'the vessel appears and reappears as the seasons and the water and fish do...' Jim Thomson, April, 1991 '...and the clear light appears when the opacity of the mirror varnishes...' Jim Thomson, April, 1991
‘Disappears’, or ‘vanishes’, of course, only in a manner of speaking. The ‘Vanishing Acts’ that Thomson speaks of are real enough…..But the vanishings are probably more easily comprehended in the context of understanding a little of the tradition of Zen pottery.
Some of the most revered Japanese pots (vessels) are held in such high esteem exactly because they have been known to suddenly disappear or vanish. Just as suddently – magically really – they are replaced (at least in our consciousness), by the reality of the moment that inspired their original creation...Janis Runge