A New Year Greeting: Babar's Dream

Time to be affirmative.

"In an archetypal battle between good and evil, the graceful winged elephants—the angels of kindness, intelligence, courage, patience, perseverance, knowledge, work, hope, love, health, joy and happiness—drive out the demons of misfortune, anger, stupidity, discouragement, sickness, spinelessness, despair, fear, ignorance, cowardice, laziness. The qualities championed here are personal virtues, involving the life of the mind and the life of the individual. Although the orderly angel–elephants resemble an army, with little differentiation among them compared to the dramatically articulated figures of evil, the angels do not proclaim a nationalistic, corporate or moralistic cause but instead affirm a gracious and serene intelligence. Several of the flying elephants carry symbols characteristic of the virues; the flowers of hope, the candle of knowledge, the saw of perseverance, the hammer of work, the shield and sword of courage, the clock of patience. And so angelic harmonies banish discordant evils from Celestville, the home of Babar and Celeste."

From Edward R Tufte, Visual Explanations, (Graphics Press, 1997), pp 127-129 describes Babar's Dream, first published in Jean de Brunhoff, Le Roi Babar (Paris, 1933).


The text reads:
...de gracieux éléphants ailés qui chassent le Malheur loin de Célestville, et ramènent avec eux le Bonheur.-
A ce moment, il se réveille, et se sent mieux.

Peur, Désespoir, Mollesse, Ignorance, Malheur, Maladie, Lâcheté, Paresse, Colère, Bêtise, Découragement.
Courage, Intelligence, Bonte, Persévérance, Patience, Travail, Espoir, Savoir, Joie, Santé, Amour, Bonheur

Ushnishasitatapattra

In 1992 the Royal Academy of Arts held an exhibition of the Sacred Art of Tibet simply called "Wisdom and Compassion". This striking image is from the free guide, and for many years followed me around from desk to desk. I thought it worth sharing, it is truly beautiful. The exhibition catalogue describes her as follows:

Thousand-armed Ushnishasitatapattra is a special form of the goddess Tara, a female counterpart of the thousand-armed form of Avalokiteshvara. Her iconography is probably one of the most complex in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon. The goddess has as many heads and legs as she has arms. She tramples on human beings, birds and animals. Pressed under her feet into two cubes in this sculpture, they symbolise egocentric existence.

(The statue stands 102 cm, and is from the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Description is by G. Leonov).

At the same exhibition Tibetan monks constructed an elaborate sand mandala over several days. I remember in particular a small child invited to share the task, rasping the funnels to trickle out the coloured sand. What fun! Then, when complete, the mandala was scooped up, and thrown in the Thames, for the merit of all Beings.

Impact factor

Perhaps some compassion is due Professor Hwang Woo-suk, the South Korean stem-cell researcher. The press is as quick to damn as it was to laud him, and then moves on. We might remind ourselves that the two papers in question in one of the world's leading scientific journals, had multiple authors (25 in one case, 15 in the other), and were peer-reviewed. Science is always self-correcting, not always so rapidly and destructively, and a more sober analysis will emerge: hopefully something will be salvaged, not least for the people involved. High-profile science, where publication priority and "impact factor" translate directly to funding, is fiercely competitive. Nobody, least of all politicians, wants to hear about the luck and hard-work that is research. Science doesn't win votes. This is the world we have made.

"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."

Ecclesiastes 9:11

Taking the step

I have a decision to make. Like most decisions of any import, it ultimately does not lend itself to analysis, so I have to simply let go and take the step.

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might: for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."
Ecclesiastes 9:10

I prefer the King James to Nike's "Just do it".

(At the entrance to Hônen-in, Kyoto)

Shadows of our Former Selves

On the Tyne Bridge, looking towards the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. There is a webcam looking at much the same view. The webcam images are said to show "the Date and Time in Newcastle and Gateshead". I know they guard their independence, but I'm glad to see they agree on something. Long may they prosper - fine cities.

