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ZEN BUDDHISM
Finally, Zen art is an individual art. It may be objected that all art is individual, and so in a way it is. But the inspiration of Zen art is Zen, a state of consciousness beyond the opposites, a state of serene, detached awareness of eternal things or, to be less poetic and more accurate, of the eternal quality in all things as they are. And this awareness is personal, so personal that it cannot be described, much less taught in class. It follows that Zen Buddhism, and indeed all Buddhism, ignores the mass. The Eightfold Path of the Blessed One is a Noble (Aryan) Path for noble minds; though available to the many it can never at any time be trodden by more than the few. The Bodhisattva may work for all mankind, but it is each of all mankind which in the end must make the effort for self-deliverance. “The hope of mankind does not lie in the action of any corporate body, be it ever so powerful, but in the influence of individual men and women who for the sake of a greater have sacrificed a lesser aim."1 The mass, by whatever name described, makes nothing except trouble for the individual. As C. G. Jung points out, “'Society' is nothing more than a concept of the symbiosis of a group of human beings. A concept is not a carrier of life. The sole and natural carrier of life is the individual, and this holds true throughout nature."?
The variety of expression was enormous, and how could it be otherwise? For the inspiration came from the centre and worked outwards, and whether it appeared in large or small design, in sculpture, ivory or bronze, in pictures, poems or buildings, was a matter of choice for 1 Diagnosis of Man, KENNETH WALKER, P. 219. 2 Essays on Contemporary Events, p. 31.
