Urthona – Buddhism & art – Page 3 – art & poetry for spiritual evolution

Two Buddhist Novels

A brief review of two very contrasting novels written by ordained Buddhists.

Neither of these writers has their work marketed as anything to do with Buddhism. Nevertheless they they both show awareness and imagination deriving from their practice of mindful engagement with the breadth of human experience.

GroundWork Gallery

GroundWork during a previous major exhibition

Yesterday I was privileged to visit GroundWork, in Kings Lynn a wonderful gallery space by the Kings Lynn historic waterfront that focuses on environmental art. The current exhibition is ‘Extraction: Loss and Restoration’ – looking at the effect of large-scale mining and quarrying on the landscape.

Shades of the sublime

Kate Boucher uses charcoal to evoke liminal transition zones, skies at dawn and dusk, coasts and mountains in shifting atmospheres of wind and cloudscape. Each of her landscapes is an intense study of a particular mood, not a portrait of one moment or scene, but a response to the essential qualities inherent in a time and place based in many different angles of engagement. These studies arise from a deeply sensitive awareness of the emotional energies evoked by wide open landscapes. The working with soft layers of charcoal, with many stages of rubbing and melding results in a subtle and fluid interplay of form and movement.

Waterlight – portrait of a chalk stream in winter

Waterlight is a film project inspired by a chalk stream in Cambridgeshire, the Mel, which runs between the villages of Melbourn and Shepreth. Waterlight began as a collaboration between poet and writer Clare Crossman and James Murray-White. The project team grew to include local expert Bruce Huett and filmmaker Nigel Kinnings.

Blade of January sun

Zen and AI

A fascinating book we previous reviewed ‘Zen and Artificial Intelligence’ by Paul Powell is now out in paperback, for half the price of the hardback –25.99 from Cambridge Scholars Publishing:

https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-3704-0

Urthona and other reviews mentioned by CSP highlight the playful quality of this volume, in which deep ideas about Zen, Literature (including the Lord of the Rings) and AI are explored from the point of view of a post modern Zen practitioner.

Waterlight – the story of an Enligish chalk stream

The sunlit river Mel as it winds through Cambridgeshire

Waterlight, is a film project inspired by a chalk stream in Cambridgeshire. Waterlight began as a collaboration between poet and writer Clare Crossman and filmmaker James Murray-White, and the project team has now grew to include local expert Bruce Huett and filmmaker Nigel Kinnings.

Cowboy Zen

New Mexico plains – photo by Sheri McGee

Cowboy Meditation Primer – poetry sequence by Mary McCray

(Taster from Urthona issue 35 ‘American Zen’ – order from Urthona Shop above)

A unique sequence of poems in which the hard lives and gritty adventures of cowboys on the trails of 19th Century New Mexico are combined with Buddhist Wisdom.

Ginsberg – letting imagination go…

Ginsberg and the Beats

Highlight from issue 35 American Zen: a personal appreciation by writer Acarasiddhi (Tony Press) who grew up in 1950s California.

‘The Infinite Game’ – Zen and AI

Zen and Artificial Intelligence by PAUL ANDREW POWELL

Crucial topics of modernity from a Zen point of view, book review by Ratnagarbha