Right Livelihood

A week ago, a typing error at Mizuho Securities cost the bank a fortune, as a trader sold 610,000 shares in J-Com at ¥1, instead of 1 share for ¥610,000. As anyone who has paid on-line will know, there is always the doubt and double-checking before you hit "submit". In an ideal world, the trade would have been automatically blocked by the system, but it is not that which bothers me. Other traders watching their screens noticed this very unusual trade, and acted instinctively, buying J-Com shares at a discounted price as fast as they could. That is their training. It could have been over within minutes. Then of course Mizuho has to buy back the shares to honour the trade. It is said to have cost the bank over $300 million. That would go a long way in Kashmir.
Could a trader act otherwise (and keep his job)? They are trained to spot and use opportunities, and computers are programmed to do much the same, and may well have beaten them to it. But after the flurry of dealing, it must have been apparent to all that a mistake had been made. If you took advantage of an individual in this way, you would be reviled, yet to do the same of a corporation seems inevitable and acceptable.
Lehman Brothers may yet decide to return the profit it made, and other Japanese banks will be under moral pressure to do the same, but at the moment it still looks like a very expensive mistake for Mizuho. We should spare a thought for the trader!

Reading Japanese?

No, I don't read Japanese, nor speak it - but I dabble. An excellent Firefox plugin for when I must make the effort, is RikaiXUL, from Todd Rudick. Moving the mouse over a Kanji does an instantaneous dictionary lookup and displays the matches. Its smart feature is the ability to intelligently use adjacent Kanji or Kana. Very clever. As it is released under GPL, Jon Zarate was able to enhance the code and create rickaichan. I have RikaiXUL installed under Firefox 1.0.7 on an elderly IBM Thinkpad, and it works well. Rickaichan I have installed on an old HP box under the new Firefox 1.5. It's faster, and displays more information, not all of which you may need (stroke count etc.). But, both are fine products, and very usable. Both can be easily disabled when not required. (I imagine the underlying dictionary is Jim Breen's KanjiDic).

Hall of Roaring Waves

The middle floor of Kinkaku-ji (1st floor to the British, 2nd floor to everyone else), is the Cho-on-do, The Hall of Roaring Waves, constructed in the bukezukuri-style of samurai dwellings. It houses the Kannon Bodhisattva and four attendant Shitenno Guardians of the Four Directions. Two are seen here. The floor is lacquered to a mirror finish, and the Hall also houses paintings by Kano Masanobu (1434-1530). As access is not possible, I relied on the guide book, from which this (part) image comes. Imagine it at night, faint light from a full moon filtering in and the golden warriors faintly reflected in the perfectly black floor.

Too little, too late?

Analysis of ice-cores drilled from the Vostock station in the Antarctic now extend measurement of atmospheric composition from 390,000 to 650,000 years before present (Science 2005, 310, 1313). The concentration of CO₂, at 380 ppm, is now 27% higher than the pre-industrial level. Methane is also at the highest level for 650,000 years.

New analysis indicates that the Gulf Stream that keeps us relatively warm in Northern Europe has slowed 30% since 1957 (Nature 2005, 438, 655). Melting Greenland ice could be disrupting the return deep water flow to the south Atlantic. Of course, none of this can be proven, so we can carry on as before, can't we?

A roadside sign protesting the expansion of Stansted airport, encapsulates it: "Cheap flights cost the Earth".

Takigi-Noh

I have been to one indoor Noh performance in Kyoto, but have so far been unable to make a trip coincide with an outdoor performance (Takigi-Noh). At the millenium New Year festivity in Kyoto, there was a Noh performance on Karasuma-dori, but I was on my way to the temple complexes in Higashi-yama to ring in the New Year. Noh is quite extraordinary and absorbing, even to this gaijin, and I must try again in 2006.
There is actually a Noh theatre in London at the Royal Hollaway College (The Handa Noh Studio). I hope it is still funded!
I have tried to find Noh on DVD while in Japan, but without success. Maybe I need the equivalent of BBC recordings?

