by Elise Johnson, Assistant Registrar

One of the works included in Reflections of the Buddha is an accordion-fold scroll on loan from Harvard Art Museums. This gorgeous manuscript focuses on the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, commonly known as the “Goddess of Compassion”. The text and images within the scroll illustrate the calamities and dangers from which the deity will save any worshipper who cries out her name, as well as the diverse forms that Avalokiteśvara can take in order to make the Buddha’s teachings understood to any aspiring believer.

The scroll is an extremely long piece. Composed of 112 leaves, the work reaches a length of over 45 feet when completely laid out. As you can imagine, this size makes it difficult to display the entire manuscript at any one time. Thus, throughout the exhibition period at the Pulitzer, we will rotate the segments that are on view, allowing the returning visitor the opportunity to see different sections of text and image. In addition, since the scroll dates to the 15th century and is made of indigo-dyed paper, the work is vulnerable to light. Rotating the pages provides the added bonus of not exposing one segment of the scroll for too long of a period of time.

The first pages of the sutra have been on view since we opened the exhibition in early September. This Wednesday will provide visitors with their first chance to examine the subsequent leaves of the scroll. Here is a sneak peak of one of the scenes: Read the rest of this entry »

Pencil drawing by James Kennedy, Farmington State Correctional Center. More artwork by prison inmates may be found at insiderart.org.

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Carol Corey has been a student of Zen Buddhism since 1999. She works with Inside Dharma, a Buddhist prison outreach organization that teaches meditation in Missouri prisons. Practitioners from Inside Dharma led a meditation workshop at the Pulitzer on October 8.  

by Carol Corey, Community Services Organizer, Inside Dharma

In 2003, I responded to a request from an inmate at Menard State Prison in Illinois who was looking for support in his efforts to practice Zen meditation. Scott was about 40 years old. He had been incarcerated in this maximum security prison since he was fourteen. I answered his letter, and we’ve been corresponding ever since. In 2005, one of Scott’s articles was published in Tricycle Magazine (a Buddhist publication), and later that year it appeared in Best Buddhist Writings of 2005. This essay provided a compelling account of the life-changing transformation Scott went through, which eventually led him to become a serious student of Soto Zen Buddhism.

Before long I began a correspondence with James, another inmate in the category known as juvenile life without parole or “JLWOP”. He practices Tibetan Buddhism and, in his letters and during three visits, has made it clear that these teachings were, and still are, a lifeline for him. At one point he began studying the Tibetan language in order to understand the original teachings. Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Henderson, Debby Lennon and Eric Gaston

by Eddie Silva, External Affairs and Publications Manager, St. Louis Symphony

“There’s a certain slant of light…” Emily Dickinson’s phrase comes to mind inside The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts on a late autumn afternoon. The light enters slyly through Tadao Ando’s sublime architecture, a play of radiance and shadow.

Appropriately enough, silent Buddhas stand sentinel in this light, at peace in the rage of the world.

Peter Henderson is at the keyboard, at the foot of the stairwell below Ellsworth Kelly’s Blue Black. He’s here to rehearse the second of Jonathan Harvey’s Buddhist Songs, which will be performed Wednesday evening as part of the Pulitzer and St. Louis Symphony’s collaborative concert series.

I know nothing about Jonathan Harvey. To know as much as I know you can Google his name. I know now, from listening to Henderson and mezzo-soprano Debby Lennon rehearse Buddhist Song No. 2, “With excellent raiments,” that he can make music that resonates through the body like shimmering water. Read the rest of this entry »

by Tim Rakel, 88.1 KDHX DJ

Last Thursday evening, I enjoyed participating in Sound Waves, providing a musical accompaniment for Reflections of the Buddha. What I realized while putting the music together was that this was going to be different from what I normally do on the radio. Not only the setting but mostly because this music itself is different from so much of what I am usually surrounded by. I’m very glad I accepted the challenge to learn a little more about these musical styles and cultures, enough to feel confident about a set of music. As a result of the positive experience, I hope to do more of this sort of thing in the future. 
 
Hearing the music from the speakers in the grates on the gallery floors and listening from the balcony as it played off the walls of the building, I was even more impressed by this music than before. Several visitors to the exhibition that night gave me the same response. As I do for the radio program, I have provided a “playlist” for anyone interested. Click here to see it. The particular track information is not complete, but it should provide an overview of the music that I chose to play. Any questions about these records or any other details I haven’t mentioned can be sent to me by e-mailing mystery@kdhx.org
 
Without the architecture of the building and the Buddhist art, I’m interested in hearing how the music stands alone. Before the exhibition closes, I am planning to devote an episode of my weekly radio show to this music and expose my usual listeners to it as well.

