the silence between the notes of a flute the white space around an ink drawing
that which is left behind
Margaret Chula writes:
"The bamboo brush waits patiently next to the sheet of washi as a small amount of water is poured onto the suzuri (inkstone). Picking up the ink stick, the artist begins to rub the sumi back and forth in the slow process of making ink. Back and forth it scrapes against the unyielding stone, screeching like the monkey mind within. The artist continues grinding the ink stick until the water begins to dissolve its edges, until all sound is dampened, until all that remains is the steady motion.
As the color deepens and ink fills the hollow of the suzuri, the artist's mind begins to empty. All thoughts of past and future are left behind in this repetitive motion of the present and one enters the state of 'no mind' or 'muga'."
