~wood~

Tonight I went to the opening of a custom furniture and cabinetmaker, Michael Moran.  I was so impressed by the simple beauty of his designs (check out these for example) - and how each piece complimented the beauty of the different woods.  But what I also enjoyed was his appreciation of his craft and more importantly, his appreciation of the wood itself.  It was evident in his work.  Above one of the pieces was the following:

The Woodcarver by Chuang Tzu (translated by Thomas Merton)

Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand
Of precious wood. When it was finished,
All who saw it were astounded. They said it must be
The work of spirits.
The Prince of Lu said to the master carver:
"What is your secret?"

Khing replied: "I am only a workman:
I have no secret. There is only this:
When I began to think about the work you commanded
I guarded my spirit, did not expend it
On trifles, that were not to the point.
I fasted in order to set
My heart at rest.
After three days fasting,
I had forgotten gain and success.
After five days
I had forgotten praise or criticism.
After seven days
I had forgotten my body
With all its limbs.

"By this time all thought of your Highness
And of the court had faded away.
All that might distract me from the work
Had vanished.
I was collected in the single thought
Of the bell stand.

"Then I went to the forest
To see the trees in their own natural state.
When the right tree appeared before my eyes,
The bell stand also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.
All I had to do was to put forth my hand
and begin.

"If I had not met this particular tree
There would have been
No bell stand at all.

"What happened?
My own collected thought
Encountered the hidden potential in the wood;
From this live encounter came the work
Which you ascribe to the spirits."

Comments

[layanee]

I love his work!

[Pam]

Layanee: I do too. The images on his website really don't do the pieces justice. I wanted to bring them all home.

[Kim]

Wow. Both for the work (I want a headboard like that) and for the poem that accompanied it. Lovely.

[Pam]

Kim: He has a buffet table that I just love - he had it at the show, and it was even more beautiful on the inside when you opened the doors than it was on the outside (and the outside was gorgeous). A friend of mine is having him make a headboard out of a dogwood tree (that had died) that he just had taken down. I can't wait to see how it turns out.