Lost Art Press

Do Not Think Ahead. Or Behind.

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Chodowiecki-Basedow-01---Turner-and-Cooper

The most useful woodworking classes I took in college were actually in the religion department.

Though I was a journalism major, every time I was allowed an elective class I blew it on Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Christianity and Judaism. I wasn’t comparison-shopping for spiritual guidance. Instead these classes offered me insight into the ways different cultures perceive time, the self and others.

And the classes made me a better turner.

Though I’ve been turning for more than a decade, I didn’t make any real progress until five years ago when I started thinking about some of the Eastern meditation practices I studied as an undergraduate.

The following explanation is a gross simplification: One of the goals of meditation is to focus your mind so you perceive only the present moment. You do not think of the future or the past – only the fleeting bit that you are perceiving. When you get to that point, you can do anything on the lathe (or with a saw, chisel or gouge).

When I can bring my mind to that level of focus, my perception of time can also change. It can stretch or compress, depending on my needs.

Before you start asking me what I’ve been smoking, I encourage you to try it. If you don’t have a lathe, then cut some dovetails and try to clear everything out of your head – everything – except what is happening with the saw in the wood. Don’t think about the next cut or even the next saw stroke.

In photography terms, tighten your aperture to f22, f32 or more. The result will be – also in photography terms – the deepest focus possible in your work and your results.

— Christopher Schwarz

33 thoughts on “Do Not Think Ahead. Or Behind.”

  1. Thanks Chris. There is more to meditation than skill improvement, and more to woodworking than the finished piece. Happy New Year, Rick

  2. to become a tool
    of the sharp chisel cleaving
    wood fibers apart

    Or something like that. Reaching a point where you are more of a bystander, witnessing the work the tools are doing, and less someone imposing your will on the tool and hence the wood. I like it.

  5. I thought beer was your secret to freeing your mind of distraction and concentrating on the moment.

  6. You are so right. I owe many skills and lessons to many projects and teachers, but nothing has changed my approach to craft as much as Vipassanā. Not only is a craftsman practicing mindfulness a better craftsman, he/she is also a safer one. How many shop accidents are down to becoming lost in thought?

  7. Look to Thich Nhat Hahn for teachings on living in The Present Moment. Good places to start include “Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life” & “The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation.” Practicing mindfulness can transform your life.

    It can also help keep your digits attached.

  8. Watch out for diffraction distortion on your lenses. And in the immortal (almost) words of Ty Webb, “…see the saw, be the saw…”

    And, “The Zen philosopher, Basho, once wrote, ‘A flute with no holes, is not a flute. A donut with no hole, is a Danish.’ He was a funny guy.”

  10. So well said (as usual). You hit the nail on the head. Being in the present is a skill in itself and really helps whatever it is you are “doing”.

  11. The Satipatthana Sutta, a fundamental Buddhist text on meditation, compares the skilled meditator to a skilled woodturner who “when making a long turn, knows that he is making a long turn, and when making a short turn, knows that he is making a short turn. In the same way, the monk, when breathing in a long breath, knows that he is breathing in a long breath.”

  12. Being in the moment. That’s the key. Contrary to what popular wisdom usually holds, this is actually something with which many, many Westerners are very familiar. The disconnect is that the familiarity is usually found via athletic/sport activities. Folks who have difficulty finding it in less intense realms don’t necessarily need meditation, they may simply need to be reminded that they’ve been there before. With that, it becomes more a matter of finding different routes appropriate to the activity at hand, rather than trying to puzzle out what in the heck the destination is like.

    Disciplining the mind, it is a universal component of all non-primitive spiritual traditions, and many primitive ones. It’s also a universal component of athletics, and most art.

    It is, in fact, a universal component of success.

  13. In photography terms, would not it be better to open your apature as wide as possible so that only the thinnest slice of your subject is in sharp focus while everything in front of and beyond fades away to a blur?

      1. Only for a single wavelength of light will it be dead-focused with a pinhole. Diffraction effects can become dominate with very small apertures.

    3. Depends on the image you are trying to capture. You can get all crazy-fancy and Scheimpflug that sucker with your tilt-shift lens or proper view camera too.

  19. Thank you Chris,
    Over three decades ago I spent some time, at a monastery near Huntsville Utah. Just about every weekend I would find a ride to Ogden and then get a ride up the hill. I was trying to determine a path. The Abbot at that time was able to help me understand that I did not need to be a priest, a brother or a monk to lead the life I needed. He did not really tell me what to do but taught me how to think, then meditate, and then to see working for a not for profit was better for me than working at a nuke plant or an oil refinery. Now it turns out that when I can concentrate today with meditation, it leads me to a place where I am a better person or craftsman. I miss working in the hospitals, but I can calm down and figure out what to do through transcendental meditation or the Rosary. Also kneading bread works well for me, but the neighbors are getting tired of getting good bread now after the first and all of the low carb stuff in their plans.

    Better go down stairs and do some boxes.

    Thanks
    Bill

  20. Excellent advice, Chris. I would just add that I found turning off the radio or the music helps with maintaining focus or awareness, (at least for a rank amateur such as myself). I picked up my first interesting plane, (a nice closed tote half of a match set), about the same time I began meditating. It was the late 60’s or the very early 70’s. Like yourself, I was an college student, and I plowed through a great many books on religion and spirituality. In my case, I hit on basic Buddhist sitting meditation practice……and stayed with it. It wasn’t until Mike Dunbar first published his book on buying, tuning and using classic woodworking tools, (the 80″s?), that I had the eureka moment that these old yard sale tools could actually be used! My “final” realization was that Jeff Miller’s shop was a ten minute walk from my front door, and I could actually take classes with him. From here on out it needs to be practice, practice, practice. Nothing beats being in the moment, to be sure…..but putting in the time to develop the muscle memory, the eyesight and the hearing to become (at least) competent is, I’m learning, paramount. Chris, I would guess that those first five years of turning were just as “important” as those since then.
    Cheerful New Year,
    Peter

  21. In the plate shown, I am having difficulty figuring out the spring source for the return stroke. I see whe the cord attaches to the smallish piece of timber behind the turner, but it isn’t making sense to me. I know that you have interpreted thousands of plates, what are your thoughts? I like me a good spring pole lathe

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