The Pencil Walker was created in a series of personal repentance ceremonies and aims to transcend beyond our incompetence facing the wheel of Samsara, which the Pen Walking series conveys. In the ceremony, a pencil sharpener, tape recorder and microphone are taped on the walker's both arms and his mouth. The walker switch on both camcorder and tape recorder, sharpen the pencil and walks back and forth repetitively in front of a white wall while drawing lines with a pencil in hand. The ceremony starts with the walker’s reciting the Repentance Verse of Avatamsaka Sutra, “All the nonvirtues generated in the past arose from beginningless greed, anger and ignorance through my body, speech, and mind. I now repent them all.” As the walker leaves a trail of pencil strokes on the wall, he keeps reciting various Buddhism mantras, the Heart Sutra, or the name of different Buddhas and bodhisattvas. In every ceremony, the cycle of sharpening pencils, drawing lines, and recitation repeats itself for two hours and fifteen minutes. The work has been executed fifty-four times over the span of over fifteen years.
Implied in Pen Walking series and Pencil Walker are the analogy of pen as the wheel of Samsara and the shaded, black-looking wall that started with spotlessly white the sum of ill karma that has been accumulated from lifetime to lifetime. Pen Walking views the deeds of a whole life in silence and makes one sigh on the emptiness of life, on “There is nothing I can do to change what life is.” Meanwhile, Pencil Walker meditates in the face of the sum of ill karma. “If a pen could be the life of a man, what kind of contour I have drawn for my lives in the never-ending wheel of Samsara? If the cycle of birth, aging, disease, and death never stops repeating, does it make sense to work hard to exert meaning in life?”
Living a life of such, you have not transcended. You have desire and hatred, and you hate yourself somewhat. Therefore, you hushed. And your silence, is the pen.
面對輪迴人生的無奈與虛無，《走鉛筆的人》試圖超越《走筆》系列，這是一個個人的懺悔儀式。行者架設一面木板白牆，面對白牆安置一組錄影機，分別用膠帶將削鉛筆機和錄音機固定在他的左上臂和右上臂，又將錄音機接出的收音麥克風封貼在嘴上。啟動錄影機、錄音機，並用臂上的削鉛筆機削尖鉛筆，在白牆前往返行走並持續地走畫鉛筆線。與此同時，行者以誦念華嚴懺悔偈：「往昔所造諸惡業，皆由無始貪嗔癡，從身語意之所生，一切我今皆懺悔。」 作為開始，邊走筆邊持咒語、心經，或誦念諸佛菩薩的名號。這個削鉛筆、走線和誦念的行動不斷重覆進行著，每次為時約二小時十五分，共執行六十次歷時二十年。
《走筆》系列與《走鉛筆的人》蘊含著一些隱喻：一枝枝的筆，代表一生生的輪迴。那面本來清靜潔白，如今黝黑污濁的紙與牆，則象徵過去生生世世累積的惡業。《走筆》沈默地全覽一生的作業，使人喟嘆：「不論再怎麼樣，也不過如此」，而《走鉛筆的人》則試圖在累生造作的惡業前冥想：「如果一枝筆，可以是一個人的一生。那麼在漫長的生死輪迴中，我重複走出的是什麼樣的人生線條？不就是不斷的生、老、病、死嗎？這些辛苦有意義嗎？還要這樣繼續下去嗎？」
面對這樣的人生，其實你並未看透。你既渴念也厭棄，你有些痛恨自己。於是，你沈默⋯，而你的沈默，就是筆。
Implied in Pen Walking series and Pencil Walker are the analogy of pen as the wheel of Samsara and the shaded, black-looking wall that started with spotlessly white the sum of ill karma that has been accumulated from lifetime to lifetime. Pen Walking views the deeds of a whole life in silence and makes one sigh on the emptiness of life, on “There is nothing I can do to change what life is.” Meanwhile, Pencil Walker meditates in the face of the sum of ill karma. “If a pen could be the life of a man, what kind of contour I have drawn for my lives in the never-ending wheel of Samsara? If the cycle of birth, aging, disease, and death never stops repeating, does it make sense to work hard to exert meaning in life?”
Living a life of such, you have not transcended. You have desire and hatred, and you hate yourself somewhat. Therefore, you hushed. And your silence, is the pen.
面對輪迴人生的無奈與虛無，《走鉛筆的人》試圖超越《走筆》系列，這是一個個人的懺悔儀式。行者架設一面木板白牆，面對白牆安置一組錄影機，分別用膠帶將削鉛筆機和錄音機固定在他的左上臂和右上臂，又將錄音機接出的收音麥克風封貼在嘴上。啟動錄影機、錄音機，並用臂上的削鉛筆機削尖鉛筆，在白牆前往返行走並持續地走畫鉛筆線。與此同時，行者以誦念華嚴懺悔偈：「往昔所造諸惡業，皆由無始貪嗔癡，從身語意之所生，一切我今皆懺悔。」 作為開始，邊走筆邊持咒語、心經，或誦念諸佛菩薩的名號。這個削鉛筆、走線和誦念的行動不斷重覆進行著，每次為時約二小時十五分，共執行六十次歷時二十年。
《走筆》系列與《走鉛筆的人》蘊含著一些隱喻：一枝枝的筆，代表一生生的輪迴。那面本來清靜潔白，如今黝黑污濁的紙與牆，則象徵過去生生世世累積的惡業。《走筆》沈默地全覽一生的作業，使人喟嘆：「不論再怎麼樣，也不過如此」，而《走鉛筆的人》則試圖在累生造作的惡業前冥想：「如果一枝筆，可以是一個人的一生。那麼在漫長的生死輪迴中，我重複走出的是什麼樣的人生線條？不就是不斷的生、老、病、死嗎？這些辛苦有意義嗎？還要這樣繼續下去嗎？」
面對這樣的人生，其實你並未看透。你既渴念也厭棄，你有些痛恨自己。於是，你沈默⋯，而你的沈默，就是筆。
