Work continues on the Bamboo on Bamboo installation.
Bamboo is known for its strength, pliability and resilience. In Taoist philosophy, being characteristically hollow, bamboo is emblematic of Buddhist enlightenment – when the initiate has learned to embrace emptiness, they become a vessel for the universal spirit. Once free from worldly attachments, they begin to find relief from suffering and to attain real wisdom. Bamboo is considered by Buddhism and Taoism as one of the most important elements for meditation. Even Confucious, although has many different ideas to those of Taoism and Buddhism, takes bamboo as an example to illustrate the ideal attitude of people through life even under severe conditions.
However, the author and once teacher Adyashanti, who trained for many years in Zen Buddhism before offering teachings that are free of any tradition or ideology, writes of emptiness as a trap that one may get stuck in.
“This is a form of being stuck in the transcendent, being stuck in the position of the witness.
Initially it can feel wonderful to be in a state of witnessing, a state in which we realize that we are not somebody who is witnessing, but that we are witnessing itself. Although it is true that we are the witness to everything, there is also a deluded aspect that is easy to get caught in.
The ego can set up camp anywhere; …”
More coming soon….