By Finn Dickson
Welcome, I’m grateful to wander through Samsara with you: this ever-churning cycle of life and not, in which our ātman/soul falls away from Brāhman, or universal soul, and unites with a fleshy Jîva: allowing us to experience life. I was assigned a different name than I hold today, my transness taught me to see beyond maya/illusion of the surface representing the whole. Shared simply: “Everything is real, but it’s also just as fake” (AJJ, 2007). As a white, male, 7th generation settler on the Land we call Canada, I benefit from colonialist-imposed maya interwoven through social structures fueled by English and white-supremacy. I am not religious, though my Earth-based spirituality continuously develops with my understanding of our world. Throughout the first summer of my degree, I studied Yucatec Maya cosmology which proposes the physical world is a manifestation of the spiritual world, which presents the essence of the physical. Earth is a divine force, as understood by indigenous communities around the world. Hinduism and Buddhism builds on this, affirming the human body and world are inseparable (Miller, 2021). “When we live in a society, we negotiate our realities” (Kale, 2024). Our lives are entangled in forged ‘understanding’, yet we can remove ourselves from
agreed-upon ‘meanings’ and find our way to new understandings. Philosophy integrated storytelling teaches dharma, encouraging us to accrue good karma through intentional engagement in our environments, opening the gates to escape Samsara through disillusion of self.
Karma is the energy we put forth through our actions. When our actions follow Dharma, or universal law, we fulfil our responsibility to ourselves and those around us, accruing good Karma. Through good karma, we can escape maya-veiled samsara, where our soul carries a karmic load from one life to the next. Karma’s root is ‘sustain’ (Mumme, 1998). We must start connecting with our fellow living systems in meaning filled ways. Relationality arises as we broaden our understanding of ‘self.’
“We think too big
We think our self is one whole thing And we claim that this collection Has a name and is a being
But deep inside
When every cell divides
Well, it sets upon the rule that states Self-interest is divine” (Schmidt, 2005)
Art catalyzed my learning of Hindu and Buddhist religions and environment. As an appreciator of the abstract, I thrived in a course propelled by philosophy integrated story telling. Jataka tales demonstrate important lessons such as using one’s unique gifts to aid kin, as Turtle and Mouse chewed through the net trapping Deer while Woodpecker distracted the hunter. The trickster/chaotic force Shiva embodies, as God of dance and pralaya/destruction, among other things, invigorates me. Many learnings come from shared experiences as we collectively discover dharma. For creation to take root, something which once was must not be anymore; powerful purification is brought on through prayala. In this vein, based on the state of our natural world, we are walking amidst an eruption of creation.
“I was nothing before, so I didn’t ask to be born. I’ll be nothing again, so what am I between now and then?” (Wood, 2020) Alternatively: we come from Brāhmin to one day return. This can be visualized as a mycelial network, arguably the heart of soil systems, the fungal body who pushes forth mushrooms and facilitates nutrient exchange: each of us a mycorrhiza reaching out with ‘individual direction’ to find nutrients to propel ourselves on our journey (Sheldrake, 2021). Each tendril of the whole, seemingly distinct nodes acting as conduits, distributing nutrients to the fungal whole and the rooted lifeforms sharing space. Following Pancasila, nonviolence to lives, property, what is cherished, rights/identities, and conscience/intellect, we can begin engaging mindfully in our environments. “You only live forever in the lights you make” (My Chemical Romance, 2010), the imprint we leave on others and our environment are the only lasting aspect of us, what do you want yours to be?
Even as I write this, the term “I” is rampant. How can we let go of such a concept so pervasive in everyday speech? We could begin by letting go of our perceived need to distinguish ourselves from ‘others’. It’s common in academic writing to specify where ideas originate, however the concept of universal consciousness, proposes all ideas resurface and are remembered: transformed, never created. Nevertheless, creativity absolutely exists, and this creation seeks exploration of the creative force.
