01 Reacquaint yourself
During this period of the new crown epidemic, I don't know if it is a chance for heaven to give us a chance to come back and know ourselves?
During this time, many people are diagnosed, or not necessarily diagnosed, but because the people around you are diagnosed, so you must be isolated at home and manage yourself.
We may not like to isolate this restriction too much. Because you can't go to the movies, you can't go to the restaurant, you can't go to see the friends you want to meet.
Of course, isolation seems to be a negative thing, but from another point of view, is it possible that isolation is a very special opportunity to be with yourself?
I came back from London in March 2020 and used to be quarantined for ten days. During those ten days, I naively called the staff and said, today the sun is good, there is no one by the river, can I go down and take a walk? They say, you've been targeted, and you're going to be fined for doing it.
Later, during those ten days, I slowly got used to self-isolation. Because I couldn't go out, I had no plans or ambitions, so I was at home at ease writing, reading, or listening to music.
I hadn't listened to Baha's cello a cappella music like this in a long time, and I hadn't cooked myself such a good pot of porridge for a long time.
I suddenly felt like I was back with myself! I don't think it's easy to be with myself. Because we are usually busy with work and socializing, we are always with relatives and friends, but there are few opportunities to be with ourselves.
So during this period of isolation, I want you to try to face a certain kind of happiness of being alone with another mood.
To be alone is to be with yourself, to find yourself that you may not have faced for a long time, to talk to him, to really feel what your inner self desires?
02 Isolation pool
On May 16, 2020, I remember it well, that day I bought a ticket to Fly to Taipei from Taitung and prepared to return to Taipei.
However, on that day, a very serious situation was suddenly announced, and we were going to enter a state of third-level alert.
So I cancelled my flight and went to live in a farmhouse on the pond for the artists stationed in the village.
▲ Jiang Xun, "Qiuqing in the Valley", oil paint canvas, 2021
I didn't expect that the three-level alert would continue for so long. It wasn't until the end of August that I left the pool. That said, I had about three months of complete contact with the outside world and completely self-isolated.
I was not diagnosed and was not asked to quarantine. But in that state, I don't have contact with the outside world, not only for myself, but also for others.
At that time at that farmhouse, my nearest neighbor was also far away. So I walk for an hour or two a day, and I don't see anyone, and the people who come and go with me are some stray cats. I drew a lot of cats.
I've always had a fear of cats, but during that time, I actually liked cats. At the same time, I also began to copy the scriptures every day, and I wanted to pray for many friends who may have panicked during the diagnosis.
▲ Jiang Xun / Filming "The Milk Cat Watching His Shadow"
I couldn't do anything to help, so I had to read the scriptures and copy the Buddhist scriptures to reassure myself and reassure some panicked friends.
03 Back to our office
Because I copied the scriptures and painted for a long time every day, I stretched a large canvas, 244 centimeters in length and 122 centimeters in height.
When I was faced with a blank canvas, a lot of pictures appeared in my mind. In the past, I enjoyed going to Chiang Mai in Thailand, Luang Prabang in Laos, and Wa State in Myanmar.
On a road in southern Buddhism, every morning I would see a scene in which the monks in the temple would carry a bowl in their hands, which is now the bowl for eating, and go to the center of the city to the commercial streets to beg for food. The locals would kneel on the ground and put the prepared food in their bowls.
▲ Jiang Xun, "Back to this Place", Oil Paint Canvas, 2020
This scene is exactly like the beginning of the Diamond Sutra. More than two thousand years ago, the first lesson that the Buddha led his students to do was "begging for food," begging for food.
In our culture, we have always had a more negative view of begging for food, begging like a beggar. We are not encouraged from a young age to ask for food from others.
But why in India would the Buddha want his students to do the homework of "begging for food"? Slowly, I began to understand that the lesson of "begging for food" is not easy to do.
We all have a lot of arrogance in us, and it is actually very difficult to take a bowl and ask others for something to eat. So will the "begging" at the beginning of the Diamond Sutra actually be a very important lesson? How humble we have to be, so that we can feel that living in the world actually needs the help of many people.
Facing that blank canvas, I wanted to paint the picture I saw in Chiang Mai during the three-level alert isolation. It took about three months to complete the painting, and then I revised it one after another until December 2020.
This painting is a painting that makes a wish for many sentient beings in the new crown epidemic, and I hope to work with you to wish that the epidemic will end as soon as possible, and also to bless all sentient beings who have suffered in the epidemic and even passed away.
Edit: Wang Yun