**3.2. Śūnyatā**

The idea of the void is central in Buddhism, especially in Zen. Śūnyatā (in Sanskrit) or kuu' (Japanese) has been translated as emptiness or voidness. It is a concept which is not related to being empty in the sense of not having any contents. In Buddhism, the nature of the human mind and of all phenomena is emptiness, meaning that its nature is empty. It is the notion that nature is beyond our ability to perceive with our senses and our ability to conceptualise. It conveys a sense of possibility that all can be overcome or everything can happen. Nothing exists, except in interrelationship with everything else. Stated differently, when we speak of emptiness, we do not mean nothingness but, to the contrary, an unlimited potential to appear, change, relate or disappear. Given that the nature of our mind is emptiness, we possess the capacity to experience an unlimited variety of thoughts, emotions and sensations. The Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han describes the idea of substance as a central concept in Western thought. He states that it is constitutive of the unity and selfness of the being. For Byung-Chul Han [18], substance 'rests in separation and distinction… thus, substance is not oriented towards openness, but to closure'.

He points out that this notion of emptiness 'does not constitute an originary principle, a first cause from which another being arises' [18]. He adds that the emptiness in Zen Buddhism is not situated at a higher ontological level than that of the forms that appear (the entities, as Heidegger would call them), but that they are placed in the same level of the self.

From this notion of emptiness that develops through the practice of mindfulness meditation, we may learn that the contemplative experience is a sort of substrate for acquiring a mind that is 'empty', available and full of all of the possibilities that emerge from reality and the aesthetic experience.

#### **3.3. Anattā**

It is something that emanates from us and that returns to us. As the central psychological state of the contemplative experience, mindfulness is a vehicle through which this experience occurs. Lira refers to a central aspect of the contemplative attitude and the capacity to grasp beauty. He states that 'beauty is not seen when one is asleep, identified with pleasure or pain, when one is not paying attention and not concentrating, when the mind passes mechanically

From the Buddhist contemplative tradition, and especially Zen Buddhism, aesthetic observation arises from central philosophical ideas, such as dhyȃna (contemplation), sȗnyatȃ (empti-

Contemplation (dhyȃna) is central to Buddhism. To stop, calm the mind and observe in silence the flow of mental and bodily states and those of the world around us, is the most distinctive act of mindfulness. Aesthetic and artistic contemplation, especially of nature, in the process of seeking illumination is relevant to Buddhism. Lomas [17] states that 'in Zen, art is regarded as a particularly potent way of communicating spiritual truths, indeed, far more so than discursive prose. Zen constantly seeks to eschew and overcome the limitations of conceptual

The idea of the void is central in Buddhism, especially in Zen. Śūnyatā (in Sanskrit) or kuu' (Japanese) has been translated as emptiness or voidness. It is a concept which is not related to being empty in the sense of not having any contents. In Buddhism, the nature of the human mind and of all phenomena is emptiness, meaning that its nature is empty. It is the notion that nature is beyond our ability to perceive with our senses and our ability to conceptualise. It conveys a sense of possibility that all can be overcome or everything can happen. Nothing exists, except in interrelationship with everything else. Stated differently, when we speak of emptiness, we do not mean nothingness but, to the contrary, an unlimited potential to appear, change, relate or disappear. Given that the nature of our mind is emptiness, we possess the capacity to experience an unlimited variety of thoughts, emotions and sensations. The Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han describes the idea of substance as a central concept in Western thought. He states that it is constitutive of the unity and selfness of the being. For Byung-Chul Han [18], substance 'rests in separation and distinction… thus, substance is not oriented towards openness, but to closure'. He points out that this notion of emptiness 'does not constitute an originary principle, a first cause from which another being arises' [18]. He adds that the emptiness in Zen Buddhism is not situated at a higher ontological level than that of the forms that appear (the entities, as

from one object to another without stopping, when it looks without seeing' [5].

thought, and to "point directly" into the "suchness" (i.e. nature) of reality'.

Heidegger would call them), but that they are placed in the same level of the self.

From this notion of emptiness that develops through the practice of mindfulness meditation, we may learn that the contemplative experience is a sort of substrate for acquiring a mind that is 'empty', available and full of all of the possibilities that emerge from reality and the

ness), anattā (non-self) and nirvȃna (illumination).