(The image is a postcard from Kinkaku-ji)

Kinkaku-ji

On 2nd July 1950 the Temple of the Golden Pavilion (金閣寺, Kinkaku-ji) was destroyed in a fire started by a 21 year-old troubled monk. It was not the first time the temple had been lost: the Onin War (1467-1477) and the suceeding century of turmoil saw much of Kyoto lost to fire, including the Golden Temple. (Berry observes that "Before the modern era, war was unusual in Japan"). Yukio Mishima portrays fictional events leading to the 1950 fire in his novel "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion". By 1955 the Temple had been rebuilt, and additional gilding was carried out in the mid-eighties. This picture shows that earlier Kinkaku-ji, resplendent from age, use and a measure of decay. The three levels are in different architectural styles: the ground floor, the Chamber of Dharma Waters, in open Heian style, surmounted by the Tower of Roaring Waves in Samurai house style, and the final floor in Zen style. (It is a Rinzai temple). Each level is now gilded (with 48 kg of gold) and lacquered. The upper level houses an Amida triad and 25 Bodhisattvas, while below is the Buddha hall of the Kannon Bodhisattva. A Chinese fenghuang (鳳凰) tops the building.
I found the photograph in the Museum of Photography in Nara, sought out because of my interest in the architect Kisho Kurokawa. It's a bit off the regular trail, out of town - even the taxi driver had to ask directions.
Today Kinkaku-ji is difficult to view with fresh eyes. More intriguing is the unseen interior, which the guide books show to be of breathtaking beauty. I like the idea of making something beautiful that you cannot see at will, as it were, enjoyed only by the silent Bodhisattvas measuring time and bearing witness.

Copyright prevents me showing these beautiful photographs of Kinkaku-ji here, but they are among the best I have seen.

Incidentally, should you use a taxi, it is easy to arrive at The Silver Temple, Ginkaku-ji. The more you try to distinguish Gi- and Ki-, the more likely is the taxi driver to hear the opposite. "Ah so desu! Kinkaku-ji", and you go to Ginkaku-ji. Like "ice" and "eyes", easy when you know how!

Refs.
"The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto", Mary Elizabeth Berry, University of California Press, 1994
"The Temple of the Golden Pavilion", Yukio Mishima, trans. Ivan Morris, Penguin Twentieth Century Classics, 1987

York Minster

It is not often you see the interior of York Minster free of chairs and benches. Along with the very different cathedral in Durham, a place of great beauty. Even better if the organ is being played! A task: to visit all the cathedrals in England.
Tomorrow I give a seminar at the University. Always a pleasure to return.

Looming crisis?

"Humankind cannot stand very much reality". T.S.Eliot

From yesterday's Financial Times (Wednesday November 23 2005):

Record gas prices prompt supply fears
The price of gas for delivery in January traded as high as £1.20 a therm...Spot prices traded as high as £1.70 a therm up from about 31p at the start of the month...
Because gas is heavily used in Britain to generate power, the wholesale price of electricity has also soared. The price of electricity for the next day rose from about £60 per megawatt hour at the end of last week to £105 yesterday.

Autumn

Almost four years ago to the day, in the garden of one of the sub-temples of the Nanzen-ji (南禅寺) complex. The whole area was a afire: the digital image does not capture the brilliance of the reds. (Perhaps a role for film yet, though equally I may have much to learn about optimising the settings on the Sony Cybershot). A good time of the year to be in Kyoto, cooler and clear skies.

Remembrance (2)

My Belgian family: Maurice and Zoe had, I think, 10 children, not all of whom survived. One boy, many girls. Madeleine, my mother, is in the middle, clutching her raquette, Rachel and Martha behind, Bertha on my grandfather's knee, baby Maurice on my grandmother's lap. I remember a home with an aviary outside, neatly piled logs, chopped wood, the smell of coffee, with a drop of cognac as needed, conversation I could not understand. That was later.

