Personal Progression Project: Atma-Graha
full video
The direct, veridical perception of natural states can involve any of the Three Natures.
Three consciousnesses–eyes, ears, and body–occupy two grounds.
[They interact with] the universally interactive, the particular states, the eleven wholesome;
Two intermediate grades, eight major grades, greed, anger, and foolishness.
The five consciousnesses are all supported by organs of pure form.
That with nine preconditions and those with seven and eight are close neighbors.
Three perceive the world of defilement by contact and two perceive it at a distance.
The foolish have difficulty distinguishing consciousness from organ.
The transformation of the perceived division in the contemplation of emptiness is merely Later Attained Wisdom.
At the fruition, if there is still self, there is not total truth.
At the initial emergence of perfect clarity, the stage of no outflows is realized.
Using Three Kinds of Transformation Bodies, one brings the wheel of suffering to rest.
( Xuanzang , AD 596-664 )
Buddhism widely believes that there are eight consciousnesses in a human’s body and soul, which includes the sense of vision, auditory, smell, gustation, touch and mind, then the seventh consciousness is Manas (as known as ego-consciousness or self-consciousness). The last one is called Alaya, but it is not related to my PPP. Atma-Graha is a concept describing the situation of people suffering because of chasing Manas. (Lusthaus, 2002)
I have done many researches to help complete my understanding to this very abstract theory. Of course, knowledge base is definitely needed. Fortunately, I born in a family that believe in Buddha. I had chance to learn many Buddhism philosophies from real Monks.
At last there are three themes remaining, that are “the connection between sensory and Manas”, “fear of not being ‘I'” and “what Atma-Graha is”. These three things are what I will talk about. In my imagine, this project will be an animation.
Unfortunately, before my deadline, I came back to Shanghai and got in quarantine provided by Shanghai government officially. I was not with my working stuffs, which is why I change my plan from animation to a video. Because only things I have is the video parts I saved in my laptop and a camera. Amitabha…
As a beginner who have never done a video work before. It will be hard to have a rhythm when making video. Personally, I would like to produce the background music first. But I just forgot I am a beginner of making music too. Thus it spent me a whole day to learn basic music theory and simple arrangements. At the same time I experiment by using Logic Pro X. I am a big fan of Morden Rock music, so my first music making is rock style. For another reason that I will present the content of “fear of not being ‘I'”, the music really needed to be passionate. Even thought it will be strange to make music before video, I have done.
I intend to show some research I did to make my theme stronger. One good method is find the similar things in other culture rather than stuck by only Buddhism culture.
After researching, I found many philosophers in human history had discussed about similar things with Atma-Graha. In the ancient China, one famous Taoism theorist, Zhuang Zhou had came up with a concept inspired by his butterfly dream, which is very helpful.
Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering about, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know that he was Zhuang Zhou.
Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things. (Zhuangzi. and Watson, 2003)
This story influenced many Eastern Taoism philosophers in the after ages. Behind the transformation of Zhuang Zhou’s identity, whatever he was Zhuang Zhou or a butterfly, the self-consciousness had no change. In his dream, subjectivity and objectivity were no longer opposing, but there is the subjectivity decided how the objective world be like. Comparing to the Buddhist concept, we discovered that the another five sensory consciousnesses( vision, auditory, smell…) in Zhuang Zhou’s dream are don’t really exist. They are all born from his self-consciousness, Manas. I supposed to use butterfly as a symbol of Manas in my video.
The idea was from a little argue between I and my girlfriend Tongyan. I posted a photo of flowers edited by using mirror effect on Instagram. Because of its bilateral symmetry, Tongyan said it looks like a moth and she was scared at once when clicking it. I did not think so and edit another photo. This time the photo of leaves was just like a butterfly. I quickly thought of editing more than 100 photos by using the method and jointing them together as a part in my video to present the butterfly, which means the Manas is everywhere. Because everything seen by our eyes are actually subjective. It shows the view of “sensories are born from Manas, every objective things are depends on subjectivity”.
In the other side of the world, western philosophers raised the same opinion, which is the most impressive one in my all researches.
Cogito, ergo sum.
—René Descartes
This sentence usually translated as ‘I think I am’ in English. In this position, ‘I am’ means ‘I exit’. (Descartes and Veitch, 1953) Theories holding this opinion are usually called Idealism, established by Plato. In their views, ‘I’ is the premise of how the reality make sense, the bound between reality and unreality was drawn by ourselves. Some philosophers even believe that everything is not real. Developed from this assumption, a proposition was made by Hilary Whitehall Putnam, Which is the question of ‘Brain in a Vat’. Although this question is not really related to my concept, but I would like to make use with it for easy to understand what Atma-Graha is.
