Stillness

The most important teaching of the Buddha is that each person must find his or her own Way of Truth, by understanding suffering and “studying” reality.  We know that awareness of suffering is not enough to generate a positive vision for the future. There must also be joy and love involved in projections. Zen Buddhists believe that to live fully we must be aware of suffering, while also holding on to beautiful and wonderous images within the same moment. If each person could see the Buddha nature within them, and know that each other person has also a Buddha nature within them, we would be able to meet in a calmer neutral place when faced with conflict. Each person can be mindful of their own existence and at the same time be aware of each living things around him or her.  A few years ago when faced with a difficult moment I would stop for a split second, take a deep breath and visualize my body diving slowly into a cool deep pool. The moment my body would break the surface of the water was the moment I could let go of the tension in the situation, exhale and answer calmly. This year I had a visual of standing strong and still as waves of soft white matter would swirl around my body and surrounded me. The matter would soon fall and I would be untouched and could step over the matter.  I started to realize that it was a statement of being able to stand stead fast in the center of an issue and wait quietly while it settled. I would like to see this image realized into a performance.
I would like to explore this concept within the WW residency. A woman stands in the center and circles of soft fabric floats and falls around her.
She stands stead fast until the matter nearly surrounds her. The setting would be stage like with a hidden area above the woman to drop items down in a ring-like shape, possibly using a dispenser. I could use fabrics but can also see using feathers, rice paper or another soft material. The performance could be live in the gallery or shown in a looped video tape. I need to determine how long it will take to make pile of a soft material that would be about 6 feet high and cover a person from view.