σοφία και ἀρετή

- Let intelligence and virtue be the both wings for you to live -

There are statues of female personification of the four virtues at the facade of the Library of Celsus in the historic ruins in Ephesus, Turkey.

Sophia (σοφία) - wisdom, intelligence
Arete (ἀρετή) - virtue, goodness, diligence, valour
Ennoia (εννοια) - thoughtfulness, consideration, moral understanding
Episteme (Ἐπιστήμη) - knowledge, learning

Once when I visited there, I was impressed not only by the artistic perfection of the statues and the architecture, but the impeccable concept of their spirituality.
Just by looking at it in the right place, I could deeply understood that one of the remarkable features in the Ancient Greek culture is that people valued spiritual beauty as well as physical beauty.
They were ruins, but I could feel the spirit of those people transcending time.

There is no room to oppose that these spiritual concepts in Celsus are still very important for humanity to live. It should be rather fundamental for all intelligent beings. Especially during the period when the society is changing in the global transition just like now. Keeping intelligence and goodness is the key to see through the essence and to live healthier life. ​

The inspiration that I got from the Library of Celsus has been living inside of me, and
then recently I suddenly got an urge to draw Sophia and Arete. (It's only two out of four since I understood Ennoia can be related to Arete, and Episteme can be related to Sophia as well).
They are somehow not the images from Ancient Greek, but from Renaissance period-ish though. It might be because I connected to the spirit of the classicism of that era.
I often have a feeling that there is an energetic connection between the Ancient Greece-Roma and the Renaissance period.

I recently finished this painting which I had been working for over a year.
I had received the inspiration of the image that a swan and a black swan are merging face-to-face several years ago, and had been waiting for the timing to give a birth of it as a painting. I’m glad I finally realized it.

As I wrote in a previous post, I always receive a visual image, color impression and “feeling” which can be described as the frequency first when I start a new painting. Then the meaning of what I’m painting is gradually reveals step by step as I continue working further on the piece.
The same process occured this time, too. So, I think I'd like to try describing it because this one is quite symbolic and easier to show.

Well, at the time when I got the first inspiration of two swans, I immediately understood that it's about "Yin and Yang" - the duality and the complimentary principle.

As many of you probably know, this Yin and Yang concept (陰陽図) comes from Chinese Taoism, and also is very prominent in the philosophy of Zen in Japan.
This Yin-Yang symbol represents not only the dualism of Yin (negative) and Yang (positive) in this universe, but also indicates that there are no absolute borderline between Yin and Yang as a white dot exists in Yin and a black dot exists in Yang. These two energies are complementary interconnected and interdependent, and their union is a state of equilibrium in the universe.
This idea somehow has been placed in me for the past ten years, so I also had created some ceramic artworks with this same concept. → www.karisophia.com/duality.html

​​I also got an image of a circle behind two swans, and flowers around it, so I was painting by following the image. Then, as I continued further into the flower painting, I suddenly came to the realization that this is "Flower of Life".

Flower of Life is an ancient symbol that has been found all over the world.
No one can tell its accurate meaning because it's something that has been passed down since ancient times, but it is regarded that the symbol represents the unity of all life and interconnectedness of all beings - and I truly feel so, too.
​I found Flower of Life symbols in ancient sites when I traveled to Egypt, Turkey and Pompeii, Italy, and I know there are some in Japan.
It is very mysterious and interesting the symbol is existing all over the world. And considering that even Leonardo Da Vinci was drawn by this symbol and studying about it, it's no doubt that this is one of the most meaningful and sacred pattern in the world.

I kept seeing this geometric patterns with my another eye while I was painting flowers on a frame of the metallic circle behind two swans on the canvas.
​- I know this might sound a bit strange for some people - please just do not try interpreting it but accept it as it is, if you are not familiar with this kind of sense.

The next realization came when I was lying down in front of the work-in-progress painting.
I haven't been able to work on the canvas during some weeks at that period because I somehow couldn't focus on it, So, I was just staring blankly at the painting - then, I noticed there is another symbol hidden in it. It's "Vesica Piscis".

Vesica Piscis is Latin language means "bladder of a fish", and is a symbol composed of two equal circles, and the centers of the circles are on each other's edges.
The reason why this symbol is special is not only it has been existing since ancient times as Flower of Life, but also this is the primal form of Flower of Life. If you multiply the circles with the same rule, then you will see Flower of Life there.
While Flower of Life represents wholeness of the universe, Vesica Piscis represents the creation.
As the symbol easily reminds you of the form of cell devision, this indicates the primordial form when the very first creation occurs. It can be described that all creations in the universe begin from this form.
It also shows you the state that two different energies accept each other keeping their own nature, and transform, then create totally new energy.
This is the exact energy that I was sensing from this painting since the beginning.
I was impressed that the space between the necks of the swan and the black swan makes very similar shape to the overlapped part in the center of Vesica Piscis - of course I didn't plan to design like this at all.

