昆虫四散,寂静四聚 / INSECTS SCATTER, SILENCE GATHERS

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
——Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

In the Sangha Law (Mahasangha-vinaya), an important Buddhist scripture originating in ancient India,
time is explained as:
“…an instant ‘kshana’’ is a thought ‘eka-citta’
twenty thoughts are a ‘moment’
twenty moments are a snap of the finger, ‘acchaṭā’
twenty snap of the fingers are a ‘lava’
twenty ‘lava’ are a ‘muhurta’
and a day and a night have thirty ‘muhurta’.”

All beings experience a tiny cycle of thoughts all the time
and every thought that arises and disappears
is the beginning and end of a cycle of rebirth
Therefore a small ‘thought’ is also a microcosm of a lifetime or a longer period of time.

One thought ignites the birth of all existence,
without it, all falls into tranquil silence.
The initial thought is a myriad emotion
greed, anger, ignorance, love, and hatred
The first thought of the beginning of existence
marks the beginning of all that exists
and it also has the power to return all worldly things to their primordial state.

I take this one thought, walking
between breathing,
stopping to look at the distance or bowing down,
the gap between motion and static
all things hold their breath.

In a series of photographs, I attempt to establish an eternal dimension that eschews the five senses and reach the state of emptiness. It resembles a meditative realm filled with boundless thoughts, much like a contemplative world that can embrace all things.

 

在古印度的《僧祇律》中对“时间”有这样的解释:
一刹那者为一念,
二十念为一瞬,
二十瞬为一弹指,
二十弹指为一罗预,
二十罗预为一须臾,
一日一夜有三十须臾。
众生时刻经历着念头的极小轮回,
每一个念头的产生与消失,都是一次轮回的始末。
于是小小的一念,也是一生或者更漫长时间的缩影。

动心起念而生万物,一念不生万物俱寂。

我取此一念,行走在呼吸间,
驻足远眺或俯首,
动静之际,万物屏息。

我尝试在一系列照片中建造一种摒弃五识的具有空性的永恒维度,正如一个可以包罗万象的冥想般的沉静思想世界。

 

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Ying Tang