vajradarshini

Fall in love with life again. A Retreat on the Art of Perception.

When we realise that what we experience is not the ‘thing out there’ but our own perception, our relationship with things is suddenly changed. The teapot and the bowl are no longer objects separate from us, but alive and intimately connected to us, even a part of us.

“Picking violets by the side of the road,

I forgot my begging bowl.

How sad you must be, my poor little bowl.”

— RYOKAN

Wabi sabi is an aesthetic, which finds beauty and truth in our simple, ordinary experience. It originated in Japan in the 16th century when the term ‘wabi’ referred to poverty, ‘sabi’ to loneliness. At that time, while hermits were living this poor and lonely life, a cultural shift happened and this simplicity of living took the place of luxury as the highest aesthetic.