CHANCE & INDETERMINACY

John Cage encountered Zen Buddhism in the early 1950s, through the works of Aldous Huxley and the lectures and writings of Japanese American Buddhist monk Daisetsu Teitarō Suzuki. This would prove fundamental to the development of his understanding of life and creativity. The I Ching, an ancient divination method used in Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions, was one tool that Cage used in order to consider and set parameters for his work. Through the interpretation of the hexagrams in the I Ching, one can find answers to questions such as the length of a note, the instrument used, or the placement of a brushstroke. For Cage, the use of these chance operations was a way to circumvent the self and apply the Taoist principle of Wu-wei (non-doing).

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