Here is Giacometti pinned on my bulletin board sculpting, his one intention being, as Yves Bonnefoy notes, « exhumer des aspects visibles l’invisible de la présence » (to exhume from the visible aspects the invisible presence) of what is before him. His drawing, painting or sculpture are his response to this experience of the « invisible presence » in each being and thing.
While the « visible aspects » are subject to the limits of relative space and time, the « invisible presence » is absolutely not.
In Zen, this « invisible presence » is called buddha nature, or true nature, or original face.
What is that?
« Seeing » the « invisible presence » in the « visible aspects » means to experience the whole of life. It means to not limit our experience to certain selected aspects, which are often aspects of the « visible » (who we think we are) – thoughts, ideas, opinions, beliefs – that we find pleasing or acceptable or right within our established structures of identity, convention, habit.
While the truth is that life is unceasingly unconventional.
The only way to know it is to experience it. Sit down and have a look. There is only one experience of it, and that experience is yours.
Life is unconventional
About the Author: zenscribe
Enseignante Zen et poète, Sensei Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell est née et a grandi à Minneapolis, aux Etats-Unis. Arrivée en France en 1981 pour étudier la littérature et l’histoire, elle y est restée, s’installant à Paris, où elle élève ses deux enfants et gagne sa vie en tant que journaliste.
The Zen teacher and poet Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell Sensei was born and raised in Minneapolis, but came to France in 1981 to study literature and history and has lived in Paris ever since, raising her two children and making a living as a journalist.
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