Yin and Yang, Flower of Life, and Vesica Piscis - I thought these were all that I needed to decode about this painting, but one more symbol appeared when I finished this piece.
The last one is the picture below - it's "Enso".

Enso (円相) can be translated as "circler form", and it is a hand-drawn circle in one brushstroke to express the principle of the universe in Zen philosophy of Japan.
​What this represents is the simplest, hence the most difficult to interpret. Or, there is actually no need to interpret.
It shows the state of the universe itself. It is an infinite flow with neither beginning nor end. And its center is empty / void.
​I had an idea that it's better to fill the inner space of the circle of the painting some times, but it didn't happen after all. Even my mind pushed me to paint something in it, I somehow couldn't. And I understood the reason, when I finished the piece and knew the meaning.

​After I understood every meaning of this piece - duality and wholeness, creation and interconnectedness as the principle of the universe, I was so touched how beautiful all beings and its eternal flux are...! And I felt like it's a symphony of the universe.
So I titled the piece as "Symphoniae" in Latin.

And, here is the most fundamental truth as Enso shows us which is hard to be "understood" by mind.
Behind the grand symphony.... it's just empty.
This means that we are all just having a dream of the symphony in our consciousnessess.
Everything is just an illusion. What a mystery!

I made a short film with the painting. I think the emptiness is inadvertently expressed at the end of the film.
I would appreciate if you could let yourself soak into and resonate with the frequency of the piece.

A vapor trail on a cloudless blue sky.

A shade of a tree on the wall of an old building.

The world is a canvas, and also a painting painted on it.

Isn't it beautiful.

雲ひとつない空に飛行機雲。

旧いビルディングの壁に木のシェード。

世界はキャンバスであり、またそこに描かれた絵でもある。

美しいよね。

So,

Please,

No more war

No more pandemic

No more sacrifice

No more suffering

No more stupidity

No more ignorance

on this world.

だからもういい加減、終わりにしよう。

戦争も、パンデミックも、犠牲も、苦しみも、愚かさも、無知も。

Love yourself, your family and friends

Appreciate even all beings on Earth other than humans

Detach yourself from all kinds of poisonings and controls

​Find value in your real feeling with your five senses instead of data or statictics 

Balance both your brain and heart to be compassionate and wise

Then, let's fully enjoy the beauty of the world together.

自分を愛し、家族を、友達を大切にして

人間だけではなくすべての存在をも慈しみ

あらゆる中毒やコントロールから距離を置いて

数字ではなく実感を大切にし

頭と心の両方を使って、愛を持った上で賢くなり

この世界の美しさを体いっぱいに享受しよう。

I know I'm just an insignificant person who has so much of weakness,
but I also know the message from the bottom of my heart is so much bigger than me myself.

私はただのちっぽけな人間に過ぎないけれど

この奥底から湧き出る想いは、そんな私なんかよりもずっとずっと

大きなエネルギーを持っていることを知っている。

How beautiful these feathers of peacocks and macaws are. 
I can’t stop being impressed with the fact that they exist in nature whenever I see these gorgeous, brilliant “natural” masterpieces.
Why are they so perfectly beautiful?
Is it possible for them to be created just naturally?
What is “natural”?
Ok, they are created according to the instructions from DNA.
...But, so... who wrote the code in DNA?
Are there some sort of intentions by some “beings” who did it, or they are all just happening naturally?
What is “natural”?
... I love to understand things with scientific facts, but at the same time, I feel like the more I know, the more mystery just deepens.
Everything happens beyond our understandings. 
That’s why the world is so mysterious and beautiful.

​
なんて美しい、孔雀に鸚鵡の羽。

こんな素晴らしい芸術作品を見るたび、これらが自然の産物だということに驚嘆する。

何故こんなにも美しいのだろう？

こんなものが、自然に創られたものなの？

そもそも、「自然」ってなに？

わかってる。これらはDNAのコードによってこんな風に現れている。

でもじゃあ、一体誰がそのコードを書いたの？

そこには、それを書いた何者かがいて、何らかの意図があるの？

それとも、全てはやっぱりただ自然に起こったことなの？

でも、じゃあ、「自然に」ってどういうこと？

・・・科学的なアプローチでものを見るのはとても興味深く楽しいこと。

でも、知れば知るほど、突き詰めれば突き詰めるほどに謎は深まるばかり。

全ては私たちの計り知れないところで起こっている。

​だからこそこの世界はこんなにも謎めいていて、美しいのだろう。

​Since this year has started, we are all in a very special period of time.

