100,000 Stitches: Knitting Ngondro Meditation Pod

 

As an artist my work is very meditative. As a human being moving through this chaotic life meditation has become a key component to my daily life. In this piece I focus on the bridge between meditation, my art practice and daily life. During the course of this work I created and built a soft space for reflection and grounding. A space constructed out of fiber which I have spun and knit during my meditations.

The work comes from the meditations, the stitches from the mantra. The mantra used is the Hundred Syllable Mantra. This mantra invokes the mindstreams of all the Buddhas and is the prayer for purification and clarity. The physical act of spinning the fibers becomes the vehicle to help the mind quiet and achieve clarity. 

The practice or meditation being used is called Ngondro which is the preliminary practice of chanting the Hundred Syllable Mantra and doing a full body prostration 100,000 times This is done to help quiet the mind so that we can clear the mind of the obstructions that prevent us from finding that clarity we search for and attain enlightenment. The knitting of the spun meditations becomes the Ngondro, or physically focused mediation. After a bobbin had been filled with the spinning meditation it was knit as a single skein during Ngondro mediation on a size US 50 knitting needle. The size of the US 50 needle creates the need for a large physical motion thus creating a knitting Ngondro. 

The shape of the knitted skein is lead by the mediation so each piece is a different shape. As each meditation works through different thoughts and challenges it opens the door towards cultivation of bodhichitta. These different knitted meditation pieces are seamed together to create the entire practice and ultimately give these meditations a physical form. The joined pieces come together in the shape of a knitted pod supported by a structure of branches. It hangs to the ground and covers the ground within the structure with one side open as an entrance to the space.

The materials used are a mix of several different kinds of animal fibers which have been spun and knit together to create a pod with large stitches so that the pod does not feel like an enclosed space. It is only softly differentiated from the surrounding area. Anyone within the pod will still see through the large net-like construction so that the world around them is still visible and audible even though they are within this separate space with a designated purpose.

The idea is to use my personal meditation to create a soft environment for Pause. There is no objective other than creating a space for people to breath, ground, meditate, or talk. Whatever the experience, all are welcome.