The Emptiness With Wonderful Being

"Works, pictures of the heart". Especilly, the painting is the recognition of one’s natureand wholly reflects the personal feelings, literature diathesis, and other characteristics.So theanalysis of Badashanren works should start from his personal traits.Since Badashanren became a monk,he had always studied something about Zen andBuddhism and had a great success,otherwise Jinxian County Annals wouldl not call him“outstanding among the select best” and "became the Master of Buddhism who lived in themountain for twenty years and had hundreds of students following him ("Biography ofBadashanren " by Shao-changheng). Writing and painting were his hobbies,only practicingthe dharma and related events was his main activities. No matter he was a monk or anabbot,Badashanren had to adhere to a series of rules of buddhism including chanting sutra in themorning and evening and it was his main resouces of knowledge.Without doubt, the practice of buddhism had a great influence on Badashanren and wasan important factor of forming his outlook on world on arts. After he resumed secular life, hestill linked with Buddhism. He not only connected with the Buddists, but also studied theBuddhist sutras and made speaks about the outlook and thought of Buddhism. Fromhence,we see Badashanren never discarded Buddhist thoughts and Zen concept and also wecan find those from his handwritings,paintings and his poets on his paintings.Zen thinks that emptiness is the beginning of all things, emptiness is the nature and theessence of the world. From Zen standpoint, everything in the world is Inauthentic Existence,such as “dew and lightning. But the Empty is not real empty without nothing, but thesunyata,emptiness but not nothing. Although it can not be seen, but it can be experienced.Although the nature is empty, it also show the infinite, that is, seemingly, it is empty,but infact it is a kind of "wonderful being". If you cling to the exterior, you will not see thesunyata. In fact, the sunyata is wonderful being. For painters,the emptiness in their works is where there is no brush or ink, the emptinessis a kind of image; when the artistic conception of the picture is empty, so is emptiness; whenthe painting shows the painter’s nature of mind is empty, so is emptiness.······Painterswith brush and ink-the being-reflect the emptiness in the picture, that is a kind ofpainting outside of the painting, which is same as the Buddhist phase " the image is formless”.For example, the Cinese old saying of " forgeting the trap by which the fish is attained ", herethe painting is a trap, the emptiness is the fish.Influenced by Insight Theory advocated by Southern Zen, Badashanren discardedmirages and kept the truth with enlightened nature which is so-called "a super-straight into theTathagata " and seared for the nature of the painting directly in a concise and pithy form,namely sunyata. Badashanren’s paingtings are not mere formalistic,either are wanton abstract.His works show out peace and tranquility, elegant and mysterious, with no-self and withno-mind and everything is so natural, harmonious and easy. Especially in his later works,there is no airs and graces, but brings us the beauty of harmony, it is so such comfortable,leisurely, natural and naive. The simple form of his works contains the boundless vitality.Each flower and wood, each mountain and each stone is vivid with harmony,change andease. As the "Sutra" said,"show every abhijna, make all changes, present all kinds ofBuddha, meet each public will".Analysis of his works shows Badashanren’s esthetic ideas all come from Buddhism andZen. He puts his understanding of Buddhism and Zen into his works by playful brushes andink.