In the Robin museum of art, I started from the top floor as the professor suggested and gradually came down. The museum was quiet and relaxing; everything seemed to slow down in the museum, almost if I was brought to a different world from the busy and noisy New York City. It reminded me of my childhood; I visited the Buddhist temples every Chinese new year with my grandparents when I was a kid. The quietness of the museum reminded me of the road to the temples, peaceful and calm. Moreover, as I grew up with my Buddhist grandparents, I always thought people had previous lives and reincarnations. There was a saying that the birthmarks on people’s bodies were the reasons why people passed away in their last lives. Therefore I always thought about the birthmarks on my neck every time I thought of this, I might be stabbed by someone on the neck in the previous life. Furthermore, if we stay kind and true this life, we may not have to suffer too much from the process of reincarnations. Religion might be one of the ways to control people’s mind not to create chaos. If the belief of the religion was to respect the natural environment since every tree and plant have intelligence and souls. Parts of the people who believed this religion would become less criminal. The chaotic sides of people would somehow be controlled or limited by the religion. However, in this world, different religions exist. As people who understand Buddhism, and started to think about mortality and afterlives, they might change their perceptions of the future. If they do truly believe the religion, they will become more peaceful, the chaos in the world would not affect their thinkings. If people do treat mortality and afterlife seriously, they will not become so violent and criminal.
Second Buddha weaving narratives together to teach history to the future… Samsara. Buddhist tradition and its history with Hinduism. The way that these traditions perceive time, and notions of the future. Enlightenment experience? Embodied experience? Recomposing the past to inform the future?