**3.1. Dhyȃna**

212 Perception of Beauty

**3.2. Śūnyatā**

aesthetic experience.

The concept of anattā, or non-self, of Buddhism is also an inherent concept within contemplative practice and specifically within mindfulness. Anattā is the notion that the self is an illusion. This idea is profoundly linked to another Buddhist concept, the anicca, which represents the impermanence of things. Existence is in a permanent state of transformation; everything is always on its way to becoming something else. Starting from the idea that things are in a constant state of flux, the assumption of an immutable state for things, for existence, and even for oneself, becomes an impossibility. Meditative practice, in its fluctuation, allows for the meditator to come to terms with the certainty that that the 'me' is relative. It is a natural consequence of mindfulness practice for the 'me' to become ever smaller and situated in ever greater and less egocentric contexts. Intertwining these reflections with the idea of an aesthetic experience allows us to consider how mindfulness contributes to the dissolution of the 'me/object' duality or, in other words, of the illusion that the observer of something beautiful is located on the other side, in relation to what is observed. From this perspective, regarding the aesthetic experience, we can argue that, as the 'me' becomes diluted to make way for contemplation, the phenomena that we are observing can be expressed in all their beauty and intensity. If the self is removed from its role as protagonist, beauty can become manifested in an absolute and sublime form and can be perceived in all its dimensions. This change in the relationship with oneself and the world is conducive to a greater degree of psychological flexibility, brought about by a diminishing self-referential process, which allows us to merge completely with the observed object, relaxing the borders of the self in order to perceive completely the object that arises before our senses. In this way, we do not identify with an aesthetic experience, but we contemplate the experience from a non-judgemental platform, with openness and curiosity, allowing for the nature of things to be grasped by being more sensitive to the aesthetic experience, situated in the present moment, open to the new and free from prior conditioning and the habits of prejudice.

#### **3.4. Nirvȃna**

Finally, we arrive at one of the most profound concepts associated with the meditative practice of mindfulness, and with contemplative traditions as a whole, which is the concept of nirvȃna. We can argue that all of Buddhism centres on the idea of nirvȃna. This is usually translated as illumination. In Japanese, within the Zen tradition, the word that is used to describe the concept is satori. Illumination represents clarity about the nature of existence. It is the state in which the suffering nature of our existence gives way to tranquillity and equanimity, brought about by a deep understanding of the futility of the existence of all things. To approach and achieve nirvȃna is the ultimate goal of contemplative practices. This is where we may observe the beautiful congruence between the concepts of contemplative experience and aesthetic experience.

The role that aesthetic contemplation plays in reaching nirvana is undisputed. For example, in Zen Buddhism, the contemplation of iconographic art along with the nembutsu (described further along) is one of the essential practices on the path to illumination [19]. These practices seek to sooth the mind from emotional injury and direct it towards a state of concentration and attention. The continuous practice of these exercises enables the practitioner to let go of intellectualised methods of processing perceptual stimuli and to reduce the tendency to grasp reality in a preconceived fashion, stained by our prejudices and previous experience, allowing one to pay attention to internal and external phenomena precisely in the way that they are presented. Thus, we avoid our mind's inclination to see the world as the mental projection that we have of it. For Siegel [20], mindfulness brings with it the dissolution of the influence of prior learning from the sensation of the present.

Relevance is worth highlighting that nembutsu brings to beauty and aesthetic contemplation, especially to the beauty that can be found within the natural world. Examples of this include the first visualisations described in these exercises: the contemplation of the sun descending towards sunset, the contemplation of running water and the observation of the earth or of trees. Another example, used by Vargas to clarify the role of the aesthetic experience on the path to nirvȃna is that of the monk Hui-yūan (334–416), who considered the contemplation of the natural world and its beauty to have a central place in the search for nirvȃna. Han [18], himself, in Philosophy of Zen Buddhism, argues that, 'contemplating the landscape exhaustively does not mean to capture it completely. To grasp an object completely means to take total power over it. To the contrary, contemplating the landscape exhaustively means to sink oneself in it, separating one's view from oneself. He who contemplates does not have the landscape as an object that is outside of him. It would be more correct to say that he merges with the landscape'.
