The way of Zen: representing Zen through cinematic audiovisual language

Adopting a practice-as-research methodology, the study comprises multiple audiovisual experiments inspired by Zen aesthetics, exploring how image, time, and sound may articulate core Zen concepts such as emptiness, no-mind, mindfulness, impermanence, and the unity of heaven and humanity.

The production and exhibition of a 65-minute documentary entitled The Way of Zen built on these findings and was followed by a critical and reflective analysis of the underlying creative process. Deliberately departing from conventional narrative modes, the film interweaves two narrative pathways: the path of embodied Zen, reflected in Junayde’s Kung Fu practice, and the path of experiential Zen, represented by Hanling’s walking meditation, to construct a contemplative cinematic space that invites viewers into a sensory rather than conceptual experience of Zen.<br><br>Drawing on the author’s aesthetic analysis, together with screening feedback collected from screenings at film festivals, academic conferences, meditation centres, and art galleries, the study concludes that The Way of Zen and the audiovisual models it constructs are, to a certain extent, effective in conveying the connotations and ideas of Zen.