Simple Loving Kindness - Art Inspired by Meditation
About 40 years ago, I was introduced to a book by Stephen Levine (a former associate of Elizabeth Kubler Ross) called Healing Into Life and Death. I was particularly drawn to the Simple Loving Kindness Meditation and the potential that this meditation might have for healing in the world. I've utilized the meditation regularly over the years in my psychotherapy practice since first learning about it. I like the author’s introduction to this practice: “As an example of the heart we all share and the healing available to each of us, we begin these practices with a meditation on loving kindness. It is a fundamental practice for opening healing to ourselves, to our loved ones, to this world of suffering and joy in which we live. It is a meditation which, if experimented with for ten or fifteen minutes a day for a few weeks, has the potential for softening out lives and sending healing even to those very far away.”
As my awareness of the polarization and divisiveness in our culture has grown, I’ve pondered how those of us who prefer cooperation and collaboration might cultivate these qualities in our relationships and in our communities. When I began to play with the idea of using the phrases of the Simple Loving Kindness Meditation to reach out to others, the painted rock “movement” was happening locally, and I created a few rocks incorporating a couple of the phrases (“May I dwell in the Heart”, "May my heart flower”). I gave them to clients as well as leaving some on paths I walked with my dog. I also inserted the phrases into some 3D paper art structures that I gave to clients. Then I remembered an art exhibit by and for sexual assault survivors that I had attended many years ago in Seattle when I was running therapy groups for such survivors. I took my group participants to this exhibit and was very touched by the sacred space created by the exhibit, by the meditative aspect of standing in front of each work of art and reflecting on it, how it conveyed not only the pain experienced by survivors but the healing as well. I began to envision an exhibit based on the Simple Loving Kindness Meditation that would convey hope, healing, compassion, connectedness and joy.
The mediation is structured so that the first part is to oneself, the second part is to a loved one and the third part is to the world at large. In each of the three sections, there are several phrases which are repeated in groupings of four, interspersed with each in-breath and each out-breath. In all, there are about 32 different phrases. I thought it would be an unnecessarily complex endeavor to represent the entire mediation in visual art. At the same time, I really like the rhythm of how the meditation works, with the sequencing of 4 phrases at a time: eg. May I dwell in the heart, May I be free from suffering, May I be healed, May I be at peace.
My plan was to submit a proposal to Astoria Visual Arts for an exhibit at their gallery sometime in 2025. I would invite local artists to learn the Simple Loving Kindness Meditation and pick a phrase that they felt inspired by to create a piece of art based on that phrase.
A few months ago, I began an email exchange with a small group of local artists, an informal planning committee, to solicit their input on how this idea might be implemented. Some of the feedback spoke to the importance of giving artists maximum freedom and flexibility in how they create in response to the meditation and the individual phrases of it, giving priority to this issue over trying to represent as many phrases as possible in a particular order. I agreed and at the same time, still wanted a way to convey the order and rhythm of the meditation. I decided there would be a way to do both, by having part of the exhibit organized in 3 groupings of 4 pieces each of somewhat uniform size for wall display. There would be one set of phrases to oneself, one set to a loved one, one set to the world at large. Then in the remaining space, we would have visual art that used whatever phrases were chosen by each artist, in whatever medium they chose.
A proposal for this exhibit was submitted to Astoria Visual Arts in September and was approved for an exhibit at the AVA Gallery for their March 2025 show.
Our planning group has begun the process of putting the word out to other artists and there is already considerable interest from artists who wish to participate. We welcome established artists, as well as emerging ones. Contact me at nancy@thelakehousehca.com for more information.