|
Higan
|
|
|
Nuova pagina 1
 |
 |
 |
 |
In order to
receive all
the updates on the Higan programme |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
| Special
facilitations and discounts for your stay throughout
Higan |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
For
the Western cultural traditions
the word and concept of void
usually have negative meanings
as the sentences “empty-minded”,
“fear of emptiness”, “an empty
life”, etc. prove. On the other
hand, in most Eastern cultural
traditions,
the
idea of emptiness is a synonym
of an immense wealth of
opportunities, of complete
openness and freedom.
This idea, mostly conceived by
the Taoism in China and the
Buddhism in India, chiefly
developed in Japan especially
thanks to the influence the Zen
School’s Buddhism exerted in the
arts. The presence and force of
the void are
|
|
| |
|
particularly enhanced in
the ink paintings (sumie),
in which the empty
spaces prevail as
regards the spaces
filled with symbols and
drawings; or in
architecture, in which
there is a minimum
amount of furniture and
the indoor spaces open,
without continuity, to
the outdoor ones; or in
the “dry” gardens (karesansui)
like the famous Ryoanji
in which a wide
background |
 |
|
|
| |
of white gravel welcomes only a
few carefully set stones.
But you mustn’t think
that this development of
the concept of the void
in the |
|
| |
 |
traditional
Japanese arts only comes
from an aesthetic
preference or
a stylistic choice: it always
refers back to the basic concept
– conveyed and developed by
Buddhism, Taoism and
|
|
|
| |
their
combination in the Zen Buddhism
– which maintains the mind’s
freedom (mushin), one of the
essential principles of the
process of spiritual improvement.
|
|
| |
Prof. Giangiorgio Pasqualotto
Teacher of Philosophy and
Aesthetics
History at the Faculty of
Humanities
of the University of Padua.
Higan Scientific Committee |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
