Subtitles

life is spontaneous it happens in the 00:00:19

life is spontaneous it happens in the words of the Daoists and Zeron which 00:00:22

means of itself so that's their Chinese 00:00:27

expression for nature what happens by 00:00:31

itself 00:00:32

what isn't pushed but it just pops up 00:00:34

you see like do you I'll never forget 00:00:39

there was a great Zen master I knew once 00:00:41

in New York he was giving a lecture one 00:00:44

evening and he was dressed in his gold 00:00:46

ceremonial robes and he was sitting in 00:00:49

front of an altar like was the sort of 00:00:50

thing and but he had a table in front of 00:00:52

him with very formal the candles on it 00:00:55

and the sutra scripture on a little desk 00:00:58

and he was lecturing on the sutra and he 00:01:03

said dumb fundamental principle in 00:01:08

buddhism is no purpose poposaurus nests 00:01:14

when you drop fart you don't say 00:01:18

at nine o'clock I drop thought it 00:01:21

happened of itself you know all these 00:01:28

pious Western devotees you know kind of 00:01:32

put their handkerchiefs in their mouths 00:01:34

and tried not to laugh so but that's the 00:01:41

meaning of something that happens of 00:01:43

itself like drop drop fart or have 00:01:45

hiccups or just you came into being you 00:01:50

know it happens in a kind of a plop way 00:01:52

like that see now you can't tell that 00:01:56

process you ought to happen you must 00:02:01

happen because that puts a bind on it in 00:02:06

the same way as when you have a little 00:02:08

child and all the relatives that come to 00:02:09

a party on Thanksgiving and you put the 00:02:11

child into the middle of all the 00:02:13

relatives and say now dear play see and 00:02:17

absolutely 00:02:17

bugs the child to do it like that and so 00:02:21

this is the problem for every artist 00:02:25

because an artist is a man who makes his 00:02:27

living by playing but he's dancing or 00:02:30

painting or playing music or whatever it 00:02:32

is and he has to overcome this problem 00:02:35

he has to know how to play in public at 00:02:38

a given time on an appointment see and 00:02:43

that's not an easy thing to learn but 00:02:45

when you catch on to the trick of it you 00:02:47

can do it to play on demand that's the 00:02:54

hardest lesson of life to contrive what 00:02:57

is called by my Japanese artist friend 00:03:01

Sabra Hasegawa a control accident the 00:03:08

thing is that we have been educated to 00:03:16

use our minds in a certain way a way 00:03:22

that ignores or screens out the fact 00:03:27

that every one of us is an aperture 00:03:34

through which the whole cosmos looks out 00:03:34

you see it's as if you had a light covered with a black ball and in this 00:03:44

ball were pinholes and each pinhole is 00:03:53

an aperture through which the light 00:03:54

comes out so in that way every one of us 00:03:58

is actually a pinhole through which the 00:04:01

fundamental light that is the existence 00:04:06

itself looks out only the game we're 00:04:11

playing is not to know this to be only 00:04:18

that little hole which we call me my ego 00:04:21

my specific John Jones or whatever 00:04:21

if however you see we can maintain at the same time the sense of being this 00:04:32

specific John Jones with his role in 00:04:37

life or whatever and know also 00:04:40

underneath this that we are the whole 00:04:45

works you get a very marvelous and 00:04:49

agreeable arrangement this is a most 00:04:54

remarkable harmonious Ness I mean it 00:04:56

gives one's life a great sense of joy 00:04:58

and exuberance if you could carry on 00:05:01

these two things at once if you in other 00:05:07

words you know that all the serious 00:05:09

predicaments of life are a game now I 00:05:17

want to put it two ways I'm not saying 00:05:23

that it's a bad thing something to be 00:05:26

condemned to take your own individual 00:05:31

life seriously in dead earnest and to 00:05:35

have all the problems that go with that 00:05:35

do you understand that being that way that being a real mixed-up human being 00:05:43

is a manifestation of nature that is 00:05:53

something just like them the patterns on 00:05:57

the waves out here or like a seashell 00:06:01

you know we pick up shells I always keep 00:06:04

one around it's a lot of an example for 00:06:07

many things and say my goodness isn't 00:06:10

that godless there's not an aesthetic 00:06:13

Fault in it anywhere it's absolutely 00:06:15

perfect now I wonder I wonder if these 00:06:20

fish look at each other's shells and say 00:06:20

don't you think she's kind of fat oh my those markings aren't really very 00:06:27

well spaced cuz that's what we do see we 00:06:42

don't realize that all of us in our 00:06:44

various goings-on and behavior and so on 00:06:48

and just as much in more marvelous much 00:06:51

more complicated much more interesting 00:06:52

all these gorgeous faces that I'm 00:06:55

looking at you know every one of them 00:06:57

some does supposedly pretty some are 00:06:59

suppose you do not separately but 00:07:01

they're all absolutely gorgeous and 00:07:03

everybody's eyes is a piece of jewelry 00:07:06

beyond compare 00:07:08

Buhl 00:07:08