E-Books →Where the Heart Beats John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists

Where the Heart Beats is the story of the tremendous changes sweeping through American culture following the Second World War, a time when the arts in America broke away from centuries of tradition and reinvented themselves. Painters converted their canvases into arenas for action and gesture, dancers embraced pure movement over narrative, performance artists staged "happenings" in which anything could happen, poets wrote words determined by chance.
In this tumultuous period, a composer of experimental music began a spiritual quest to know himself better. His earnest inquiry touched thousands of lives and created controversies that are ongoing. He devised unique concerts-consisting of notes chosen by chance, randomly tuned radios, and silence-in the service of his absolute conviction that art and life are one inseparable truth, a seamless web of creation divided only by illusory thoughts.
What empowered John Cage to compose his incredible music-and what allowed him to inspire tremendous transformations in the lives of his fellow artists-was Cage's improbable conversion to Zen Buddhism. This is the story of how Zen saved Cage from himself.
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