Form Does Not Differ from Emptiness, Emptiness Does Not Differ from Form(色卽是空·空卽是色): An Inquiry through The Wind - Nurtured Birch and the I Ching

This study presents an Arts- Based Qualitative Inquiry that integrates the philosophical principles of the I Ching (Book of Changes) and Seon (禪) meditation within a contemporary framework of ecological aesthetics. Centered on The Wind-Nurtured Birch, it reinterprets the Buddhist principles of Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form (色卽是空 空卽是色) and Dependent Origination (緣起) through the symbolic and rhythmic language of the sixty-four hexagrams. The research explores how art, nature, and consciousness interpenetrate and resonate within the cosmological order of transformation. Through the creative process of composing thirty-two narrative sequences, the I Ching ’s cyclical rhythm of birth, decay, and renewal is translated into a sensory and philosophical narrative of coexistence between human beings and nature. The birch, nurtured by the wind, becomes both metaphor and method—embodying resilience, reflection, and awakening. Artistic practice here functions not as representation but as a meditative act of knowing, where perception becomes a bridge between aesthetic intuition and ecological awareness. Methodologically, this research adopts Arts- Based Qualitative Inquiry (ABQI), fusing artistic creation, meditative insight, and philosophical reflection into one organic field of practice. Drawing from the insight of Ganhwaseon (看話禪), it suggests that the moment of artistic illumination emerges when thought, sensation, and creation converge in clarity, like sunlight focused through a convex lens. Ultimately, The Wind - Nurtured Birch unfolds as an ongoing contemplative experiment—a performative site where art, philosophy, humanity, and nature enter into mutual resonance. This work envisions the awakening of the Ecological Hu-man, one who perceives the world not as an external object but as a living web of interdependence through which the self is continually rediscovered.