Remembrance (1)

My mother, now 80, was born in Poperinghe and lived in Kemmel up to the end of the second world war. I remember walking with her, and her late father, through the fields, and her finding a rusted hand-grenade. Bullets could be found easily in the ploughed farmland, and shell cases, rusted and broken, were stacked against pubs. Farmers still died while ploughing. The slaughter is well-documented. Whole towns lost in the taking of a ridge, only to be lost a few days later. The young men of Adlington, Chorley, and countless towns, gone, almost to a man. In Ieper, in the Cloth Hall, I remember a display of photographs. The destruction and loss of life is almost unimaginable. A few survived the war only to die in the 'flu pandemic of 1918, exhausted men and women, demobbed, packed into trains, and boats.
In memory of the many then, and the many now, in conflict and war not of their doing.

The picture is from the blog of the music critic Alex Ross.(http://www.therestisnoise.com/2005/11/le_dieu_ravel.html). I have also seen it referenced to the Imperial War Museum. A thoughtful site is http://www.greatwar.co.uk/westfront/ypsalient/ypres.htm.

Autumn

Chion-in, Kyoto. 2003

I try to make at least one visit to Chion-in when in Japan: most days there seems to be a service at 11:00, discreetly captured here. People come and go, small children play on the tatami, old and young offer incense, as I did, while the chanting and sound of the gongs, some deep, some metallic, goes on regardless, as it has done for hundreds of years. Outside, the occasional murmur of voices and the cawing of the crows in the mid-summer heat.
The entrance is the massive San-mon, said to be the largest gate is Japan, and proportionate to the temple itself. A step over a large sill marks your entry into sacred space, emphasised by the very steep flight of stone steps ahead. The construction and steepness is such that you cannot see anything at the top other than the sky - not accidental I think. The steps and the occasional cawing crow emphasise the silence and the heat. Then the cleansing water ladled over the hands, and the sound of a gong from within the great hall. Shoes off, neatly to one side, the soft tatami underfoot, and the cool dark interior picking out the greenish-gold and mirror dark lacquered floor. I sit quietly at the back and go with the moment. Time stops.

Entering a New Century at Chion-in, Kyoto

The great temple bell of Chion-in is justly famous: cast in 1633 and weighing some 80 tons, it is the largest in Japan. Here you see it being struck by monks of the Jodo (Pure Land) school, sleeves rolled back. They were fortunate: their seated venerable abbot less so, it being a bitterly cold night with a chilling wind. He looked frail, and I felt for him. Wandering back down to the city, the night was full of the many temple bells, tolling the 108 reminders of the ways of error. It was good to be amongst the crowds again. New Year is of course a good time everywhere, but the Omisoka tradition of being with your family, cleaning, settling debts, grievances, and generally banishing all that is negative, is a fine way to enter the New Year. The change of century was a special time to be in Kyoto, with many unique events, including outdoor Noh on Karasuma-dori. Of course, we were 8 hours ahead of London too!

Evolving Space

About 8 years ago, I found "Evolving Space" a small gallery on Pacific Avenue in San Francisco (conferences have their uses). I am no collector, and such places would normally intimidate me, but for some reason I went in. I made two discoveries. First, the kind and helpful owner, Michelle Koo and second, the work of the print maker Seiko Tachibana. Over two years, as money allowed, I bought some of her works, Natural #1, #2, #3 of the "Michi (Road / Life)" series, "Spiral (Wa)" and "Encounter (Setten)". If time permits, I may talk about them more later. In the Japanese way, I display them sparingly, and reflect on them, simply because that seems appropriate for them. Time passes, and "Evolving Space" may have gone. The domain name became available, so to honour this memory, I took it, and it also forms the title for this blog.
In another way it is apt. Space or a vacuum is not empty, but full of immense energy that bubbles in and out of existence - the energy of the false vacuum. The shorter the time - and we are talking Planck time (10E-43 sec) - the vaster the energy that can flicker into existence: the present universe may have arisen in this way. That too makes sense. So, Evolving Space works for me on many levels.
A quick search suggests Seiko Tachibana is still working. May I wish her and MK well.