бытие человеком

There is no culture in America either. There is no vision going on in the art world or anything. It's all retro, and even in movies--everything is retro and nostalgic, and so it seems to be a universal problem. On our scene and in general in the West as well, there was no real look. There is, sort of--but hodge-podge. There's no vision-forward style thing going on.

JW: I think you just gave another controversial interview.

JN: Oh. Could have been a lot more controversial. So is that it? Any other questions?

JW: Not offhand, unless you want to add something.

JN: I'd love to say that it's all waiting there, that usually dzogchen comes at the end, but Rinpoche had it at the beginning, so maybe we can do things correctly and have it at the end. Early on, he said in order to have an enlightened world, it has to look enlightened. He said all those other cultures had a look. Japan has a look. China has a look. Tibet had a look.

Jack Niland with Tao Wolfe, New York, circa 1970.
Photograph by Rowland Scherman

Greece had a look. Egypt had a look. These cultures were like enlightened cultures and had a cool look, you know, that everybody agreed on. So it wasn't just this hodge-podge of different things. That's when he said that, in order to be an enlightened world, it has to look enlightened, which means you have to design all the objects in it to be from an enlightened point of view. And he said [his] idea would be if we sold stuff in K-mart, so it isn't like exclusive, one of a kind, or chic, or really expensive, but mass-produced K-mart. And he actually mentioned bedsheets. So why couldn't we design a bedsheet that has our feel, this energy--cheerful bedsheets that wake you up. Maybe that isn't a good idea; you're supposed to go to sleep with bedsheets. But, at any rate, that was the level, and he actually mentioned K-mart and mentioned bedsheets as his ideal. He said when we're selling things in K-mart, we'll know we've succeeded. We're on our way.

So the only way people can learn this--they're certainly not going to study classic Buddhism and Shambhala. It's just too lengthy and expensive and too foreign, too ancient. But people can at least learn the principles of dharma art and see that it's a reflection of your mind and it's completely natural and clear, and the essence of what has happened throughout history anyway. People intuitively have done this forever. And it's cool because it's uplifting and it's cheerful. And it's beautiful--a word that you don't hear much in the pop world. And it could still happen. But people can learn the principles without becoming Tibetan Buddhists or Shambhalians. And principles alone are a path. At any rate, it's still waiting there. The whole world--look at any kind of art criticism--it's just how sucky everything is, and everything is just retreading the same old thing. Everybody's just doing endless variations of the same old stuff. The culture in movies--everything is not going anywhere; there's no vision. The last time there was any vision probably was in the 60's, and before that in the 40's, and the 30's. Trungpa used to say in the 1920's things were really waking up and there were great things going on. But everybody knows what it means when there's a common world vision, and I don't know if gangsta rap is it [laughter]. That's exactly our idea of baggy pants and you know, whatever. So it still can happen and I think loads of people want it to happen. It's just funny that Western Buddhists are still wanting to be traditional, and, Western culture is basically nostalgic at this point. So, anybody want to sign up? Help!

J.N.

.https://web.archive.org/web/20131117011143/http://www.chronicleproject.com/stories_119.html

_______________________________________________________________

19 views00:41