Simplicity

Japanese garden

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:53:25 +0800

Japanese garden

Dreams

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:44:22 +0800

…

I idly ask him what he had been thinking about.

His answer his, “Dreams.”

“Dreams?”

“Yes, but not the ones you have at night; the kind of dreams when you imagine your future, what you hope to come true.”

“And?”

“It’s been occurring to me that they are very important… but I’m not talking about trying to make them into reality: just having them.”

I tilt my head.

“Once you make your dreams into actuality, the dream itself ceases to exist. But if your stay in the world of your dream, your imagination can expand and expand. That’s a characteristic of the dream. If you are always stuck in reality, your thinking doesn’t spread out and grow in the same way.” Then he adds, somewhat poetically, “Because as for reality, there is but one.

“On the other hand, though,” he says, “if you stay in your imagination all the time, soon your dream doesn’t work anymore because dreams need reality as nutrients. Without nutrients, animals and plants die, and if the nourishment for your dreams runs out, the world of the dream gets smaller and smaller and eventually dies. So you need both: dream and reality, imagination and actuality. Thus you have to talk to all kinds of people, look at many kinds of plants, eat all kinds of things to make your imagination new, to keep that interior world fresh. Then your own world can expand and can grow.”

…

A different kind of luxury - Japanese Lessons in Simple Living and Inner Abundance

The Geography of Bliss

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:17:00 +0800

“If I draw a circle, most people, when asked what I have drawn, will say I have drawn a circle or a disc, or a ball. Very few people will say I’ve drawn a hole in the wall, because most people think of the inside first, rather than thinking of the outside. But actually these two sides go together - you cannot have what is ‘in here’ unless you have what is ‘out there.’ ” In other words, where we are is vital to who we are. By “where,” I’m speaking not only of our physical environment but also of our cultural environment. Culture is the sea we swim in - so pervasive, so all-consuming, that we fail to notice its existence until we step out of it. It matters more than we think.

The Geography of Bliss - by Eric Weiner

Photo

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:53:00 +0800

"Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself."

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:46:21 +0800

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”

- (via mnmal)

minimalmac: OmmWriter is a new full screen and distraction free...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:45:25 +0800

minimalmac:

OmmWriter is a new full screen and distraction free writing environment for the Mac. The best way I can describe it is that it is what would happen to WriteRoom if Brian Eno got a hold of it. It features a resizable input area, text size and style options, background options, and ambient music and keyboard sounds (which can, thankfully, be turned off). It can save either in it’s native format for easy relaunching or as plain text.

It is still in beta so there may be even more features coming. It’s worth a look for sure. I could easily see it being part of a perfect “writing mac” setup – just leave it up and running and set the default save location for your Dropbox or a server. Make sure to click through and watch the video on the site to get a better sense of how it works.

For better reading on the Web

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:07:53 +0800

For better reading on the Web

Photo

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:12:42 +0800

"The good news is you don’t need to be brillant to be wise. The bad news is that without..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:41:28 +0800

“The good news is you don’t need to be brillant to be wise. The bad news is that without wisdom, brilliance is not enough”

- Barry Schwartz

"There is an aesthetic appeal to simplicity both in art and, even more, in science. Discovering the..."

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:14:17 +0800

“There is an aesthetic appeal to simplicity both in art and, even more, in science. Discovering the underlying simplicity of a process if far more likely to be useful than imaginative and complex description of phenomena”

- Edward De Bono

Do not fail To learn from The pure voice of an Ever-flowing mountain stream Splashing over the...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:26:59 +0800

Do not fail

To learn from

The pure voice of an

Ever-flowing mountain stream

Splashing over the rocks.

The Art of Peace- Morihei Ueshiba

"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:13:42 +0800

“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”

- Lao-Tzu

Benjamin Zander on music and passion

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:08:43 +0800

Once there was a man who was afraid of his shadow and who hated his footprints, and so he tried to...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:37:20 +0800

Once there was a man who was afraid of his shadow and who hated his footprints, and so he tried to get away from them by running. But the more he lifted his feet and put them down again, the more footprints he made. And no matter how fast he ran, his shadow never left him, and so, thinking that he was still going too slowly, he ran faster and faster without a stop until his strength gave out and he fell down dead. He didn’t understand that by lolling in the shade he could have gotten rid of his shadow and by resting in quietude he could have put an end to his footprints. How could he have been so stupid !
Chuang-tzu

"The softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest thing in the universe."

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:02:38 +0800

“The softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.”

- Lao Tzu

China Town

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:36:36 +0800

China Town

Seven Japanese aesthetic principles

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:25:03 +0800

From Presentation Zen

Kanso (簡素) Simplicity or elimination of clutter. Things are expressed in a plain, simple, natural manner. Reminds us to think not in terms of decoration but in terms of clarity, a kind of clarity that may be achieved through omission or exclusion of the non-essential.

Fukinsei (不均整) Asymmetry or irregularity. The idea of controlling balance in a composition via irregularity and asymmetry is a central tenet of the Zen aesthetic. The enso (“Zen circle”) in brush painting, for example, is often drawn as an incomplete circle, symbolizing the imperfection that is part of existence. In graphic design too asymmetrical balance is a dynamic, beautiful thing. Try looking for (or creating) beauty in balanced asymmetry. Nature itself is full of beauty and harmonious relationships that are asymmetrical yet balanced. This is a dynamic beauty that attracts and engages.

Shibui/Shibumi (渋味) Beautiful by being understated, or by being precisely what it was meant to be and not elaborated upon. Direct and simple way, without being flashy. Elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. The term is sometimes used today to describe something cool but beautifully minimalist, including technology and some consumer products. (Shibui literally means bitter tasting).

Shizen (自然) Naturalness. Absence of pretense or artificiality, full creative intent unforced. Ironically, the spontaneous nature of the Japanese garden that the viewer perceives is not accidental. This is a reminder that design is not an accident, even when we are trying to create a natural-feeling environment. It is not a raw nature as such but one with more purpose and intention.

Yugen (幽玄) Profundity or suggestion rather than revelation. A Japanese garden, for example, can be said to be a collection of subtleties and symbolic elements. Photographers and designers can surely think of many ways to visually imply more by not showing the whole, that is, showing more by showing less.

Datsuzoku (脱俗) Freedom from habit or formula. Escape from daily routine or the ordinary. Unworldly. Transcending the conventional. This principles describes the feeling of surprise and a bit of amazement when one realizes they can have freedom from the conventional. Professor Tierney says that the Japanese garden itself, “…made with the raw materials of nature and its success in revealing the essence of natural things to us is an ultimate surprise. Many surprises await at almost every turn in a Japanese Garden.”

Seijaku (静寂)Tranquility or an energized calm (quite), stillness, solitude. This is related to the feeling you may have when in a Japanese garden. The opposite feeling to one expressed by seijaku would be noise and disturbance. How might we bring a feeling of “active calm” and stillness to ephemeral designs outside the Zen arts?

"Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes,..."

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:43:35 +0800

“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

- Frederic Chopin (via mnmal)

Minimal Flickr Pools

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:56:49 +0800

Minimal Flickr Pools

"Mysteriously, wonderfully, I bid farewell to what goes, I greet what comes; for what comes cannot be..."

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:34:10 +0800

“Mysteriously, wonderfully, I bid farewell to what goes, I greet what comes; for what comes cannot be denied, and what goes cannot be detained.”

- Chuang-tzu