wabi

is an inner quality that can be attached to a person, an animate or an inanimate object, and is characterized by modesty, solitude, sadness, simplicity, or stillness, building on the harmony found in all things in their natural state.

Wabi signifies an inner quality that can be attached to a person, an animate or an inanimate object, and is characterized by modesty, solitude, sadness, simplicity, or stillness, building on the harmony found in all things in their natural state. Sabi stands for the outward traces left behind by usage and the passage of time, perceived as imperfection, insignificance, perish- ability, and wear. It embraces the melancholic beauty to be found in old, worn, and dilapidated things. Wabi sabi is rooted in the Zen idea that these outward manifestations of the ephemeral nature of life and things are the result of an eternal cycle of growth, decay, and death – the evolution of nothing into something and back again into nothing. An understanding of this process encourages one to focus on the eeting beauty of the ephemeral – to reach for the wild strawberry as did the monk who was caught between two hungry tigers.

is spare, impoverished; simple and functional. It connotes a transcendence of fad and fashion and imbues all the Zen arts, from calligraphy to karate, from the tea ceremony to Zen archery.

Wabi means spare, impoverished; simple and functional. It connotes a transcendence of fad and fashion. The spirit of wabi imbues all the Zen arts, from calligraphy to karate, from the tea ceremony to Zen archery.

is quiet serenity, a silence that is deeply profound--and sometimes mistaken for loneliness. But it is a deep silence that enriches the person with self-discovery.

Wabi is quiet serenity, a silence that is deeply profound--and sometimes mistaken for loneliness. But it is a deep silence that enriches the person with self-discovery, said Dr. Yoko Woodson, curator of Japanese art at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum. "Sabi is rusticity, and a closeness to the naturalness of nature," Woodson continued.

wabi, n.All

wabi