Simplicity as a resolved complexity
To simplify without reducing requires a good knowledge of the basics or what is essential. The highest level of a skill relies on the simplicity of its expression. The simpler the expression, the higher the skill.
The great sculptor Constantin Brancusi defined simplicity as nothing but resolved complexity. Brancusi hints that to solve complexities or simplify is to rely on what is essential. Once the essence of any complexities is understood its expression becomes simple. Creativity is not a denial of what is known but an evolution of its spirit. That’s why the high skilled are always reporting to the roots in their simplicity because in these roots they find the seeds of evolution and progress.
The everlasting invitation to return to the roots, basics, essence or heart of things, is a catalyst for the better understanding of what is being explored. Any expression would have no meaning without its roots.
High level skills will always reflect essences. Simplicity as expression reflects freedom and such freedom will only find its place in relation to the essence of what is expressed. But how does one get to that high skill? The concepts of Shu Ha Ri Kokoro describe levels of skills in the Japanese Noh theater.
Shu is the novice level in which the student learns the basics of techniques in terms of forms and mechanics.
Ha is the level of perfection in which the student starts perfect the learned techniques and have a sense of the variations.
Ri is the level creation or of the spontaneous technique or free expression.
Kokoro (heart-not as organ) is the level where the student understands the relation between his free expression and the basics, the roots. This is the level where practitioners constantly refer to the roots, to the basics, to the essence. Here Kokoro is the level of Brancusi' simplicity as a resolved complexity.
The path of a practitioner may seem tedious and complex at the beginning but with time it will simplify. A beginner may ask how many techniques will they know in the end? They start by learning one, two, three, one thousand, but ultimately will discover that all they know is only one technique, their own.
Lede art: Bird in Space by Constantin Brancusi
