Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

David Sawyer wrote:

The ongoing discussion about jinashi and, let’s say, ‘other’ shakuhachi, reflects a ‘flute-centricity’ that emphasizes the importance of type of flute over other much more relevant issues.

I couldn't agree more with this statement (for what is worth...), and the following reflection. I think sometimes we may be too obsessed with the flute and forget that we mainly have to work on improving ourselves. I, for example, have a wonderful Shakuhachi (I think jiari), but I've found myself on many ocassions thinking "maybe I should get a different/longer/rawer/older one".

But then I remember, that what mainly attracts me to Shakuhachi in the first place, the Zen aspect of it, is not about materials, bore ratios, or lengths; nor about expensive, inexpensive, beautiful or ugly; as far as I know, it's about mindfullness and concentration, about trascending the net of thoughts that prevents us from getting more of our inner-self forward.

In that sense ANY Shakuhachi has the potential to be used as a tool for that purpose, but also, a caligrapgy brush, a bow and arrow, or a tea pot, and maybe even a guitar, or a bunch of stones for that matter (I don't think anybody has the undeniable authority to say that some tools are more suitable than others as it's a highly subjective perception; well, afterall, which perception is not subjective!).

If Zen it's what it's important, as I see it, it's important to get a tool that you feel comfortable with, a tool that it's not going to plague your mind with irrelevant thoughts  like "this is not working for me", "I should have gone for the expensive one", "I want a more natural sound" (we have enough thoughts to get rid off already!), so in that sense choosing a flute you are satisfied with is crucial.

Now, satisfaction lies inside; some people can search all their lives for that perfect flute and never find it, and some people may just forget about that and engage, with whatever tool they have available, in the search for that mindfullness and concentration that some of us so much crave for. 

Well, this is not to say that it's not great to have different flutes, different sounds, different voices (if you ask me I would compare jinashi Shakuhachi with having a natural Billie Holiday voice simulator- maybe if it's a long one a Nina Simone's- and jiari with having a Montserrat Caballes'), we all love nice music, beautiful waves of sound around the room, but if Zen is what you are looking for, as someone else has said before, it's not about the material aspects of the tool, it's about the inmaterial aspects of the practice.

Well, I just wanted to share some thoughts. Maybe I should have written this in the "Zen" section, but I've been following this thread with great interest and i thought it belonged here.

Hey, thanks for reading through!

Alex

Hi Alex,

Thank you very much for your gentle and thoughtful eloquence.
The best shakuhachi ultimately lies in our engaged attention to the
fact that it is ourselves that we are sounding in the time we spend
with our instruments.  You have an evolved understanding of this.

Thanks again for putting it so well.

Larry