East and West 1

#77015     72″ X 50″    ac

• Nepal: “Amitahba with Acolytes”, (cf. #6).
• Paris-Match: “Lunar Jeep”

In The “Soul of China”, Amaury de Riencort shows that the principal psychological characteristic of the Chinese has been their relationship with the earth. Their overriding need was to adapt their energy to the normal rhythm of nature.

For centuries Taoist sages sought to understand the universe by intuitive experience. Softly beckoning along a mystical path of individual self-fulfillment, they sought a perfect harmonization of man and nature. The Chinese saw the earth as a closed and limited universe. Space and time had their ends. History is an eternal starting over, not a continuous development of existence tending to superior forms of life or expression.

Oriental civilization – through its many contemplative paths: Taoism, Buddhism, Zen – became a civilization of high spiritual insights which tended to revolve about themselves. Each person had to rediscover for himself. Occidental civilization never postulated a closed universe or revolving history. The typical Western mind goes in straight lines. We build on what has been achieved. We are pragmatic, scientific, material.

Chen uses the American landing on the moon to symbolize this highest achievement of Western materialism. In the black sky above the moon he has placed a symbol of the high spiritual achievement of the East, Gautama Buddha. The symbols and civilizations are equal. Chen pleads for the best of both worlds, coming together as a part of a universal synthesis.

In his massive floating circle, Chen has taken the Buddha itself from Nepal. The surrounding background is from Japan. He has adapted and changed colors freely. Heaven is pure yang, and a yang element for exorcising evil is red. Anything red is lucky. Red Buddha. Red circle of holy fire. The Buddha sits on the traditional lotus, whose eight petals (only seven showing here) represent eight noble truths. There is a marvelous circular expression throughout the painting: the target stripes around the figure, the circle around Buddha’s head, the oval jewels, the circles in the checkerboard in Buddha’s garment, the half-buried wheels of the lunar jeep.

In Chinese folklore there is a novel about a T’ang dynasty monk who traveled west to India to study Buddhism. He was accompanied by three disciples: a monkey, a white horse, and a pig. The monkey was a fabulous creature who could change himself into 72 forms – into smoke, a fly, a tiger, anything. One day he was boasting to Buddha. “I can fly away so fast I can escape from anything.” To prove it, he flew away abruptly and engraved his name in a rock on Five Finger Mountain. But Buddha said to him: “Here is your signature on my palm. It doesn’t matter that you can fly – you are in my power.” No matter what human beings develop in technology, we are still in God’s hands.

-Lawrance Jeppson