„Realize that something special is transpiring within you day by day!” – The message of shakuhachi
„Realize that something special is transpiring within you day by day!”
The message of shakuhachi
by KENÉZ László
Lászlo Kenéz was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1968. He studied philosophy at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, obtaining his MA degree in 2001. He received his PhD degree in 2011, in Philosophy (Phenomenology). Currently he is associate professor at the Dharma Gate Buddhist College in Budapest, where he teaches Zen Buddhism and Zen arts. His primary field of interest is the traditional Zen Buddhist honkyoku (’original pieces’) repertoire, the Komuso culture, including their special form of shakuhachi music, the blowing meditation, i.e. Suizen; but he is also interested in classical Japanese and modern shakuhachi music, as well as in shakuhachi improvisation.
The first time he heard Japanese bamboo flute music was more than ten years ago. Impressed by the sound and atmosphere of the shakuhachi music, he decided to make an instrument by himself. Some years later, faced with obstacles, which arise from trying to learn this instrument on one’s own, he started to learn shakuhachi playing from Justin Senryu Williams. Five years later he mastered the Seien Ryu repertoire, and nowadays he too teaches shakuhachi playing at Dharma Gate Buddhist College.
In 2019 he travelled to Japan to visit Kokutaiji temple in Toyama. Kokutaiji is one of the Zen Buddhist places in Japan, where people come together every year to revive the Komuso tradition and play shakuhachi during the annual ceremonies. Related to his experience in Japan, László Kenéz also talks about the appearance of the Komuso priests, which was very special: they wore a woven straw hat covering their faces. Playing the shakuhachi without showing the perfomer’s face, i. e. without the personality or self, means playing not as an artist but as a ‘preacher’ rousing the people to realize that something special is transpiring within them day by day. This is an important message of the shakuhachi about the real nature of human beings; an original expression of the Buddhist Dharma. As a result of his travel, Kenéz became a guest member of the Myoonkai Shakuhachi Association with the permission to take part in the annual fest at Kokutaiji Temple.
As a philosopher, he admires the Japanese attitude towards the phenomenon of contradiction. For us, in the ’Western culture’, a contradiction is a problematic state which needs a solution. However, according to his experiences, the Japanese mind is able to see the contradictory parts together in harmony, more precisely, in a balance, without theoretical tension. He thinks, it would be useful for us to learn from the Japanese people, how this way of balanced thinking is possible, in order to reach harmony and well-being in our everyday lives.