Divine winds blow through each thing so that each can sound itself, and be itself, with no extra effort required. In this workshop, resident philosopher Fan Wu invites us to take "The Pipes of Heaven" chapter of the Zhuangzi into practice, sounding our myriad differences through the principle of wu wei. We will engage in a qigong session led by Jonathan Adjemian followed by a sonic meditation session led by Prince Nifty.

WATSON

Ziqi said, “You do well to ask the question, Yan. Now I
have lost myself. Do you understand that? You hear the
piping of men, but you haven’t heard the piping of earth.
Or if you’ve heard the piping of earth, you haven’t heard
the piping of Heaven!”
Ziyou, “May I venture to ask what this means?”
Ziqi said, “The Great Clod belches out breath, and its
name is wind. So long as it doesn’t come forth, nothing
happens. But when it does, then ten thousand hollows
begin crying wildly. Can’t you hear them, long drawn
out? In the mountain forests that lash and sway, there are
huge trees a hundred spans around with hollows and
openings like noses, like mouths, like ears, like jugs, like
cups, like mortars, like rifts, like ruts. They roar like waves,
whistle like arrows, screech, gasp, cry, wail, moan, and
howl, those in the lead calling out yeee! , those behind
calling out yuuu! In a gentle breeze they answer faintly,
but in a full gale the chorus is gigantic. And when the
fierce wind has passed on, then all the hollows are empty
again. Have you never seen the tossing and trembling that
goes on?”

Ziyou said, “By the piping of earth, then, you mean
simply [the sound of] these hollows, and by the piping of
man, [the sound of] flutes and whistles. But may I ask
about the piping of Heaven?”
Ziqi said, “Blowing on the ten thousand things in a different
way, so that each can be itself—all take what they
want for themselves, but who does the sounding?"

ZIPORYN

Sir Shoestrap said, “It is the gusting through all the ten thousand differences
that yet causes all of them to come only from themselves. For since every last
identity is only what some one of them picks out from it, what identity can there
be for their rouser?

Jonathan is an acupuncturist, qigong teacher, translator, editor, musician, papa, rye aficionado, loiterer, etc. His most recent translation is The States of the Earth by Mohamed Amer Meziane. This winter he's teaching qigong on Thursday mornings.

Prince Nifty is the alternate personality of Matt Smith, a producer and musician based in Toronto, Canada. His practice involves building immersive spatialized sound design for live theatre and dance, and composing work of various textures and approaches.