Improvisation is Zen in Western Context

Written by Bright Su – This article is from AIM Issue 1 (released December 2022).

One lunch time in the late 1980s...

I came home from middle school and found my dear Grandma sitting in the corner, sorting some long green beans. She smiled as I waited to eat.

She was focusing attentively on the beans. With a soft glance of full attention, she held one long string, touching each particle of bean inside to measure the same 2-inch lengths, before cutting that piece using only her fingers.

She was patiently slow. “Why don’t you use the knife? Chop, chop, chop!” I said.

I wanted fast… efficient… alpha. I just didn’t understand, until we fast forward 20 years later, when I start to take meditation training and improv workshops. I realize Grandma was being in the moment: the way of doing was her way of being.

Improvisation is Zen in a western context. Listen and observe; be aware mindfully; be here and now, whether you are in the living room, on the stage, in the office, with a crying child, or walking in the park. Which is not to say it’s easy. It is a lifetime practice. 

Which is not to say it’s easy. It is a lifetime practice.

One of the beauties of improvisation for me is that we almost always do it with others, with fellow stage improvisers or Applied Improvisation practitioners in our lovely AIN community.

The Bhagavad Gita Hindu scripture says, “Yoga is the journey of the self through the self to the self”. Improvisation is the journey of the self through the others to the self.

Many people learn improv first through games designed to be interactive, engaging, challenging and interesting. The experience can awaken our innate joy, freedom, self-expression and courage. From theater games, improvisation takes us on a journey from “interesting form” to arrive at the deep formless. The latter is love and wisdom. With improvisation, we seek to operate fully in the moment - even automatically - at our best when in service to others.

Improvisation is a yin art form, that is to say feminine, maternal, tender, and sensual. Indeed, I meet many people in the improvisation circle who are caring and kind, with soft hearts.

My Grandma never answered my question verbally. But she did answer by her way of doing - and with no formal meditation or improvisation training.

That day, mindful of the beans, she was as ever taking a calming break from her earlier housework. Parasympathetic regulation, if you like.

After lunch I took a nap. When I woke up, she was still with the beans and said, “Now that you’ve rested, go to school steadily and slowly.” She gave me a light touch and said, “I’ll take a nap now.” Grandma had made sure I woke up on time, keeping her eyes on me in her silent service. Yes, and she integrated such things into her everyday life. My Grandma is my mindfulness and improvisation hero.