Philip Matthews is a 2011 graduate of the MFA program at Washington University in St. Louis and is this year’s Jr. Writer-in-Residence in the English department. He teaches poetry and creative non-fiction. He is also a gallery assistant at the Pulitzer.

by Philip Matthews, Gallery Assistant

Last Thursday, October 6, I had the pleasure of experiencing the first of a series of Sound Waves events, which will all respond to the current exhibition, Reflections of the Buddha. For this installment, DJ Tim Rakel pumped a variety of Indian and Indian-influenced music throughout the exhibition through a sound system installed in the grates in the floor. The effect was encompassing, and as a gallery assistant stationed in the main gallery over the course of three hours, I found myself considering the Buddhist concepts of impermanence and attachment.

According to Buddhist thought, everything is in a constant state of change. The Pulitzer building exemplifies this principle, as natural light shifts throughout the day throughout the galleries: in one moment, a shimmering reflection of the Watercourt on the ceiling; in one moment, a rod of light through the Buddha on a phyllite plate; in one moment, nightfall reveals the standing Buddha reflected in a window, alongside my own reflection. And Rakel’s musical selections enhanced this principle beautifully: moving from a recording of monks chanting a cappella in unison, to a shimmering of sitars and a woman’s microtonic pipes like I have never heard, to a percussive, upbeat dance fitting of a dakini. Throughout the event, I am struck by how the power of the artworks around me interact with the music and the building, and how those relationships evolve as time progresses. At any given moment, I am satisfied to be here, having the experience I am having. Is this something like samadhi?

But when I begin to become attached: for example, when I begin to miss the blocks of orange light which sunset cast on the wall, I begin to miss out on the current experience of night available to me, with its different beauties and significances. This, I feel, is the Buddha’s most useful teaching to my daily life, which is full of attachments: to loved ones, to routine, to self-image. Because nothing is permanent, my attachments dissatisfy me when the conditions of my life change: I am dissatisfied that the relationship I want to last must inevitably end; I am dissatisfied when my students are not as talkative as they were last week; I am dissatisfied that, at 24, I am still so much skinnier than other men. The Buddha: “…on the cessation of craving ceases attachment; on the cessation of attachment ceases becoming…” (Mitchell, Donald W. “The Teachings of the Buddha.” Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. 42. Print.)

Here is a creative response to the challenges and questions of intimacy, attachment and impermanence which the current exhibition at the Pulitzer has begun to raise for me. The first draft of this poem was written at Sound Waves on Thursday, October 6, in fragments, on the back of a receipt I had in my wallet at the time.

http://www.vimeo.com/30211292

Sydney Norton, curatorial assistant at the Pulitzer, gives an overview of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Karunamaya) in the Cube Gallery. (What is the difference between a Bodhisattva and a Buddha?)

Tomorrow is the second in our series of curatorial gallery tours related to Reflections of the Buddha. If you’re looking for an in-depth understanding of this rich exhibition, an hour-long tour won’t do it, but it might help. Tomorrow, from 2 to 3 p.m., senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra will share some of what inspired her in developing the exhibition as well as the significance of the some of the works within cultural history and Buddhism. For a list of all the regular talks and tours for Reflections of the Buddha, visit our main website.

by Carianne Noga, Programs and Gallery Assistant

Numerous distinct conversations bubble up all around. They rise and fall, in and out of audibility, and they fade through one another interconnected. A woman talks excitedly about the kind of power she wields on a new contract her firm acquired, while a man nearby describes ways to create inexpensive, handmade Christmas gifts. The front door slams behind a girl storming off, spitting into her phone, “You can’t text me things like that!” At a table by the door, an older couple turns back to discussing their evening plans, while their immediate neighbor continues describing to a colleague her convoluted career path from social work to epidemiology.

I’m sitting in a cafe listening back to an interview recorded with the Venerable Sungak Sunim last week, but I’m also listening to the eclectic noise of my neighbors. I am mostly able to focus on the recording, but occasionally I get carried away by the curious chatter all around me. I don’t know these people, and I don’t really know anything about them except the tiny, little bits that float in through my ears. However, as I hear Sungak’s digitized voice, louder than the rest, it’s almost like her voice is giving subtitles to the mostly indiscernible din behind it. “100 Bhikkunis in the same room. We eat the food. You cannot hear any sound..,” then she fades to a whisper, “only quiet.” I can’t help but notice the great contrast between her description and the scene before me presently.

A Bhikkuni is a fully ordained female Buddhist monastic. Sungak is specifically of the  Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism. This past Saturday, October 1st we held the first of a series of seven workshops in our Meditation Series, and we were led by Sungak through a sitting meditation and then a walking meditation that wove around the Pulitzer’s courtyard. She also gave a very thoughtful and informative talk to introduce the group to several key concepts of Buddhist practices. Back in that interview she elaborated as to why the dining hall would be so silent, an idea inconceivable to me. “Eating is also another practice, walking is another practice, speaking is another practice.” Well, if all of these things are practice, when’s the big event?