Here is a science fiction possibility discussed by philosophers: imagine that a human being (you can imagine this to be yourself) has been subjected to an operation by an evil scientist. The person’s brain (your brain) has been removed from the body and 6 Brains in a vat Brains in a vat 7 placed in a vat of nutrients which keeps the brain alive. The nerve endings have been connected to a super-scientific computer which causes the person whose brain it is to have the illusion that everything is perfectly normal.……(Putnam, 2015)
This made me imagined that in my video, we were all brains inside the vat (in Buddhist theory, we really are), and sensory consciousness are all fabricated. The true us are only the self-consciousness in those brains. It must be a nice shot.
Yes… I have really done that. After I came back my hometown, I went to many place and finally bought two frozen pig’s brains. But what is bad, these two brains are flatten for convenient to transport. So their quality is actually not so promising for me. Especially the smell, I want to vomit even just thinking about it. I putted them in a small fish tank, and shot some video for them. Then I just threw them.
full video of Cremation
The Chʼeng Wei-shih Lun said that Atma-Graha is a situation that people are suffering when they are chasing themself. And when they realize their sensory and the world even the identity “ I “ were not real, they will fall in the strongest fear they never have. But only experienced that fear, they can finally know the truth of this universe. Then they would be like nirvana, and walk on the way to Buddha.(Lusthaus, 2002)
I think the fear given by Atma-Graha when they make clear of truth is essentially a strong unstable feeling of identity. That is why Buddhism always recognizes Atma-Graha as the obstacle of their way to Buddha. When Atma-Graha is too strong, it will drives them to become selfish, to become crazy even worse. When I was making video, I also watched many videos on Youtube made by other artists, and found somehow to present the fear.
This is a music video named Cremation. Music was produced by a rapper, MAKKENZ. And the video was made by a filmmaker, Qcon Saibai. This video is made by using fast cut back of many images. The high rhythm of four images per second provides a nervous feeling. I also interested in the content of those images. Qcon made many digital changes that let audiences feel uncomfortable. He erased people’s eyes on images, which makes they look like spiritual images. He also added many images of eastern and western religious painting, to create a feeling of Occult.
I do not really understand the lyric in this music video, but I do received the emotion it wants to show indeed. I found this style of video will be very useful to present my theme. I think the way of fast cut back of using images can make a doomsday like effect. This effect is perfectly suitable to describe the fear in my understanding just look like earthquake. People’s old memories and world view will be broken by the enlightenment of Atma-Graha. After destroying the rebirth comes. I learned from this video and made a video on this style.
When I was in isolation in this very difficult time with nothing but notebooks. I fold papers to kill time. In China, child do fold paper since they can remember things. It is an art as old as paper. We have been told that paper folding had been invented thousands years ago in China around 105 A.D.. After it diffused to Japan, Japanese called it Origami, which is the official name of this art. We fold papers to beautiful shapes without cutting. It is quite difficult but interesting. I like the when paper transforms from the plane to 3D. It has the original beauty of geometry from the east.
Usually we use papers with patterns to fold, but I prefer white paper. The white paper is just like the very origin of human’s consciousness, pure, flexible and mutable. I decided to fold six paper flowers to symbolize the six consciousnesses, and a bigger one as Manas. Because flower is often used as metaphor in eastern culture. For example, in Japanese Noh Drama, flower means the pivot of role and something else. (Amano, 2011) I would like to add one more meaning to flower itself.
I was imagining of using photography of those origami flowers to make a short flame Animation and add it to my video. But it seems not so fitting in the video, so finally I gave up this idea.
The whole structure is, firstly showing the five sensory consciousnesses, secondly a self-talk to show the mind consciousness. The last part is about Manas, Atma-Graha and symbols.
I used Photoshop to experiment the composition. If passed, I make it by using Premiere Pro.
Every shot in my video has its original draft. I used phone to shot the draft first, and then used camera again.
-Xuanzang, Wei, T. and Vasubandhu., 1973. Cheng Wei Shi Lun. Hong Kong: Ch’eng Wei-shih Lun Publication Committee.
– Lusthaus, D., 2002. Buddhist Phenomenology. London: RoutledgeCurzon. p.146.
-Lu Chi,1550. Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly. [Ink on Silk].Asian Art Museum San Francisco.
– Watson, Burton (2003). Zhuangzi: Basic Writings (3rd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 44.
– Descartes, René (1953). A Discourse on Method: Meditations and Principles. Translated by Veitch, John. London: Orion Publishing Group. p. 15.
– Putnam, Hilary. “Brains in a Vat” (PDF). Retrieved 21 April 2015. https://philosophy.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/Brains%20in%20a%20Vat%20-%20Hilary%20Putnam.pdf
– Qcon, Saibai. 2016. Cremation. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISBCs8ieLig. Accessed 8 May 2020.
– Amano, Yuka. “‘Flower’ as Performing Body in Nō Theatre.” Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 28, no. 2, 2011, pp. 529–548. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41306514. Accessed 8 May 2020.