Neal Nuske writes…

Selected Music 2: Kanzeon!                        

Kanzeon is the Japanese equivalent for the Chinese goddess of compassion. Another significant religious identity, namely, the Carpenter from Nazareth, whose spirituality had its origins in the Hebrew world, frequently referred to ‘compassion’. The word he is attributed to have used, has a distinctly gutsy sound to it: Splagchnizomai. It is an anatomical term referring to our twisted human intestines and bowels -both are known to be uncontrollable and vocal. This removes the word from being defined, restricted and constricted by culturally limited moral and ethical codes, and sets it in the context of spontaneous human responses to all forms of suffering. It makes sense to me that Kanzeon cannot be Kanzeon unless it is born in the context of human complexity and suffering. One must also add to this the concept of environmental degradation and pain. It is significant, and most appropriate, that the acoustic world of Kanzeon is constructed upon sounds of complexity and dissonance. It is in the hearing of it that the true experience of compassion is adequately understood.

Of SPIRE Flossie writes…The tallest part of the traditional gothic church building is its ‘spire’. This dominating structure thrusts powerfully skyward, attempting to authoritively pierce God’s domain for the cause of humankind. I pair the strong verticals with a void panel. It signifies that man’s portentous attempts to reach God, are in fact to be pitied in the face of the immensity of ‘God’s’ terrain.

Of KANZEON! Christina writes… Kanzeon! was inspired by the bodhisattva of that name in the Zen tradition (Kuan Yin and other forms in other traditions), evoked by the upright quality of the original modular form of Flossie’s Spire.  The Zen Buddhist chant directed to Kanzeon, especially when combined with rhythmic slow walking in the context of group meditation, is a fantastic practice of devotion and a chance to cultivate the compassionate stance of this bodhisattva (a bodhisattva is a being in Buddhist traditions who chooses to delay her or his own attainment of nirvana in order to focus on assisting others to do this).