Read the rest of this entry »

by Courtney Henson, Visitor Services Manager

St. Louis Art Museum docents are amazing.  For two full years the dedicated group has been planning and coordinating a huge effort: Hosting the 2011 National Docent Symposium. Over the past three days, docents from national museums have been in St. Louis and taking notes on the volunteer programs at multiple institutions here. There were guest speakers who rallied the group and breakout sessions that delved into wide ranging topics on how to assist your institution with the visitor viewing experience. “Docent”, “volunteer”, “gallery educator”. These are just a few of the names given at various institutions to the people who volunteer their time to help guests experience art. The Pulitzer had the great honor to co-host a dinner with CAM for about 100 docents and to run a workshop highlighting our Exploring Art program. 

I learned that the bulk of the docents from all over the United States and Canada had backgrounds as educators. They were not always art teachers and certainly not even always a traditional teacher, but their passion for education led them to pursue docenting. It became very clear that the job of a docent has changed over the past ten years, but each docent’s personal desire to encourage learning has evolved his/her process for interaction in the galleries. There seems to be a direct move away from didactic tours that are directly scripted and instead to engage the guests in conversations about the work. This is the approach taken at the Pulitzer. 

For our current exhibition we are trying something a little different. We are bringing together Buddhist practitioners and our PFA docents on the Mezzanine on the third and fourth Saturday’s of the month for a couple of hours in the afternoon. In Exploring Buddhism and Art , there are two minds for our guests to pick, one with expertise on the culture of Buddhism and one with expertise on the art and architecture of the Pulitzer. 

In 2013, the National Docent Symposium will be held in California, and I personally look forward to investigating how that city and the gathered docents have evolved their styles at that time. It was a truly rewarding experience to explain the Pulitzer’s methods as well as share ideas from around the country

This Thursday will be the first in the Pulitzer’s series of 88.1 KDHX collaborations for Reflections of the Buddha. For Dreamscapes, these events were called “Dream Sounds” and for stylus, they were “sound waves”. Since they have become a habit, we’ve decided to just brand them “Sound Waves” indefinitely.

During Sound Waves, 88.1 KDHX DJs and live performers create soundtracks to the Pulitzer’s current exhibition. DJs curate playlists to fit a certain theme–such as “Brazil” or “dreams”–and complement the artworks on view within the Pulitzer space. Each show brings a new combination of sounds and changes the ambiance the exhibition and building.

This Thursday, from 6 to 9 p.m., Tim Rakel, 88.1 KDHX DJ, will play music from cultures represented in Reflections of the Buddha.

From Tim Rakel, 88.1 KDHX DJ, on choosing songs:

I have hosted a radio program on KDHX called “Mystery Train” over the last several years. The show features a variety of musical styles and regularly ventures to foreign parts of the globe. The countries inhabited by Buddhist populations and featured in Reflections of the Buddha are not among the most frequently visited ones on my usual program, however, so I’ve enjoyed digging a bit deeper into these musical traditions. Most of the relevant material in my own record collection comes from compilations of older recordings, so I’ve borrowed some additional music from the KDHX library as well. I hope to sample a decent variety of this music in the three hours on Thursday evening. From field recordings of acoustic instruments to more modern takes on the traditional pieces, the music will represent several of the countries from which the visual art has also arrived. 
 
I walked through the exhibition once last week and was impressed by the collection assembled in the galleries. I’m certainly tempted to play a couple longer pieces so that I might have some time to walk through the exhibition again while some music is playing. How the individual responds to each musical piece is as varied as how one might respond to the art itself. My own reactions varied from piece to piece, from a sense of awe to something more haunting. Some pieces I thought could help induce a trance-like state while others may inspire a more conscious state of wonder. I hope to match these sensations and thoughts with my musical accompaniment.

by Courtney Henson, Visitor Services Manager

Coordinating the Frame of Reference talks has become a way to meet new and interesting people.  As a staff, we brainstorm a lengthy list of names of individuals who we think would have a diverse set of perspectives on the works in our current exhibition.  For Reflections of the Buddha, the list includes various sects of Buddhist practitioners, artists, philosophers, yoga instructors, and art historians just to name a few.  The experience of viewing Buddhist works at the Pulitzer will have different meanings for different people.  The Frame of Reference talks share in 15-minute increments one perspective. Typically we have a minimum of four speakers and move from each work with the speakers and any guests interested in hearing.  Sometimes the talks share ideas and sometimes they do not, but these short talks are a great way to get new insights on the work.  I look forward to hearing the talks this weekend and being enlightened through a whole new set of eyes.  Works discussed this Saturday, beginning at 2 p.m., include “The  Universal Gateway of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara,” Chapter Twenty Five of the Lotus Sūtra (Miaofa lianhua jing Guanshiyin pusa pumenpin), with an Appended Heart Sūtra (Xin jing), Standing Buddha Śākyamuni (Shijiamouni), Standing Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (Shōtoku Taishi Nisaizō) and The Monk Ananda (Anantuo). 

See the schedule of speakers here.