Skip to main content

The Zen of Making

How can we be creative everyday?  In reality, many of us use extraordinary skills on a daily basis. A panwala  swaying slowly while his quicksilver hands wrap a pan into a gilori with mesmerizing elegance, a carpenter who brings a plank of wood he is planing, to eye level to check its perfect,  a potter who centres a wad of clay and then effortlessly lifts it into a symmetrical pot, a surgeon who closes up a cut in a rhythm of knotted stitches, a cook slicing onions into uniform rings, a hairdresser whose scissors deftly style a mop into a sculpted  form. The list seems endless.  It’s the “without realizing” that prevents us from feeling creative.

One of the ways in which objects or actions are valued is by the naming of them. The hand gestures or mudras of classical kathak dance each have very specific names. Buying a paan called “un se na kehna”   (don’t tell my partner) from the famous PIDC paan shop in Karachi added fun to the experience.

lagawaT ki ada se un ka kahna pan hazir hai
qayamat hai sitam hai dil fida hai jaan hazir hai              Akbar Allahbadi

(The alluring way you said here is the paan
It’s the end of the world, its cruelty, I am smitten – I offer my life to you)

Naming also becomes a sharing of creative intention.  In the 30s, Maulvi Abdul Haq, known as the father of Urdu, fulfilled a 25 year long dream by commissioning Maulvi Zafarur Rehman Dehlvi to travel the length and breadth of India to collect terminologies used by artisans. It resulted in a treasure in 8 volumes called “istalahaat e peshawaraan”  ( terminolgy of artisans) that needs to be pulled off dusty shelves, republished and translated to share with the world. Pesha e Maymari or architecture, Ara kashi  working with a saw, Chilmun sazi  bedroom furniture, khakrobi , sweepers, kashti rani or boatbuilding  ,  tayyari e paposh or shoemaking,  zar baafi or working with gold thread, shireeni saazi or preparing sweetmeats, making jewelry, clothing, musical instruments and gardening and even terms used by criminals.  

The Japanese understand that by naming actions these are not only organized and recognized but also acquire a spiritual significance. The practice of "kintsugi" or repairing with gold, is an art form that joins broken pottery with golden lacquer, drawing attention to the breaks. In this way the broken pot represents our own resilience in the face of misfortune. Kintsugi generated the Bunka cultural movement which gave rise to ceremonies like Sado, the tea ceremony and ikebana, flower arrangements, reflecting  the Zen philosophy of wabi-sabi (beauty in simplicity).

Just as making aesthetically balanced things can place us in a reflective awareness, it is equally restful to watch someone making something, whether simply watching someone neatly sweep the area outside their shop,  henna pattern applied to one’s palm, a florist making a garland of jasmine and roses, a gardener transferring a plant from a pot to a flowerbed, a crane lifting heavy building material to the top of a building,   or machines weaving cloth in a mill.

The internet is full of videos titled  “Stressful Day? Take A Deep Breath And Watch This Video Of An Artisan Putting Together A Wallet” “A Great Way To Calm Your Mind: Watch Japanese Craftsmen Make Paper By Hand” Many learn to heal by immersing themselves in some activity - knitting quilting or golf.

The Zen master, Koun Yamada, reminds us “the practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something”.      

Durriya Kazi
March 17, 2019
durriyakazi1918@gmail.com



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

https://theconversation.com/at-once-silent-and-eloquent-a-glimpse-of-pakistani-visual-poetry-70544 ‘At once silent and eloquent’: a glimpse of Pakistani visual poetry February 13, 2017 6.55pm AEDT Author Durriya Kazi Head of department Visual Studies, University of Karachi Disclosure statement Durriya Kazi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above. Partners View all partners Republish this article Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under Creative Commons licence. Rickshaw poetry in Pakistan.  D.Kazi ,  CC BY-NC-ND   Email   Twitter 33   Facebook 239   LinkedIn 1  Print Whose mischief created a world of beseechers? Each petitioner is seen wearing a garment of paper This line from the famous Mughul poet  Ghalib ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Decorated Trucks of Pakistan

International Institute for Asian Studies / Association for Asian Studies / Asia Committee, European Science Foundation First International Convention of Asia Scholars Leeuenhorst Conference Centre, Noordwijkerhout , Netherlands , 25-28 June, 1998 Panel: “ Shaking the Tree: New Approaches to Asian Art” / Session: Decorated Transport Decorated Trucks of Pakistan Durriya Kazi June 1998. Karachi Meaning is always in process, what has been called “a momentary stop in a continuing flow of interpretations of interpretations”. This paper pauses at some facts and some observations about decorated trucks of Pakistan , a subject that has elicited tantalisingly few studies. Pakistan is often presented geographically and thus historically as the corridor of land between the mountain passes that separated the near East from the plains of India . Less mentioned and more significant is its identity as the valley of the River Indus which has historically ...
Post a Comment
Read more
  From Lullaby to Elegy Our first encounter with music is the lullaby sung by a parent, a grandparent, an elder sibling or a nanny. Lullabies across the world and across the ages, regardless of the words, use the same singing tone, accompanied by a rocking motion, in time with the rhythm of the heartbeat and breathing. Perhaps the comforting effect of music throughout life is a memory of that first lullaby.   Brahms composed a lullaby that quickly became popular with mothers putting their babies to sleep. Lullabies follow a 6/8 time which many musicians used   like Woodie Guthrie’s ”Hobo’s Lullaby” and Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry”, Queen’s “We are the Champions”, Beatles’   “Norwegian Woods” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence”.   While lullabies have a soothing melody, very often the lyrics are quite dark and even frightening. They become an outlet for the mother to voice her own fears and concerns.   In Iraqi musical tradition, lullabies are...
Post a Comment
Read more