THE CREATIVE BUDDHIST NEWSLETTER

Dear Subscriber First Name,

What would it be like to be Enlightened?
You could take a few minutes to imagine it, maybe write down the words that come to mind. Here’s what I’m imagining: complete happiness, that doesn’t waver; a sense of security and stability; knowing what’s happening, who I am, what I’m doing. My version sounds great, doesn’t it?

The problem is, I don’t think any of that is available, not even when we’re Enlightened. The words you and I wrote down, our descriptions of Enlightenment, are a great way of finding out what our deepest desires are. But they tell us nothing about Enlightenment!

The truth of the three lakshanas is that permanence, substance, and satisfaction cannot be found in conditioned existence. Gradually, through practice, we see this is true in relation to everyday life. We book a holiday, happiness guaranteed surely? When we get there, it’s not quite as we imagined, there are mosquitoes in our room, an argument, and the time goes so fast that before we know it, the holiday’s over. It was a good holiday, but yet again we’d expected something more permanent, substantial and satisfying.

If it’s true that permanence, substance and satisfaction cannot be found, then isn’t it also true that they cannot be found in Enlightenment? And if that’s the case, what is Enlightenment? Perhaps something far more radical, more exciting, more subtle? Answers on a postcard, please!

The Dharma Bundle

We’re coming to the end of the first Dharma Bundle on the Two Truths. I’ve one more video in the pipeline inspired by James Low and the Dzogchen view, on finding stillness in the flow of life. But this week you’ll find a creative assignment exploring the idea that ‘our world is made up not of things, but of glimpses’.

The Dharma Bundle is a ‘bundle’ of dharma resources, thoughtfully made and beautifully packaged. Short, illustrated Dharma videos and audio talks. Audio meditations and reflections. Creative assignments.

On my radar this week

Book: Thunderclap, a memoir of art and life and sudden death - Thunderclap centres around the Dutch artist Fabritius (he painted the now familiar Goldfinch on the cover of Donna Tartt’s book of the same name). He’s killed in a massive explosion of gunpowder in 1654, known as the Delft Thunderclap. This is my kind of holiday reading. I took it on an Easter break and enjoyed the slow meandering stories of the great Dutch masters as well as those of the author’s own father, an artist living in Edinburgh and inspired by the wilder islands of Scotland.

Online class: Drawing and meditation - Katie Sollohub is part of the Wabi-sabi Workplace I’m running. She’s an artist and offers meditation and drawing sessions on Tuesday mornings and evenings. They’re not technique based, but meant to get the creative juices flowing, perhaps ready for a day in the studio. When I went along, the theme was ‘song’. It was a mixture of movement, meditation, drawing, and exploring sound. She leads it all in a very open, questioning way which helps you to find your own threads. For me they were around the power of words and taking up space. Maybe I’ll see you there?

Article: How to grow old like Isabella Rossellini - “How do I fulfill the rest of my life? That question came to me very clearly at 45, and I didn’t have an answer.” So begins this interview with Isabella Rossellini. She still doesn’t have an answer, but after Lancôme let her go (too old) she went back to school to study animal behaviour and now, aged 70, runs her own farm. I’m following her Instagram page and planning my own small farm!

Podcast: Anthony Gormley: Art, religion, and the battle for culture - Wonderful interview with the sculptor Anthony Gormley on ‘Leading’, a podcast that’s usually dedicated to politics. He shares his early life and catholic upbringing and his love of vipassana meditation. In fact, he leads a short meditation and Rory Stewart, ex MP and co-presenter, also goes on vipassana retreats. Brilliant stuff, art and Buddhism made relevant to everyday life, politics and society. I found this old Tricycle article that draws out more explicitly the dharma in Anthony Gormley’s art.

Diary extracts

Wholesome

A little piece of land to take care of. This is a dream I’ve had as long as I can remember. I grew up in the countryside with a garden full of vegetables and flowers, a dog, and a brace of pheasants hanging in the shed.

I’ve had various pieces of land to call my own, to take care of. From tiny back gardens in the UK to enormous fields full of poppies in Spain and now a little Swedish allotment, I’ve planted trees in all of them, so many trees left behind. I’m happy to have a trail of trees behind me. I just spent the Easter weekend clearing small trees at my in-laws’ summer house. They have their own bit of forest that they manage, which is not so unusual here.

There’s something so wholesome about living on a piece of land and relying on it for food, wood, and even water if you have your own well. I just looked up wholesome, “good for you, and likely to improve your life either physically, morally, or emotionally.” I write this as I begin another day of sitting in front of my computer, longing for that kind of life on a little piece of land.

Choosing guilt over resentment

“One of my favourite sayings is, if you are stuck between resentment and guilt, choose guilt.” Philippa Perry in the Guardian

I’m prone to resentment. It's hard to take care of myself, to put myself first, sometimes. I notice it more strongly being in a family situation with bonus kids. It’s easy to feel there is always something that needs doing before I can put my feet up and read a book.

Luckily I get really resentful! A red flag goes up, and occasionally I blow my top, as I did recently. I wonder what would happen if my resentment didn’t burst out? It feels like a built in warning system, which I’m grateful for.

Of course, putting my feet up and doing nothing means I get to sit with the guilt instead. So I was interested to hear Philippa Perry’s advice, ‘choose guilt’. To be honest, the guilt is pretty irrational. For example making teenage boys contribute to household chores instead of doing it all for them is probably guilt I can live with. But why do I even feel it?!

A quote I’m thinking about:

“An eye is an orb filled with light and images. It holds the pictures of our lives. It is the agent of beauty and it is a beautiful thing itself, pointlessly, inexplicably, unnecessarily coloured in billions of variations nobody knows why. The beautiful eye sees the beautiful eyes.”

― Laura Cumming, Thunderclap