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Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Buddhist meditation master and master artist
executes a calligraphy: Virtuous Windhorse.
As a child monk in Tibet, Trungpa Rinpoche was thoroughly trained in the art of calligraphy
as a expression of meditation.
Now president of the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado,
Trungpa Rinpoche is preparing this calligraphy for an exhibition
at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art,
(piano music [Chopin??])
an environmental exhibition called Discovering Elegance.
(piano music continues)
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. 1996 Shambhala Mountains Center.
(laughter)
SMR: Okay. Audience: Thank you
(laughter) It’s a square?
Okay it’s a square
SMR: And those are curly things .
(laughter)
Do we have the four karmas there?
Bindu. (indistinct)
(laughter)
(indistinct)
Tia Situ Rinpoche. 1982 Los Angeles, CA: What do you want me to do about this?
Well, usually the Vajracharya does abstract as well as calligraphy
TSR: Oh yes
TSR: Abstract is not calligraphy?
(laughs laughter)
It's a kind of calligraphy.TSR: Oh yeah.
In other words there's no literal translation, although...
TSR: What is real calligraphy?
Real calligraphy in a Western term is a style of writing
that has been developed by a particular tradition.
TSR: Western too.
That's how it's used in the West.
Like in the West, old English style of writing, if it is done in the old fashioned way:
TSR: Oh yeah yeah yeah
that's considered calligraphic writing as opposed to regular cursive.
That's really interesting. Now I'm not joking. It is really interesting. I never knew that.
Western also say calligraphic for that, those kind of complicated BB.... like box.
And although the Vajracarya calls the traditional Tibetan calligraphy he does
and the cursive, both calligraphy, he also calls the abstract,
because the Japanese have developed a form of abstract writing.
In otherwords it's not... if you tried to look for the character,
if you didn't really know the artist or what was going on,
you might not be able to see the character clearly,
because it's an abstract sort of drawing, design, feeling of the character
and that would be called like an abstract calligraphy.
And then sometimes he just does things, that are like watercolors.
and gives a commentary.
TSR: Okay