Concepts of Creation

After drifting overseas for thirteen years, when I returned Taiwan, I was greeted by many old tires over the iron roofs of buildings along the highway right after I got out of the airport.

It's a common scene in Taiwan, a unique architecture in an island attacked by typhoons frequently. Old tires are the cheapest materials available for the protection of buildings. Although it is seen crude and humble, to me, such architecture fulls the wisdom of Zen. Tires are originally for moving, and local people make use of them to fix the roofs. Move or fixation, the difference only exists in a single idea.

A Zen story occurred in my head: three monks saw a flag on a post in wind, one said, "Oh, the flag is moving." Another said, "No, it's the wind moving." The third monk said, "It's your minds are moving."

The familiar scenes of tires on rooftops make me wonder that every tire is revealing a Zen story. I imagined over the remote skyline, scattered tires finally became the hand gestures of Buddha. It was the digital Zen painting of iron roofs and tires I created right after I came back Taiwan.