Sutra and Tea for the New Year

抄经品茶，其福胜彼

Time | 时间: 2020.1.18 (周六), 1:30–5:30 pm

Location | 地点: Fou Gallery, 410 Jefferson Avenue, #1, Brooklyn, New York, NY 11221

Program Planner | 活动策划人：Lynn Hai 海良

Free event, Click to RSVP

“Although the merit from the seven jewels is great, it does not compare with someone who gives birth to the thought of enlightenment and takes a four-line gatha of this sutra and explains it to the others.  Their merit surpasses that of others by a hundred, a thousand, a millionfold. It is beyond compare.”

— Diamond Sutra

若复有人，闻此经典，信心不逆，其福胜彼。何况书写、受持、读诵、为人解说。
—《金刚经》

January 18th (Saturday) is 24th of the last month of Jihai (Year of Pig) in traditional Chinese Calendar, and encourages sacrificial ceremonies, painting statues and social events. It is right before the Spring Festival of Gengzi (Year of Mouse). Fou Gallery sincerely invites you to participate in our Sutra and Tea Event. Through transcribing Buddhist literatures Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra, we are able to concentrate and ponder on our thoughts, reflect on ourselves, contemplate and calm our impetuous minds, and perceive our most genuine innermost beings. It is also a ritual of praying for good luck for the new year.

Diamond Sutra, an existential project aiming at achieving and embodying a non-discriminatory basis for knowledge, the emancipation from the fundamental ignorance of not knowing how to experience reality as it is.

Heart Sutra explains the fundamental emptiness (śūnyatā) of all phenomena, known through and as the five aggregates of human existence，interpreted according to the two truths doctrine Thus the bodhisattva relies on the perfection of wisdom, to be the wisdom that perceives reality directly without conceptual attachment thereby achieving nirvana.

Tea practitioner Echo He and Christina Wu will share several kinds of Chinese teas through a contemporary tea ceremony. After transcribing sutra in the art space, participants will appreciate the beauty of the aromatic atmosphere constituted by tea leaves, the water, the heat, the tea set, and everyone’s thoughts and emotions. Together, we will experience the spirit of tea -  “和、敬、清、寂 He, Jing, Qing, Ji”: Harmony of Nature, Modesty from Virtues, Silence in Calmness, and Serenity with Constancy.

The Sutra & Tea event will be held in the space of glass artist Meng Du’s solo exhibition Embers.

“Meng Du always pays attention to the connection between the individual inner world as well as the collective subconscious of human beings. She boldly — yet cautiously — unfolds the fragile inner world of herself, and makes us realize that our deep minds are malleable, sometimes fragile and sometimes firm, sometimes obscure and sometimes crystal-clear.” — Curator Echo He, published on ArtChina.

2020年1月18日正值农历己亥年农历腊月廿四，宜祭祀、塑绘、挂匾、会亲友。值此庚子年新春前夕，否画廊邀请大家在艺术空间的氛围中，通过抄写佛学经典《金刚经》《心经》的方式，凝神内敛，进一步关照自心，将我们浮躁的心念沉淀、寂止，呈现出内心更真实的画面，同时祈福纳吉。

《金刚经》侧重泯除二元对立之无明束缚，彻始彻终归宗於般若无住的离相法门，以此明示阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。

《心经》侧重观身心五蕴，诠二谛双运之理，达五蕴皆空之境界；三世诸佛皆如此修行，证得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。

活动中将同时设置茶席，茶人何雨、吴素绘将以当代茶道的方式分享数种传统中国茶。参加者可在抄经之余，共同鉴赏艺术空间中茶叶、茶水、火候、茶具与心念、情绪形成的意境之美，进一步体味“和敬清寂”之精神：物我合一之和谐、虚怀若谷之谦敬、心无杂念之清静、无始无终之宁寂。

抄经品茶活动将于玻璃艺术家杜蒙个展《烬》的展览环境中进行。“杜蒙总是从个人经验出发，关注个体内心世界和人类集体潜意识之间的连接。她大胆而又谨慎地把脆弱的内心世界展现出来，并让我们意识到，人的起心动念飘忽不变，时而脆弱时而坚强，时而晦暗不明时而晶莹剔透。” 希望在这些灵动的作品之中，我们能够更加关注自己的起心动念，觉察世界的分毫细节。