With every act I cast my vote.
May my actions always cultivate
The people and processes to steer us towards:
A fair and stable economy
An inclusive and creative culture
A wise, responsible, free, open and equal community
Healthy, compassionate, informed and engaged people
A sustainable mix of productive, common, sacred and wild country.
May we be guided but not limited by our past.
May we act in the present with love and discipline.
May we move towards the future with clarity and resilience.
Slowly slowly. Slowly slowly.
Some explanation:
At Coorain, the Buddhist Centre just up the hill from where I live, there's a group that meets every Friday morning. The group studies "Sacred Art and Theatre".
I write too many words already to bore you with my understandings of "sacred".
However, the concepts of art as a mnemonic map or theatre as a palace of ritual memory is so far removed from my everyday notion of art or theatre that it (because really it is one notion) is probably worth mentioning. It has to do with the history of remembering. In a society with no written communication, memory was precious, so the skills and techniques of remembering were themselves valuable tools to learn. How does a bard remember every word of The Illiad? How does a Persian cameleer remember the way home? How does an Australian Aboriginal remember which plant to eat when?
Theatre and art, then, can be mnemonic aids. The theatre is the imaginary world in which one places the items in a particular order so that they can be collected from those places by a skilled rememberer. Recollection is, in this sense, literally the re-collection of the sword that was used to slay the dragon, which you had placed in a rock in the middle of a lake in the centre of the stage inside your imagination upon which this story takes place. Next to the lake is a hill. On top of that is a castle. In the castle is a damsel...
The theatre is an imaginary place but for the skilled rememberer it is a physical space. Its role is to aid memory. And memory - to state the obvious - keeps us from forgetting. In sacred art and theatre, the work functions to hep people remember sacred rituals or precepts - moral codes or ideas for enlightened living. In an age of Google, which gives us both the sense that there is too much information to hold onto and the feeling that we no longer need to remember anything, the place of memory is at a unique moment in history.
Are we beyond the tipping point? Is memory useless? Are we living in a post-religious, post-memory world?
Coming up to Anzac Day it seems obvious to wonder what happens if we forget.
This is in essence the challenge that Chime has posed to the Sacred Art and Theatre group. What is worth remembering? And: how do we go about remembering it?
Within the tradition Chime teaches, and in line with the basic ideas of "practice makes perfect" (which neuro-science as well as common sense supports) the answer to the second question is to:
(1) create a theatre, or a wok of art, and then
(2) chant it.
Tell the story, create the theatre over and over, and over and over, until the knowledge is deeply embedded and easily accessible.
The mantra above is a rough draft I wrote after today's class, which focused on the subject of enlightened governance. What is it? How do we remind ourselves to create it? What would be the mantra that, if repeated, would give us a basis to move towards enlightened governance?
In true Buddhist style, it should be read aloud, but quietly, 108 times.
And then, if anyone can tell me how to spell "mnemonic" that would be great. I can never remember.
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