Realized 2022
by Vania Vaneau
« Corps, Conscience, Cosmos » (“Body, Consciousness, Cosmos”)
7th May 2022 at CN D Lyon / Festival Bipod-Beirut
What are the links between the body, consciousness and the cosmos? Or first of all, what is the body, the consciousness, the cosmos?… During this afternoon it has been a question of investigating by practice and by theory, what these terms invite to explore and question at through the prism of three different areas: Zen, Physics and Dance. Starting from her artistic research through dance, Vania Vaneau, dancer and choreographer, invites Christophe Demur, Zen monk and Laurent Chevillard, researcher in physics and mathematics to share their practices and points of view on these themes.
/ Introduction to Zazen by Chistophe Desmur :
Christophe talks about his practice of Zen through Zazen. What is zazen? Zazen is the secret of Zen. It’s sitting meditation in the traditional lotus posture, practised by human beings since prehistoric times. Zazen is neither a theory, nor an idea, nor knowledge to be grasped by the brain. It is simply a practice that radically changes our own mind. It means merging with the whole universe. In 1967, Master Taisen Deshimaru, disciple and successor of the great master Kodo Sawaki, brought the practice of zazen to Europe, planting “the original seed in new soil”.
/ Sharing the scientific point of view with Laurent Chevillard:
Laurent proposes a discussion based on the themes suggested, trying to establish a link between these different notions and concepts from physics research. This leads him to talk about matter, mainly inert matter, and intuition in science. And as for the cosmos, whose definition in physics seems clear, he tries to present it in an accessible way by evoking some important related notions, such as time, gravitation and finitude.
/ Body practice with Vania Vaneau :
Drawing on her artistic research into different states of body and consciousness, the relationship between bodies and between bodies and materials in space and time, Vania shares some physical practices linked to inner and outer perception, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large.
/ Open discussion between participants and speakers:
A time for open sharing, to ask questions, perhaps find answers together and, above all, build bridges between these different fields, which inform us in different ways about who we are and the world in which we live.
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Biographies
Christophe Desmur was born in Lyon and has been a Zen monk for around thirty years. He is a disciple of Master Kosen Thibaut, from whom he received the shiho (dharma transmission) in 2009. He practises and teaches at the Lyon Zen Temple in Croix-rousse, Ryugaku zenji. A graduate in Oriental languages (Chinese and Korean), he is also a teacher of Chinese calligraphy, and teaches this art to young and old alike.
Laurent Chevillard is a researcher in mathematical physics, a member of the CNRS and the physics laboratory at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon. He is a specialist in fluid mechanics, and more specifically develops models designed to understand turbulent behaviour. As a young man, he enjoyed watching the torrents and the fire in the fireplace.