Optical Awakening Prologue
146cm*244cm stainless steel, brass powder, super mirror, mirror
| The Gates Ⅱ: Reflection of Veritas | ||
“Hundred logical explanations of words do not worth a glance”
The formlessness cannot be comprehended by thinking mind:
It is not an object of understanding.
Art goes beyond words.
Beyond mind.
It is an essence known by vision.
Trans Art can be called the Trans-form Art: it is to transcend the form of art.
The Artist attempts to transcend the form of art and express the Enlightenment and Awakening which is beyond the form, through the Trans Art.
It is a new way of art.
la Porte de I'Enfer
Finding the Gate from la Porte de I'Enfer
Trans-art is about going beyond form.
Trans-Art (i.e. trans-form art) can be considered as the transformation of art:
the evolved form of art or the evolution of art.
Throughout the history of art, art was form.
Now, art transcends the form.
la Porte de I'Enfer
Finding the Hell-Gate from la Porte de I'Enfer
It snows in the winter.
But the snow is not the essence of winter.
Snow is an attribute: it is an expression of winter, the reflection of winter.
Surprisingly, if you contemplate on it really carefully, winter itself has no form.
Nevertheless, the formless essence of winter expresses its nature through various forms of winter.
Just like winter, seasons, natural laws and Universal Truth, the evolution itself has no form.
Nevertheless the evolution happens through the various forms of evolution.
Trans-art can be the one expression of uncountable many: it may be a single snow flake of evolution.
Maybe a singular flake of an early snow in the beginning of the quantum leap.
It may lose its form but the uncountable number of snow flakes, and much more quantity of snow will be followed by it.
Creating the Hell-Gate from la Porte de I'Enfer
The Artist proposed a new approach to enlightenment and awakening: a new way of art, a new way of spirituality by initiating Hanol Spiritual & Cultural movement of Art.
In doing so, he suggested new paradigms for both religion and art.
It is Transformational because his approach trans-forms the religious form; there is neither religious structure nor religious formation involved in the art.
It is an unconventional belief system because art is neither a system nor a belief: therefore, it is Trans-formational and titled the Trans (form)-religion and the Trans (form)-Art; for providing the inspirations; transcending the ego-mind structure;
presenting the doorway out of the Ego-mind, to the state of being in connection with the inner dwelling divinity of the untamed pure consciousness; a guide to our true nature by art.
The Completion
After creating the Gate from la Porte de I'Enfer
It was Myo-Do-Gyung
* In the teachings of Hanol Principle,
the world of form and phenomena is Myo-Do-Gyung, the reflection of veritas, which is you
Re-establishing the unfinished masterpiece by Auguste Rodin, la Porte de I'Enfer-The Gates of Hell
by reinterpreting it as The Gates of Nirvana
The Gates, which have been introduced as the prominent artwork of Optical Awakening Trans-Art, is a sculpture depicting the ‘Gates of Heaven(Nirvana)’ inspired by The Gates of Hell, the unfinished masterpiece sculpture by Auguste Rodin.
While The Gates of Hell symbolize the beginning of endless suffering as well as punishment from God on the one side, it could also symbolize the end of suffering from the other side, if one could extricate himself from hell through that gate.
According to Buddha, Nirvana (ultimate transcendence, the absolute awakening) is simply the end of dukkha, the end of suffering.
It means that the Gates of Hell could be the Gates of Nirvana at the same time, depending on which side of the gates that one is standing on.
The artist reinterprets the dual nature of the gates of Heaven and Hell by using the western religious definition of hell and Eastern philosophical understanding of Nirvana, and raises a profound question of religious philosophy through the Gates.
The artist solely reinterpreted the “gates,” instead of the scene from Dante Alighieri's Inferno depicted in the Gates of Hell, and completed it as the Gates of Nirvana. The artist contemplated on The Gates of Hell extensively before he created the Gates, which is the gates of hell and at the same time, the gates of Heaven or Nirvana, that reflects the perceiver’s inner state as a mirror.
The artist projected what he had realized at the moment of Gyun-sung (a glimpse of enlightenment) during a critical point early in his life when he was faced with hell (an inextricable quagmire when he believed the only way out was to commit suicide),and depicted the simple but profound truth in his work The Gates.
The artist shows that the suchness of life and your perceived reality is a mirror that reflects you. It is when you voluntarily accept the unacceptable aspects of life, instead of resenting or giving up in the face of unacceptable reality, that what you perceived to be the Gates to hell will show its true face and turn into the Gates through which you can discover your true nature that cannot be distorted by whatever happens in your life. By giving up what makes up your ego and leaving it behind the gates, you will be left with the immutable essence that cannot be altered by form and phenomena.
That immutability is your True Nature that will shine even if you let go of your dark ego.
The Gates face Hell on one side and Heaven on the other. It was made so that a rusty mirror, which has become damaged and discolored, reflects the viewers on the side toward Hell, and a clean and clear mirror reflects the viewers on the side toward Heaven. It has been explained that it is up to the viewers to decide on which side they want to stand to see the reflections of themselves and the world, and that this privilege to choose your own state is a true gift or blessing from God.
It is also the essence of free will that cannot be taken away by anyone.
The artist indicates that Heaven and Hell do not refer to a certain location or place, but they are actually one’s inner state of consciousness and a dimension of perceiver’s presence. The question of what to have reflected on the gates and which side of the gates to open depends on the individual’s own volition and their present state of consciousness.
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