The Moon in the Water , livre ebook

icon

157

pages

icon

English

icon

Ebooks

2008

Lire un extrait
Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris
icon

157

pages

icon

English

icon

Ebook

2008

Lire un extrait
Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Named a Best Book of 2008 by Library Journal

In a series of moving vignettes, the author begins by describing a particular representation of Water-Moon Kuan Yin, a Buddhist teacher and goddess associated with compassion, who often sits on a precarious overhang or floats on a flimsy petal. Then Kuan Yin steps out of the frame to join the author in the mundane challenges of caring for her father-transferring his health insurance, struggling with a wheelchair van, managing adult diapers, or playing in the fictions of dementia. From perplexed to poignant to funny, the vignettes record the working-class English of a fading but still wise dad, and they find other human versions of Kuan Yin in a doctor who will still make house calls or kind strangers in the street.

The book includes ten illustrations: both classical representations of Kuan Yin and also the author's own drawings, which adapt Kuan Yin in an act of practical spirituality, reading art through life and life through art. Each vignette invites the harried caregiver to take a deep breath and meditate on the trials and joys of caring for an aging parent.


Voir icon arrow

Date de parution

25 avril 2008

Nombre de lectures

0

EAN13

9780826592392

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

     .        
                         
he Moon in te Water
he Moon in te Water     
 Katy J. Pillips
             
©  Vanderbilt University Press All rigts reserved First Edition 
   
    
his book is printed on acid-free paper made from % post-consumer recycled paper. Manufactured in te United States of America
Frontispiece: “One-petal Kannon,” or “he Bodisattva Kannon Crossing te Sea on a Lotus Petal,” by Zen artist Sesson Sūkei (–?), courtesy of te Alsdorf collection. Jacket design by Louise OFarrell Text design by Dariel Mayer
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pillips, Katy J., -he moon in te water : reflections on an aging parent / Katy J. Pillips. st ed. p. cm. ISBN ---- (clot) . Aging parents—Care—Anecdotes. . Adult cildren of aging parents—Anecdotes. . Caregivers—Anecdotes. . Parent and adult cild—Anecdotes. . Avalokitesvara (Buddist deity)—Art—Miscellanea. I. Title. HQ..P  .’-dc 
Contents
Preface
vii
Dug Up Kuan Yin1 Pilgrim Gifts5 Water Pill9 he Moon in te Computer11 Waterfall ID14 No Moon18 Yankee Moon21 Transferring te Willow25 Willy Moon29 Artsy Crappy Moon33 Moon Body37 Kuan Yin Prescription39 Riding te Tides in te Handi-Van45 Peace Moon51 Moon Passing troug Cloud54 Blue Moon56 Calling te Moon60 Moon Dung Kuan Yin64 Accidental Moons69
Bodi-Dad74 Roundabout Moon78 Kuan Yin’s Taxable Domain81 Slim Pickings/Fat Moon86 Moon Rings91 Kuan Yin Foot Dangler95 ER Moon99 Kuan Yin Sopper103 Car-Key Kuan107 Wat’d You Say, Kuan?111 Weak as Water114 Moon Wears Out117 Moon Sealed Red (1)121 Moon Sealed Red (2)124 Kuan Yin Not Contained in a Box
Afterword133 Sources for Art Works  Described or Reproduced
v i
135
129
Preface
hese vignettes record te interactions, wary and warm, of an elderly fater and a middle-aged daugter living in te same ouse after many years of independence. Eac vignette describes a painting of te Water-Moon Kuan Yin type in Buddist art, ten ventures into some trial facing te new ousemates, ten interweaves te painting and te life.  In Buddism, Kuan Yin is a bodisattva, or enligtened soul, wo as incarnated many times and could graduate from te round of birts and deats but instead cooses to keep incarnating, to elp oters. In art, se as maybe a dozen different, typical poses: sitting on a benc wit one knee drawn up, standing and pouring er water jar of spiritual sustenance. I only developed an interest in te particular pose called Water-Moon after my dad moved in; in tese pictures, Kuan Yin does noting but sit on a tiny island or jutting embankment and watc for te reflection of te moon in te water. Did I suddenly notice er because I was feeling a little confined as caregiver? Was my dad maybe feeling confined too: plunked on an island (O’au, Hawai’i), marooned in a doctor’s office, belted into a weelcair, locked in illness, backed into old age? Yet
v ii
Kuan Yin manages to be perfectly content on er precarious ledge.How in te world does se do it?  You don’t really need any more information tan tat about Kuan Yin to read tis memoir about caregiving; you could skip rigt away to te vignettes. For anybody wo wants more background, te Cinese name Kuan Yin or Guanyin means “te one wo perceives te sound of suffering,” a roug translation of te Sanskrit name Avalokitesvara. Altoug Indian Buddists depicted Avalokitesvara as male, is stories underwent a transformation as tey passed into Cina. From te sevent to te nint centuries, Cinese Buddists may ave combined te legends of tis Indian bodisattva of compassion wit tose of Tara, a Tantric female figure, or wit te stories of te Taoist Queen Moter of te West. Her differently pronounced names include Goon Yum in Cantonese, Kannon in Japanese, Quan Im in hai, and Quan Am in Vietnamese. Wit te exceptions of te male Kwanseum in Korea and Cenrezig in Tibet, Asia today predominantly represents Kuan Yin as a woman.  I learned about Kuan Yin in  after I moved to Hawai’i. A resident can easily spot tis bodisattva, not only at te Honolulu Academy of Arts but also at outdoor srines, a mural on a building, a laminated picture dangling from a knapsack, and temples from multiple cultures. Altoug I completed a P.D. in comparative literature, I ave always been a closet religion major. A singer in te HinduUpanisadscomes up wit a series of beautiful
v iii
he Moon in te Water
comparisons for te igest god—“like a flame of fire,” “like a saffron-colored robe”—but after eac prase, te singer as to admit, “not tis, not tis.” Neverteless, te list goes on, because, te text insists, weneedprovisional words and images to elp us begin to understand. I also discovered tat Hinduism tolerantly accepts very different “yogas” or pats to union wit te divine. (he Englis wordyokingor union comes from te same root asyoga.) Some people do better by going to te mountaintop and meditating on a formless god, wile oters need a personal dialogue wit a god in a clear, uman-like form. his personalized pat is called “bakti” or devotional yoga. For me, te interesting point is tat Hinduism recognizes te provisional, not absolute quality of te different routes to te divine. Even te gods of Hinduism are marked out as stepping-stones: te best our uman minds can come up wit for a time, to get a little closer to someting greater tan all uman words and images.  I am attracted to bakti or personalized devotion as it appears in various world religions—always wit te understanding tat te particular visualization is a tentative, imperfect, uman construct. he tirteent-century poet Jelaluddin Rumi, practicing Sufism (a mystical branc of Islam), calls is god “te Friend” and speaks rigt up to im in a personal, ceeky, and (at least in translations by Coleman Barks) very down-to-eart dialogue. In a mystical branc of Judaism, were god is not te more familiar, all-powerful Yawe but a being wo weeps
    
i x
Voir icon more
Alternate Text