The Three Things

Yes, but remember...

Your Moment of Zen (Rock Garden)

San Francisco-based Yuki Kawae creates his own Zen rock gardens and they are beautiful.

Visit his website for instruction on how to build your own box and how to style your rock garden!

https://www.yukikawae.com/

Zen and a Post-COVID World

In a conversation on NHK World Japan, internationally renowned garden designer, chief priest of the Sōtō Zen temple Kenkō-ji, professor at Tama Art University, and president of his own design firm Shunmyō Masuno told design strategist Eisuke Tachikawa that Buddhist principles will guide the post-COVID world.

Waterside Buddhist Shrine

Your moment of Zen: Beijing-based practice Archstudio designed the minimalist "Waterside Buddhist Shrine" in the northern Chinese province of Hebei as an immersive experience close to nature. The entire interior is located under a hillside next to a river and is formed from cast-in-place concrete using one inch pine strips to give the walls a beautiful, organic texture. The Buddhist altar is situated under a canted skylight and the curved back wall channels light down into the area. The tea-drinking area in front of the Buddhist altar faces the river and features a low table with floor cushions and carved modern back rests.

http://www.archstudio.cn/works/detail/1270998765691473920

The Experience

“You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself.”
--Albert Camus

“In Zen, we don’t find the answers; we lose the questions.”
--Zen saying

Zen Moment

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

A Moment of Zen

BEAUTY: Clothing--Sartorial Monk

Italian tailor, ex-model, and designer Sabàto Russo (born and raised in Foggia in the Puglia region) started his brand Sartorial Monk in 2016 after a stint as an assistant designer for Issey Miyake in Japan. Russo's interest in a Japanese aesthetic is evident in his few past collections (and the name of his label!) as well as this lovely, lyrical Spring Summer 2019 co-ed offering at Milano Moda Uomo. Wide legged trousers and flowing tops in linen and silk, layered tunics and skirts for men...it all captures an Elysian insouciance in which I'd love spend summer. (This collection comes after yesterday's post here about the SS '19 Etro collection, also beautifully Asian-inspired.)

http://sartorialmonk.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Etro

Kean Etro set aside the traditional paisley of the Etro house and instead focused on an Asian-influenced collection, called Natura Manifesta, with kimono silhouettes and obi waist wraps for his SS '19 collection at Milano Moda Uomo (Etro has a very Eastern-inspired sensibility...he is a seeker with a metaphysical bent--just look here at his FW '17-'18 collection based on the psychedelic and metaphysical allegorical novel MOUNT ANALOGUE by René Daumal).

A bamboo-stalk-and-leaf motif woven into fabrics signaled the fact that many of the garments are made of spun bamboo. There is interest not only at Etro but also on a global scale in sustainable materials. "Bamboo is virulent, infestate! You don’t need water to grow it. And hemp! We should go for these fibers, and we do. I don’t know why cotton was chosen—it’s not cotton’s fault, it’s humanity’s fault," Etro said at the show while the website confirms, "The word sustainability immediately refers back to love: love of Nature, pure love, the love that’s deeply rooted inside each one of us, something that’s primitive and ancestral, close to our origins. First and foremost, a way of 'feeling' that should be transformed into 'action', for companies, too."

Garments were colored with natural dyes made from beetroot and coffee. In addition to the bamboo material, he also showed pieces made from nettle, raffia, hemp, and linen as well as sandals of cane woven in the style of Viennese canework. It's a beautiful sentiment made manifest in a beautiful collection...but I confess, I do miss the paisley just a little...

https://www.etro.com/en_us/

Knock, knock, knocking...

“I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I’ve been knocking from the inside!”
--Jalaluddin Rumi


“Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.”
--Dogen