Lotus with Eco Thoughts

Project Statement:

Lotus with Eco Thoughts

The Lotus Flower is a metaphor for the propagation of seeds of enlightenment. As this display chants Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, it invites us to join in and summon what already exists within ourselves in this present moment: a supreme life state of boundless courage, wisdom, and compassion. An assemblage of salvaged materials, Lotus with Eco Thoughts critiques mindless consumerism. Its repurposed composition reflects the  Buddhist axiom of turning one’s poison into medicine, our societal discards into agents of hopeful change. Interspersed with daimoku, eco hop verses, and aqueous sounds of tranquility, this piece hopes to stir our spirit while providing subtle doses of medicine to integrate new information. Champion of world peace and president of the Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda says “Knowledge alone cannot give rise to value. It is only when knowledge is guided by wisdom that value is created.”

Personal Statement

I am a graduate student in the Environmental Studies department. I believe that each individual has a storehouse of treasure and potential within. While earth--and the eco-social havoc we wreak on Them--are undoubtedly material, where non, low income, and minority human beings are disproportionately impacted by material scarcity and environmental toxicity, ultimately our material problems are symptomatic of a deeper spiritual poverty of those that persists across a power gradient. My personal mission is to help humans see our interconnectedness, not just amongst other humans both near and far, but across species and landscapes. Through conscious consumerism, combined with a respect for life, we can allow each individual to mobilize around justice, equity, and environmental safeguarding. 

Texts -

The Buddha does not look down on living beings from up high. They lift them up to the same level as themself. She teaches them that they are all equally treasure towers worthy of supreme respect. This is the philosophy of the Lotus Sutra. It is true humanism.

Nam myoho renge kyo.

I am your worst nightmare that you despise and fetishize, unaware that you and I are one. I am not human. I am manimal. Dehumanize me. Because I am a beast. You can try to hunt and tame me. Repopulate and sustain me for your sport. Protect me. One day you will hang me above your dining room table, embalmed. Permanent. This body is just a vesicle for the inevitable. My feces fertilizes with microbes that de, I mean, recolonize your diabetic soils. The virus will spread through all the caged beasts shitting. Consume me. One bite. My parts will organize your molecules to open, revive. The dams choking your spirit will be broken, revive. We know one another. Recite. You fear yourself. You fear the future without yourself. Without me. Free the beasts, though the damage’s already done, we must now let the course run.  Earth is me, as is the sun. We are one, you and me. You are me. Carbon calls for a return to the sun. One light. The journey has just begun. 

Nam myoho renge kyo.

Does any one ever consider

how the word “litter” is inadequate?

Can we radically shift, how we think and how we have shit? 

Like, only after we consume the contents of a bag or bottle

do we see the discards of our products as problems

I stroll down the grocery lane 

rows of names try to seduce my brain

Tomorrow these goods will be exchanged for cash

And the next day they’ll be a buffet of trash.

Litter. I see no difference in trash in the landfill, the street or the ocean.

Even recycled synthetics break down in slow motion.

We create bounds of waste receptacles, where waste is then acceptable. 

Outside we complain but within it’s just the same, no?

A social fabrication. Trash bins normalize

the pace of waste creation.

On a weekly basis we purge to the lethal oasis.

Landfill. A mirage of removal,

did that Black community give its approval

to be dumped on with the whole county’s refusals.

Nah. 

An unsustainable, unjust model, that’s for certain. 

our consumption coddled, costs cloaked behind the curtain. 

You are the X factor. each one of us is needed, 

the best actors and agents to activate the seeds of,

You see zero waste is the way of life

Pre-industrial race, we walked lightly.

We left no trace, left no blight.

Every time we buy we can recall the dump site. 

Search for value, we can rewrite. 

Don’t be discouraged, there are hopeful solutions:

The most alluring of which is bulk distribution. Blessings.

Nam myoho renge kyo.

Materials - 

gatorade bottle

plastic container

cardboard

homemade glue - water, whole wheat flour, brown sugar

Living Buddhism magazine

metal produce wire 

SONY headphones

ZTE 831 cell phone

audio composed through garageband

audio recorded through cell phone

metal popcorn bowl - gong bell