Of course, this is a very profound and subtle observation. Appreciating Chinese landscape painting can indeed serve a function similar to meditation, as their core objectives, processes, and ultimate experiences are highly analogous. Both aim to guide individuals beyond everyday, utilitarian thinking into a state of tranquility and clarity, connecting with a grander existence.
We can understand this remarkable correspondence through the following aspects:
1. Similarity in Goal: From the "Small Self" to "No-Self"
- The Goal of Meditation: Through methods like calming and insight, one ceases the restless chattering of the mind, lets go of attachment to the "self" (ego), and thus perceives the true nature of reality (often described as emptiness), achieving absolute mental peace and freedom.
- The Goal of Landscape Painting: It is not simply to reproduce a natural scene (as in Western landscape painting), but to express the "artistic conception" and "cosmology" within the artist's mind. It invites the viewer to enter the painting and travel spiritually through the mountains and waters, thereby forgetting worldly troubles and the trivial self. The paintings often depict places remote from human activity; even if figures are present, they are tiny hermits or woodcutters nestled within vast mountains, symbolizing the integration of the "small self" into the "great transformation" of nature.
2. Similarity in Process: Quiet Contemplation, Focus, and Spiritual Wandering
- The Process of Meditation: It requires regulating the body, breath, and mind. The practitioner sits in stillness, focusing attention on a single point (like the breath or a mantra), gradually gathering the scattered mind.
- The Process of Appreciating Landscape Painting:
- Quiet Contemplation: You need to stop and face the painting quietly. This in itself is an act of "stopping," a withdrawal from busy life.
- Focus: Landscape paintings, especially long handscrolls (like "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains"), cannot be taken in at a single glance. They require your gaze to move slowly, delving deeper along mountain paths and flowing streams. This method of "traveling viewing" demands high concentration and sustained attention, similar to "visualization" in meditation.
- Spiritual Wandering: During this focused journey, your consciousness unconsciously enters the world of the painting. You can almost hear the wind in the pines, feel the cool mountain breeze, and see the clouds drifting. This immersive experience is a dynamic form of meditation, temporarily lifting you out of your immediate time and space.
3. The Zen Expression of Core Aesthetic Principles
Many of the core aesthetic concepts of Chinese landscape painting are inherently imbued with Zen spirit.
- "Spirit Resonance and Life Movement" (Qi Yun Sheng Dong): This is the highest ideal in painting. It is not just the vividness of form, but a flowing vitality and cosmic rhythm within the painting. Perceiving this "spirit resonance" is like perceiving the fundamental energy of life in meditation; it is a direct, holistic perception that transcends form.
- "Regarding Blankness as Substantial" and "Empty Space" (Ji Bai Dang Hei & Liu Bai): The abundant blank areas in landscape paintings (clouds, water, mist) are by no means nothingness; they are the most crucial components of the composition. They represent "non-being" (wu), and it is precisely this "non-being" that gives birth to infinite imaginative space and a sense of tranquility. This aligns perfectly with the Zen Buddhist concept of "form is emptiness, emptiness is form," teaching one to see "non-being" in "being" and comprehend "being" within "non-being."
- The Concept of "Distance" (The Three Distances: High, Deep, and Level): Guo Xi's "Three Distances" technique is not only for depicting spatial depth but also for creating a psychological distance. This "distance" guides the viewer's mind from the near, specific, and utilitarian world towards a distant, transcendent, and spiritual realm. It is a mental journey from the "mundane dust" to the "pure land."
- The Abstraction and Suggestiveness of Brush and Ink: The brushstrokes and ink in Chinese painting possess aesthetic value independent of the objects they depict. The dry/wet, light/dark, textural strokes, dots, and washes are both the rocks and trees and the flow of the artist's mind and emotions. They do not seek perfect realism but use concise techniques to suggest rich connotations, leaving room for the viewer to "awaken" to the meaning. This "incompleteness" precisely requires the viewer to complete it with their own mind, participating in the creation—a process that shares the same spirit as the Zen approach of "not establishing words, directly pointing to the human mind" for sudden enlightenment.
4. The Ultimate Mental Experience
Whether completing a meditation session or deeply appreciating a fine landscape painting, the ultimate mental state achieved is similar:
- Inner Peace: The chaotic flow of thoughts settles.
- Unity of Object and Self (Wu Wo Liang Wang): The boundary between the self and the surrounding environment (be it the meditation hall or the painted landscape) blurs, merging into one.
- Broadened Perspective: One experiences a sense of grandeur and eternity that transcends individual life, making worldly gains, losses, and troubles seem insignificant.
- Attainment of Insight: A new, non-logical, intuitive understanding of life and the universe is gained.
Therefore, the reason why appreciating Chinese landscape painting can have an effect similar to meditation is that it is not merely a visual art form, but a meticulously designed methodology for guiding mental cultivation. Through its unique philosophical foundation, compositional principles, and language of brush and ink, it creates a spiritual space for the viewer to "dwell" in. Within this space, through quiet contemplation, focus, and spiritual wandering, one achieves the sedimentation, purification, and elevation of the mind, ultimately arriving at that serene and clear realm—a destination shared with the path of meditation.