Zen artist Miyoko Shida
 

Her performance in this video is mesmerizing. If you watch it, do persist to the end, when everything hangs on a feather.

Amazing. If anyone had coughed. . .

"Catching a feather on a fan..." ?

"Zen" artist? Oh well.

I love it at the end when the audience launches into loud, rhythmic clapping as the artist beams in their approval. Somehow it seemed counter to the "zen" spell that had just been cast. But her performance is indeed remarkable.

Yes, the setting—before that audience, on that stage—is so utterly bizarre: sort of Zen meets the Las Vegas Gospel Revival Tent. Not to diminish the performance itself, which is remarkable, but what a web of contradictory emotions the whole spectacle evoked in my poor battered soul!

Nemo

You’re absolutely right, the video production is quite weird. And about as “Zen” as Donald Trump. I did try to find a better recording of her. One of the things that’s remarkable about her performance is that none of the silliness distracts her from it.

The first time I went to Disneyland, at age 8, someone in the back of our boat on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride had a flashlight. He or she was using it to reveal the wires and other darkness-hidden mechanisms for making the illusions work. At first my sisters and I called out, quite primly, "Please put the flashlight away, you're spoiling the magic." The flashlight-wielder ignored us. And we discovered that having the magic spoiled was fascinating in its own way. Pretty soon we were eagerly calling out, "Shine it over there! How are they doing that?"

If you don't want the magic spoiled, don't look at this or this, or read the text accompanying these videos.

Hey Julie. I watched both videos and zero magic was lost. Primates, music, gravity, breath. All miraculous and all without explanation.

I don't get what you're saying, Julie. I never thought it was magic, I thought it was very real attention to balance. What's the flashlight? The fact that it's a learn-able technique practiced by others as well? It's certainly nothing I'll ever master!

Yes, it is amazing that her attention can flourish in such a setting, Andrew. Herculean, her Zen.

Nemo