The Moon in the Water

Kathy J. Phillips

Description

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.

Sujets

• Caregiving
• Medical
• Médecine
• Religión
• Caregiver
• Gerontology
• Health
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 25 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826592392
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

     .        

                         

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 Yin 1 Pilgrim Gifts 5 Water Pill 9 he Moon in te Computer 11 Waterfall ID 14 No Moon 18 Yankee Moon 21 Transferring te Willow 25 Willy Moon 29 Artsy Crappy Moon 33 Moon Body 37 Kuan Yin Prescription 39 Riding te Tides in te Handi-Van 45 Peace Moon 51 Moon Passing troug Cloud 54 Blue Moon 56 Calling te Moon 60 Moon Dung Kuan Yin 64 Accidental Moons 69

Bodi-Dad 74 Roundabout Moon 78 Kuan Yin’s Taxable Domain 81 Slim Pickings/Fat Moon 86 Moon Rings 91 Kuan Yin Foot Dangler 95 ER Moon 99 Kuan Yin Sopper 103 Car-Key Kuan 107 Wat’d You Say, Kuan? 111 Weak as Water 114 Moon Wears Out 117 Moon Sealed Red (1) 121 Moon Sealed Red (2) 124 Kuan Yin Not Contained in a Box

Afterword 133 Sources for Art Works  Described or Reproduced

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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

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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

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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

    

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