A Little Eastern Philosophy

[Peter Pallotta]

What do I know about Eastern philosophy - I'm an Italian Canadian lapsed Catholic!! But I was reading this story by ancient philosopher Chuang Tzu and I thought of how it relates to a way of working on/creating golf courses.  (Probably as rare now as it was then).

Ch'ing, the chief carpenter, was carving wood into a stand for musical instruments, and when finished his work appeared so perfect as to be of supernatural execution. And so the Prince asked him: What mystery is there in your art? And Ch'ing replied: No mystery, Your Highness. When I am about to make a stand, I guard against any diminution of my essential powers. I first bring my mind into a state of absolute quiet. After 3 days in this state I become oblivious to any possible reward or gain. After 5 days, I become oblivious to any fame I might achieve. After 7 days, I become unconscious of my limbs and physical frame.  Only then, when there is no thought of you or the Court in my mind, the skills I have become concentrated and all disturbing elements from without are gone. And only then do I enter some mountain forest, and I begin my search for a suitable tree.  That tree already contains within it the form required, which I afterwards elaborate. I see the musical stand in my mind's eye, and then set to work.  Beyond that there is nothing: I simply bring my own native capacity into relationship with that of the wood.  What is suspected to be of supernatural execution in my work is due solely to this.

Lovely, isn't it?  And to describe what an architect does as "elaborating" nature seems quite right.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Perhaps, except for the passages that begin "after 3 days" and "after 5 days".  

It must be a universal philosophy, sounds like the same process Michelangelo might have followed when choosing a huge block of marble at the quarry, then extracting the piece that lay within.

[JESII]

Which touches on explaining why days spent on site seemingly has a correlation to quality of design in gca...imo...and based on my limited knowledge of actual time spent by architects.

[Tommy Williamsen]

It is a lovely thought and also contains a wonderful truth.  I write music.  I find that sometimes a song will just appear out of nowhere and I can't get the notes on paper fast enough. The resulting music is generally ok but not great. Sometimes, I just will take a thought or a musical phrase and sit with it for a while. If I am quiet long enough I become the instrument of what it is that wants to be said.

Fifteen years ago I spent three months in a Irish Cistercian Monastery years ago to write. Silence is fertile soil. I could never have written what I did at home.

I often think of Pete Dye tramping through the swamp at the Ocean Course. I think of him feeling the terrain with his feet, taking in the ambience of the site, and allowing the dream of what the course can become germinate in his head. I'm not sure he is a mystic, I'm not even sure I stated his method correctly, but from what I know of his process he truly seems to take his clue from the land. 

[Tom_Doak]

Peter:

You are preaching to the choir here.

But, one interesting analogy that I draw from your story is the difference between cut and fill in golf course design.  I have done nearly all of my best work by cutting away at things, rather than building them up.  Likewise, "creating" [or building up] a sculpture from clay is a very much different form of art than cutting away at wood or at stone.  I'm with the carpenter!

Then again, Bill Coore prefers to build his stuff out of fill.

[Peter Pallotta]

Tommy - yes, for me the heart of that story is not so much the time but the intention.  The end of the preparation process for Ch'ing seems to be when there is no longer any thought of Prince or Court.  His intention seems to be what you described, i.e. to let the silence manifest itself as it wishes, undiluted by worldly cares/ambitions.  Sadly, I can't say that in all the years working in my chosen field I've experienced that space/attitude more than once or twice; but I can say that, these days more than ever, it is my one over-riding intention.  Work that comes from that centre/space seems to me the only work worth doing. To borrow from Lewis, there is "good work" and "good works" -- and I think these two blend into one only when the intention is there.

Tom - probably, but mostly I think I'm preaching to myself.  I can't get enough reminders that it is in the cutting away from a source/elements larger than oneself that the best work emerges. 

Peter

  

[Tom_Doak]

Peter:

It does take intention, but it also takes good intentions on the part of one's client.  It's okay for them to have input, but only a few realize the importance of not providing input at the wrong time.

[Kris Shreiner]

Note the TIME the master carpenter spent to arrive at the state he needed to perform his BEST work. While that may be a bit lengthy for today, let's place that soulful approach against the insanity-gigabite driven mantra of today's societal pace. How we look'n gang? Record: stress and health problems, drug abuse, an overmedicated populace, mental illness ETC. ETC.

With luck, the worst of "churn and earn" GCA run amuck is fading to the rear-view, though some practitioners are still trying hard to keep the wooly mammoth approach going abroad. The efforts of a slower, more thoughtful design pace are starting to show in the quality of more recent work in the Contraction Age.

