There is no difference between life and death


This photo shows John Cage and Daisetz Suzuki in 1962. Now playing is Cage's 36 Mesotics re and not so re Marcel Duchamp which is dedicated to the Japanese video artist Shigeko Kubota and includes this quote from the Zen teacher Daisetz Suzuki: 'There is no difference between life and death'. In the Harmonia Mundi recording the text is sung by Paul Hillier and spoken by Terry Riley. More on Daisetz Suzuki here and here.

Cage Talk, dialogues with and about John Cage is available from Boydell Press. Photo credit Yashuiro Yoshioka. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

pathogan said…
DT Suzuki had a face shown to the West{benevolent sage,correspondent of Merton,friend of Cage,etc.} and one shown east{proto-fascist,ultra nationalist pro war goose stepper].Somehow,ezra pound is strung out,still for being a fascist but DT Suziki gets a free ride?
1:44 pm
Pliable said…
More related to the comment above here:

http://www.terebess.hu/english/holy.html
6:20 pm
elena said…
θάνατος οὐδὲν διαφέρει τοῦ ζῆν.
Thánatos oudèn diaphérei tou zên.
"Death is no different than life."
Thales' philosophical view to the eternal philosophical question about life and death.

list of greek phrases, wikipedia :) little ancient quote!
6:34 am
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