In session two of the Fall series of Buddhist art workshops on death and dying, we examined the inevitability of death, and what is important to us in light of our mortality, engaging the The Nine Contemplations, a traditional Buddhist meditation on this topic. We then worked with a variety of media to explore our personal experiences of this meditation. Given the challenging topics we are looking at, the emotional temperature in the studio was very warm, light, and playful. The practices of looking at death and dying are turning out to be a lot more fun than most of us expected. I asked the participants to write a bit about their experiences. Here is one response, from Katie, below. More will follow as we complete some of the art projects in another session. For this project, participants we had wooden cigar boxes as a starting point, and participants were invited to consider the box as a possible metaphor for the body and notions of self.
Dharma Art series: Process reflection...Oct. 2019
“I notice in approaching this process an internal dialogue going on that has something to do with the meaning or feelings I attach to color in my life. Now I’m aware that I was struggling to integrate the concepts shared in the reading by Joan Halifax. She writes, ‘...death collapses into an integrated energy that cannot be fragmented. In this view, to deny death is to deny life. We can live and practice in such a way that dying is a natural rite of passage, a completion of our life, and even the ultimate in liberation.’ I accepted Jill’s invitation to do two shadow boxes and was working on them simultaneously. I decided to make one of them monochromatic, but then noticed my resistance to that. I find it hard to stay energized working on the gold box because it is challenging me to consider all the ways that color drains from ones life as death approaches. Not only is the physical body losing its capacities for independence, but the heart too can begin to withdraw during the final weeks of life. I am reminded of how we describe people when they are looking ill...”all the color has run out of her face”. For now, I am allowing my energies to stay with the colorful box which features the image of a woman standing naked beneath a bucket of water as she rinses her hair. She is helping me consider all the ways that death might be viewed as a liberator. I am intrigued by the possibility expressed in a favorite poem, ‘Maybe we dance from this elegant place, discarding our vulnerable bodies like old work clothes at the end of the day......or maybe like four-year-olds we drop everything and simply run forward dazzled again.’ (Poem ‘Maybe’ by Roberta D. K.) “——Katie R.