If one looks at the mammals that exist throughout the world, GREAT periods of their day, BESIDES SLEEPING, are spent resting or in activity of an unstressed nature. Reflect on our own human condition, day to day. Is it any wonder life can seem a bit nuts for each of us quite often. It is!

Take some personal time to dial it back a little each day...you deserve it.

Cheers,
Kris

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

nice post and already has led to interesting discussion.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Peter
Thank you for the words.
They are refreshing to read.

Unfortunately I've spent too much time the past few years hunting for work and competing with others whose minds are far less clear:

How can this look good on my website?
Who in my office will route this golf course now that I've laid them all off?
If I spec the most expensive greensmix how much will that increase my fee?
If I do a shitty job, at least I'll get to charge my design fee again in a few years.
I need to get someone in India to do The CAD.
....

I will continue to keep my mind free, and airing this out was helpful.
Thank you.

[Tom_Doak]

I am thinking that Peter's thought explains the phenomenon of first-time architectural triumphs better than any other explanation I've read.  No one is ever thinking about their next project when they're building their first.  Their minds are clear and uncluttered.

I think Kris makes an important point, too.  Iknow that for myself, one of the most important things I do on site is walk around, contemplating what we have built / what we are building -- sometimes with one other person in tow, but often alone.  That's why my site visits are for several days at a time.  If you are just there for one day, or even two, there is no time to contemplate because people want you to make decisions right away, the client wants your ear, and so on, and you never get much time to actually think about the design.  One of the most important things I learned from Bill Coore is never to make ANY decisions the first day you get on site, if you can possibly help it.  In fact, we both probably make a lot of decisions that first day, but we don't tell anybody until we've slept on them. 

[Carson Pilcher]

In my past, I have studied several Eastern Philosophies.  It is a common thread that when the master (or artist) clears his mind of the "ego" true art occurs.

As to several posts regarding "building up" as compared to "chipping away", Jerry Garcia used to say that music is not about the notes that you play, but rather the notes that you do not.  Tension and release.  He also used speak of being a conduit for the music to play through him.  I would imagine that the best designs occur when the architect stops trying to create something and allows the land to guide him.  Of course, we all know that in today's world the owner does more guiding than the land.

I am an avid hiker and enjoy hunting as well.  There are those outdoor moments when I am not thinking of anything and a hole suddenly appears in my vision.  I can see it all too clearly.  All it would usually take is to merely clear the brush and put a flag in the ground.

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks, gents - wonderful posts.

Carson - I think you describe it well, but there is still a mystery.  I could pray and meditate for years and look at every huge slab of marble in the world, and yet I'm sure I would never "see" The Pieta already there even just once.   Call it Talent, call it Grace -- there is something "other" at work in the creation of great work, or so it seems to me.

Peter

[Tom_Doak]

Thanks, gents - wonderful posts.

Carson - I think you describe it well, but there is still a mystery.  I could pray and meditate for years and look at every huge slab of marble in the world, and yet I'm sure I would never "see" The Pieta already there even just once.   Call it Talent, call it Grace -- there is something "other" at work in the creation of great work, or so it seems to me.

Peter

Peter:

The amazing part to me is the experience of "seeing" certain holes jump out at me on the topo map, after playing around with it for a while.  I am pretty certain that some of the holes I've discovered in that way are VERY different from what others would have come up with.  By contrast, I think Bill Coore finds his routings almost entirely by eye on site ... which is why they feel so natural.

[Bill_McBride]

Perhaps, except for the passages that begin "after 3 days" and "after 5 days".  

It must be a universal philosophy, sounds like the same process Michelangelo might have followed when choosing a huge block of marble at the quarry, then extracting the piece that lay within.

I have read that Michaelangelo took a block of marble from Carerra and, in his words, simply cut away everything that didn't look like David.   

[Kirk Gill]

Carson - I think you describe it well, but there is still a mystery.  I could pray and meditate for years and look at every huge slab of marble in the world, and yet I'm sure I would never "see" The Pieta already there even just once.   Call it Talent, call it Grace -- there is something "other" at work in the creation of great work, or so it seems to me.

This thread is a really interesting exploration of what amounts to the creative process. it reminds me of a time when I was playing in a band, and was trying to come up with a guitar part to complement a song that another band member had written. I really liked the part I came up with, but when we recorded it he said that my part was too loud. So I turned down a bit, and he said "still too loud." I was hacked off about it, so the next we played the song I turned my volume all the way down. After we were done I asked him if that level was ok, and he said "Perfect!"

And he was right. The song was better without my part, but I had been more caught up in "my" thing, than the song itself. I didn't meditate on it for seven days, but my bandmate helped me get there.