It's also an insult to Buddhists everywhere. This is not zen.
Zen is not necessarily Buddhism, nor is Buddhism exclusively Zen. Zen is conceptual, and indefinite. This photograph is as representative of Zen as a statue of Buddha, or Britney Spears.
"The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded...When a Zen master was once asked what Zen was, he replied, 'Your everyday thought.'...Zen is the ocean, Zen is the air, Zen is thunder and lighting, the spring flower, the summer heat, and winter snow...Zen is the man." (D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism)
Your inflammatory attempt to define and "defend" Zen Buddhism is evidence of ignorance, not magnetic9999's beautiful triptych. I would advise you to refrain from creating conflict simply for the sake of the conflict, especially when it involves your making a fool out of yourself.
Very nice composition. and I'd just like to point out, since it seems other people who commented don't know this, but one of the few religious images Zen practitioners have is the great empty circle. It is supposed to be the simplest and most concise way of describing reality. Very clever composition.
And just to clear something else up, no self-respecting buddhist would be offended by the chinese characters (besides, buddhists generally aren't offended by other people's religions. They leave that to the monotheists). Zen (Ch'an to the Chinese) began in China. It is simply part of Zen's history.
Great shot Mag, congratulations....I feel really relaxed when I look at this picture, I think you really captured the essence of your subject here.... :)
To Tony Ku: I just took a pic of the characters on the planter and used those as a design motif. Which is no different from showing a picture of the planter itself. If you have a problem with that you should take it up with the manufacturers of that planter. Let me know when they respond to your letter and what the response is.
Re: "zen": sorry but zen has a lot of colloquial meanings that arent necessarily connected with a religious dogma, that include meditation, peace, inner calm, enlightenment, desirelessness, etc. To me, this picture is evocative of those meanings. I can't imagine that such a usage would give offense, but if it did, my sincere apologies.
Nice photo except for the characters. It's not real, it's a blatantly stupid attempt to make it seem Japanese and I consider it as somewhat racist. If you're going to do it right, use a real character and one that actually means something, instead of just plugging in some squigly lines and thinking that it meant something. Only people you can fool are people as ignorant as you are.
It's also an insult to Buddhists everywhere. This is not zen.
I really, really like this, and appreciate the effect you were going with by backlighting the main photo. I just wish I could have seen a TINY bit more of the main shoot. Very well done, though.
Creative. I can see this as a poster in an import store. My only nit pick would be the tiny blown out highlights that are minorly distracting. But overall very nice. 8
Nice touch with the bamboo leaves going out of the frame. Still trying to figure out how to do it. Good individual images and composition of the three.
Wow. What a wonderful lighting job. Excellent sharpness. You must really have a good camera to capture the subject like you did. :) Really excellent lighting. Jacko. 10
Wonderful photos wonderfully combined. I especially like the circle image, but all three work well together here. Nice lighting, moods and tones. Aaahhh.
Nice feeling to this image. composition wise, I feel the elements are a little too compartimented. perhaps your subject on the left could have filled the space more generously without being enclosed in a frame. The two "cartouches" on the right are nice but the different widths of framing could have been avoided. if you created these borders using the "increase canvas size method", remember not to use uneven numbers of pixels to do so. 8
Really like everything but here it comes. i uderstand and like the idea od breaking the boundaries with the leaf. On the left side great but the truncating the leaf on the left really bothers me for some reason. maybe because it gives me a feeling of unbalance for an image that should be in balance.
Gorgeous colors and lighting...prof looking presentation. Tiny nitpick the edges of some of the leaves in the 'big' pic look choppy...that could just be me though. Great work! Lisa
Excellent set up. I really like how the leaf in the first picture extends outside the borders of the picture. It pulls the whole composition together. One of my favorites this week.
I love the idea, the presentation is wonderful, with the Kanji which a nice added touch. I feel that the top right picture, is a little dark but also works as it adds the cirlce. One more thing, I think I would prefer it if the leaf wasn't cut off. Overall, this is a great picture. 9
circle of zen
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