A pivotal phrase in the album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys plays with the jurisdiction of ‘we’ and aludes to living on through Smruti and Shruti: “they say ‘we’re never leavin’ this place alive,’ but if we sing these words we’ll never die” (My Chemical Romance, 2010). By giving oneself up to Creation, our personal responsibility falls away in vulnerable self-sacrifice and we can focus our energy on giving. “The yogi told me stretch everything but the truth, said to focus on the outbreaths, everyone can find happiness when they can care more about what they can give than what they get” (Gibson, 2012). We must first accept the Four Noble Truths: there is suffering, suffering arises from trishna (thirst/desire), there is an end to suffering, and suffering ends in the dissolution of self.
Andrea Gibson heralds: “water drips through stone”, where stone is our collective strife as a conglomeration of enforced boundaries and oppressive forces. They instruct: “[our] art is that water, [our] heart is that water, you are that water, now flow” (Gibson, 2012). We are constantly transmitting currents of energy to our relations through Smruti, what is heard, and Shruti, what we carry with us. What separates whoever ‘we’ are from the current of karma? Both content and intention, designed by all that has come before; we have the power to focus where we are headed, directing creative energy through our environments.
Maya ceases to act as an illusion when it is interacted with: it only exists because we decide it is so. “Who with a heart can stomach all we can stomach” (Gibson, 2018); we accept violently enforced disparity, inviting that into ourselves. The Eight-fold Path calls for wisdom, virtue/morality in our actions, and concentration. Art invites us into the process of creation. As we recognize we are related and inherently connected to all of life, our attempts to rationalize how we relate to ‘others’ will fall away with our sense of ‘self’. Refusing overindulgence and self-denial will orient you on the middle path. Give into flow and accept the freedom granted by aligning with the processes we are invited into.
The relationship between karma and dharma under the veil of maya shows how living harshly in our environment causes harm to all forms of life. We must first recognize our power to affect the world around us to then alter our contributions, making
wholistically nourishing decisions. By redefining ourselves as a channel/conduit of karma, the maya of “self” falls away allowing us to pursue dharma, building relationality with all processes around and within us, eventually escaping samsara. Artists share karmic seeds inviting their audience into dharma, leaving pieces of their ātman in the form of Shruti for others to pick up and carry with them as Smruti. To feel free and content in our Jîva, we can practice mindfulness and Pancasila in our presence and interactions, accept the 4 noble truths, walk the 8-fold path, and find our own middle path; nourishing relationships between all life systems support the Earth, supporting us. We are all artists in our own right, each of us a piece of the universal soul, full of boundless creative potential. All we need to do is let go of the illusions keeping us from realizing our loving potential.
References
AJJ. People II: The Reckoning (People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World, 9). TERRORBIRD PUBLISHING. (2007).
youtube.com/@AJJtheband. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqouMqryzxM Gibson, A. (2018). Lord of the Butterflies. Water Drips Through Stone. SCB Distributors. Gibson, A. (2012). The Madness Vase: A Collection of Poetry. The Nutritionist. Button
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Kale, D. personal communication. (January 18, 2024). University of Calgary
Miller, C. (2021). Christopher Chapple: Living Landscapes: Meditations on the five elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain yogas. Journal of Dharma Studies/Journal of Dharma Studies, 4(1), 151–154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42240-021-00100-7
My Chemical Romance, Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back (Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, 9). Reprise Records. (2010). youtube.com/@mychemicalromance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5f18AsYv-0
My Chemical Romance, The Kids From Yesterday (Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, 13). Reprise Records. (2010). youtube.com/@mychemicalromance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXiLHIYqb_Y
Mumme, P. Y. (1998). Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India (L. E. Nelson, Ed.). State University of New York Press.
Schele, L., & Freidel, D. A. (1992). A forest of kings: the untold story of the ancient Maya. Quill/W. Morrow.
Schmidt, D. This Too Shall Pass (Parables and Primes, 1). (2005). dannyschmidt.com. https://www.dannyschmidt.com/parables.html
Sheldrake, M. (2021). Entangled life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Wood, W. Love, Me Normally (The Normal Album, 9). Say-10 Records. (2020). youtube.com/@willwoodmusic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd4cmNjm- Fo . The Tapeworms
Love, Finn Dickson