Yvonne de Villiers

I was studying Tai Chi and learning a “Bagua” warmup routine when the idea of the Zen guitar came to me. Zen is, by it’s very nature, hard to talk about…..like the proverbial finger pointing beyond itself to the moon. It is a state of no-mind in which thought, emotions, and expectations do not matter.

NECK INSPIRATION

The calligraphy on the neck was inspired by Zen calligraphy. Truly skillful Zen calligraphy is not the product of intense “practice”; rather, it is best achieved as the product of the “no-mind” state, a high level of spirituality, and a heart free of disturbances. It is based on the principles of Zen Buddhism, which stresses a connection to the spiritual rather than the physical. The characters on the neck symbolize Wisdom, Beauty, Truth, Courage, Grace, Peace and Love. Calligraphy ensconced on the heel cap translates Light.

SOUND HOLE INSPIRATION

Even more ancient than Tai Chi, the circle walking techniques of Bagua were developed over four thousand years ago in Taoist monasteries as a health and meditation art. The techniques open up the possibilities of the mind to achieve stillness and clarity; generate a strong, healthly, disease-free body; and, perhaps more importantly, maintain internal balance while either your inner world or the events of the external world of the external world are rapidly changing.

The Bagua, literally “eight symbols”, is a fundamental philosophical concept in ancient China. It is generally represented with an octagonal diagram with one trigram on each side. The concept of Bagua is applied not only to I Ching and Chinese Taoist thought, but is also used in other streams of Chinese culture, such as Feng Shui, martial arts and navigation.

I came across a very interesting article on using the Bagua as it relates to the guitar. The first section gives an introduction to the Bagua, and the second launches into some innovative ways to explore the guitar as 8 different instruments based on the system. For those of you so inclined, have fun!

Last, but not least…..someone turned me onto a very cool interactive website on Zen. Definitely worth exploring!!!!! The inscrutable picture below is from the landing page.

Peace,
Yvonne www.lunaguitars.com