The Journey Goes Down, Not Up

Joomchi (traditional Korean paper making method), hanji (traditional Korean mulberry paper), indigo and black/gold sumi ink, stamped pigment ink
22 x 16 inches
2021

Inspired by my morning reader by Pema Chödrön, this piece represents a perspective of our spiritual journeys. Chödrön’s teaching challenges the idea of a journey of attaining spiritual awakening and transcendence at a mountain top leaving behind the pain and worldly attachments. In that metaphor, we are escaping suffering by ourselves and leaving behind all those other people, especially those who are marginalized and undervalued, animals, and our earth that continue to suffer. Chödrön submits that the process of awakening is a journey down, not up the mountain. We embrace reality, and move toward the messiness, doubt, and pain on our own terms and pace. Along the way, we are joined by many companions who are also suffering from insecurity, uncertainty and fear. And at the bottom, we encounter the healing water of bodhichitta, an open awakened heart, “the love that will not die.”