A vase with light shining thru it. An orchid stem fed by light and water. A piece of that stem lying on the table. A vibrant contrast of two primaries, the yellow-gold and the blue, hued and contrasted with purple and dabs of orange. Visual balance. Perfection.
This flower photo was taken by Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), the controversial photographer who died young in the first strike of the AIDS epidemic to the West. Flower photographic studios are part of his Y Portfolio, started when he knew he was sick of an incurable illness. His beautiful flowers cut and placed in vases have the elegiac and ephemeral beauty of a modern Vanitas painting, inviting to reflect on the non-negotiable transiency of all under the Moon (see http://www.darjanpanic.com/photography/masters-of-photography/robert-mapplethorpe-and-his-flower-art-photography/).
This stem of Indonesian orchids, "dancing flowers" as they are referred in that corner of Asia, show that when separated from the plant that fed them, these beautiful blossoms will eventually wither and die....just maybe sooner than if had left there in the wild.
Aging, sickness and death traditionally were the three imminent realities the father of Prince Siddhartha tried in vain to shield him from....for it had been prophesied that if his son saw reality as if, he would never succeed him in the throne. Yet the Prince escaped one day from the secluded palace where only youth and happiness was allowed and met in the moonlit night an old aged man; then, under a tree, a sick person helplessly whimpered and later, for first time in his life, he saw a corpse and a crematory ground. He was deeply impressed. Questioning his servant, he realized that the fate of those three men would -in time- be his. Matter had limits and continuous rebirths into this level of existence would never break the bondage of humankind that considers matter as the absolute. Happiness cannot have quicksand as a foundation.
The core of Buddhism lies in these simple truths: matter is transient and freedom from the tyranny of transiency is possible. The Wheel of Dharma put into spin in the Sermon at the Deer Park of Sarnath showed how the correct perspective on priority settings pointed towards true liberation. The integrity of the mind had to be preserved and a deep respect towards life in all its forms were pointed as the core commandments of this new spiritual path towards Enlightenment.
Hard core monotheists get hives with the apparent "atheism" of the Buddhist philosophy and beliefs. Is not here the place to engage in a debate on this topic. Just by searching the web there is a lot that can be learnt about a faith that provides a strong ethic of compassion and service to a huge part of the world population. This post sprung from the topic of an episode that was groundbreaking for young Prince Siddhartha and put him on the way to devote himself to attaining the Enlightened state for the benefit of all the sensing beings. An episode that if we meditate on it as in the XVIth century St. Francis of Borgia did on the embalmed corpse of his beloved Queen, before abandoning the secular world and becoming the Third General of the Jesuit Order, it will surely place us in a more realistic perspective towards the way we live our life and serve those around us. But then I found the beautiful orchids of Robert Mapplethorpe and the teaching of this episode became clearer after visualizing the transient beauty of the flowers in the lighted vase.
Dom Gregoire Le Merciér, the Abbott of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary of the Resurrection spoke once about this subject -his Sunday sermons during the sixties used to be in the format of a dialogue with Jesus, that his listeners could feel as their own words to Him. It was clear to all humankind the inevitable process of aging, being sick and eventually dying, but he wanted to feel resurrection as certain as these three events, not His Resurrection, but the resurrection of the dead bird he had found that morning in the garden, the resurrection of each and every sensing being that had or will pass away. Again, the certainty that true happiness could never be founded on transiency and void .....
Seems that if anything gets into the path of the murky realm of "faith" some will eventually discard the whole topic. Let´s go back then to visual arts. To the Östermorgen-Easter Morning by Caspar David Friedrich, a Romantic oil paint made in 1833 and now on exhibit in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. Upon the inevitable, falling into despair and raising to overcome seem opposite direction actions, yet they seem to require the same amount of energy. The Buddha asked a woman who brought Him her dead baby begging for a miracle to seek first a grain of rice from a family who had never experienced a death in her village....it was impossible, she understood, did the funeral arrangements for her baby´s body and returned to sit at the feet of the Buddha to learn the teachings that would help her overcome death and fear and live a more fruitful life, despite the inevitable facts of matter. The ladies in Friedrich´s painting could be going to Church or going to Jesus grave to learn that death had been conquered, the change of matter will never be its extintion: at least after this joyous morning life had guaranteed no final periods.
I´m posting this close to Christmas, a time when many feel the sting of loved ones gone and times past, many dealing with a sad present when aging and sickness ring a distant bell to the fact of death. When the happiness of the season seems to vanish after returning home and getting into silence, it could come in handy to remember that Christians are celebrating the birth of the One who defeated death once and for all, who commanded we must love each other and make this world better in the measure of our possibilities. Latter in Spring, Easter will explode with the joy of that event.
Pierre Teihard De Chardin (1881-1955) a controversial Jesuit priest whose writings on the evolution of matter and several other theological subjects earned for him severe admonitions from the Vatican and his own superiors to the point of prohibiting him to teach and publish, had the beautiful and comforting idea that Christ Resurrection extended to all matter. The keystone to his phenomenology: there must exist ahead of the moving universe, pulling it along, a higher pole of supreme consciousness, which he called The Omega Point (cfr. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin among other more specialized web pages).
Is not a bad idea. It has been proved that humans function better in front of the inevitable if they are not overwhelmed with dispair, if they still have hope, under whatever robes it might present herself. If Mapplethorpe´s flowers, as all aging, sick and dying matter will have a LIFE beyond the limits of transciency, there is a method to the madness and a reason to keep on.
Comments
Post a Comment