Who imagined such a situation?
No one can know what is happening next, even if psychic people can predict some fragments of the future, it cannot be so precise.

During this strange period, through conversations with people, or from news feeds, we must have been seeing so many "opinions" from all over the world.
So I couldn't resist to accept that there are too many points of view depending on people affected by their backgrounds - like nationality, gender, race, religion, belief, position, occupation, and of course individuals' personalities formed by their backgrounds.

I, then, wondered and noticed that most of us tend to recognize everything as the "confrontation in duality", but it's not appropriate because we have too much variety and diversity to recognize this way as I mentioned above.

"There are no facts, only interpretations.”
​
As a philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, there is no meaning in the phenomena which are happening.
The only fact is that all is always quite neutral.
​We humans - our brains give meanings to each of the things happening in front of us.
This might sound little disappointing or powerless, but that means we can see the world as we desire.

Since some time, I started to see the world as the "fractal structure" instead of the perspective of the confrontation in duality.
Like a yin-yang symbol, all - including us individuals - have "both sides" or "everything", and the same, only one principle just continuously and endlessly exists - as above so below, as within so without.

When you see the world like that, you will aware that there are no complete distinctions between good and evil, friends and enemies, or victims and victimizers.
You will also know how you see is the most important in the world since all begin from you.
​
Yes, we can see the world how we desire.
Because each one of us lives in one's own universe without exception.

It's been almost two months since new year began, and February is ending soon.
I still can't believe I'm experiencing winter although this is my third winter in Florida
It gets cold sometimes, but it's nothing for me compare to Boston where I used to live. Most of the days are warm and I often feel like it's already spring or even summer.
I was visiting Japan around new year days. It was also cold there, so I felt so strange when I came back to Florida.
I needed some time to adjust myself to the environment here.

After I recovered, I started to finish "Magnolia" painting which I've been working on since last year. I needed to finish it up with painting the centers of the flowers.

Actually, I was feeling little lazy to paint them - and even haven't decided how I would paint them -  the stamens and pistils.
It was because I was thinking the most important part of this piece is the petals, and I knew I already finished working on the most exiting part.
Yes, I was feeling like the climax was already over...

But once I started to imagine how I could paint them, and to work on it practically, I was completely absorbed into it.
I was so attracted by the shapes, the texture and the colors... and rather obsessed by them. 
There is anther world in the center of the flower. 
Even only petals are too graceful, but there is much more deep inside of them.
The true climax exists here.
And I knew even those graceful petals existed for them.

I suddenly remembered a quote by a Japanese author Hideo Kobayashi.

"What is essential is hidden very cautiously. In nature, and in humans."

It is very true.

I sometimes have this kind of awareness while I'm working on art.
It happens like all of my logics, feelings, memories and experiences are merging together as if the neurons in synapses are communicating each other, and reaching some sort of realization.
This is one of the most enthusiastic moments when I do artistic creation.

I know it doesn't make sense to anyone but me, and it can't be verbalized clearly.
But yes, ....it's true.

It's been a while since I posted last time.
After I published the website, my focus completely turned introverted staying away from things, and started to have days with painting alone.

It was such a blissful time for me to just being absorbed into it surrounded by the beautiful music and  the fragrance of the incenses.
I was just so comfortable to be with the solitude after spending some months being active - rather I was enjoying that with full of quiet enthusiasm.

This kind of "switching" point - like "on/off" or "extrovert/introvert" - comes naturally and unexpectedly against my will.
And I feel pain if I try to ignore the natural flow and push myself to continue to do the same way. 

While I was moving place to place for this past ten years, my senses got more sensitive affected by many changes.
​Because of that, I got a new routine which observe how my body changes, how my mind works and how my mood swings clearly.
And I realized it's not related to the figures of calendars and clocks at all.
Our bodies, minds and moods are all individually working so uniquely like a cycle of the nature. 
So the flux itself is the pulse of one's life.

After I understood about it, I stopped to try to control myself, and started to follow the flow which occurs naturally and can't be controlled.
Then I knew that being honest to the flow is the most natural way to be.

Anything happened in the flow is the best, even if it's anger, sadness or loneliness - it's so pure.
Also, any creation which is done in the flow is just so pure as well.