap. I wanted it to serve as a meditation aid: something to return to when explanation becomes too quick and familiar. The raised palm gives the eye a recognisable form. The surrounding darkness leaves the question open.
I am interested in the experience of stepping back from habitual distinctions during meditation. Calling that “nothingness” can be misleading if it suggests mere nonexistence. Here, I mean a loosening of the concepts that usually organise my attention. Whether the painting helps another person do that remains for the viewer to discover.
When I wrote this in 2022, Anton Zeilinger had just shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Alain Aspect and John F. Clauser. That pleased me greatly.[2] Quantum physics can challenge familiar assumptions and invite philosophical reflection. But experiments with entangled particles do not scientifically confirm Zen teachings. Those comparisons need care: a kōan and a physics experiment ask different kinds of questions.
So I return to the painting. Perhaps its usefulness lies in holding the question a little longer, before reaching for an answer.
Hakuin and the One-Hand Kōan
Hakuin was an influential teacher in the Rinzai tradition and also a painter and calligrapher. The video below offers another way into his work.
Footnotes
[1] For Hakuin’s dates, role in Rinzai Zen, and a work titled Sekishu (One Hand), see the Mori Art Museum’s introduction to Hakuin. ↩
[2] The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics recognised experiments with entangled photons, tests of Bell inequalities, and advances in quantum information science. ↩
Related articles: Daoist Talks (I): Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream in Ink Painting · Daoist Talks (II): The Basics · Works on Meditation
Explore Art & Writing
Art Portfolio → Featured Artworks → Arts & Philosophy Journal → All Articles
Explore Asian Art Essays for writing on Chinese painting, calligraphy, aesthetics and art history.
Available Artworks
Original works are available on FriedrichZettl.com and Saatchi Art
Leave a Reply