From the Window

Ascent

Tale of Ikebana

"Make a flower arrangement”, commanded the General, tired after many days of incessant strife and longing for peace. The orderly looked dazed. Where were the flowers or the container or water in such a wilderness? Suddenly, his eyes fell on the horse-trough holding water, with two irises growing wild beside it. He picked the flowers and pushed his dagger through the stems; then, with a practised flick of the wrist, he threw the knife into the water-trough. It buried itself deep into the wood, holding the flowers steady with the stems touching the water.

The historical incident although taking place centuries ago, is the reason why a horse-trough is considered one of the classical containers for flower arrangement in Japan. The Japanese art of flower arrangement came to be known as Ikebana.

Aflight

On Hiranyagarbha

Hiranyagarbha, the Rgvedic idea, literally, the ‘golden womb’ is that which gives rise to the cosmos. While, the gold (hiranya) points to the life-force, the womb (garbha) alludes to matter. So, hiranyagarbha is that which is the substratum of life (prāna) and matter (bhūta); and analogously, of the heaven (swarga) and the earth (prithvi). This Vedic symbol suggests, then, that it is the golden-life force and the material-womb that invariably together impel the play of the cosmic manifold.

Often interpreted as the realm of pure possibilities, the hiranyagarbha is apparently volatile— brimming with creative force and energy. To me, this appears as a clue that the hiranyagarbha may be construed as representing a creative, entwined manifold of phenomena, both rational and irrational; where, the rational is analogous to heavens and the irrational is analogous to the earth. The Arts can be perceived in terms of the many rational ideals that they seem to capture— like form, symmetry, harmony, etc. Also, however, the arts typically express the deep irrational instincts and passions, such as love, fear, joy, hate, hope et al. that we relate with the myriad phenomena of aesthetic.

Perhaps, the mood of Hiranyagarbha then can be rendered in terms of a fiery, dynamic waltz which seeks, therefore, to both grasp the Apollonian spirit and capture the Dionysian verve. The Apollonian striving for rational, symmetric, celestial harmony is thus conflated with the wild irrational madness of earthly passion, play, celebration, and ecstasy.