Jain Spirit 2003 10 No 16

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 13

GLOBAL NEWS
The installation: Ann with Majdanek survivors
CONVERSATIONS WITH ANGELS
During the summer months, New York-based Jain artist Ann McCoy, who is also a student of Gurudev Shree Chitrabanu, was invited to mount an exhibition at the Majdanek Museum in Poland. The Majdanek Museum is a former Nazi concentration camp near Lublin in Poland where 250 000 perished, and for Ann is a place where one encounters incomprehensible darkness" to which she wished to bring light.
Ann McCoy's installation at this site, entitled Conversations with Angels: An Installation for Majdanek. consists mainly of images that have come from her drawings of her own dreams. The installation was inspired by the book Talking with Angels. Ann explains the connection she made between Jain spirituality and this book, which brought about the exhibition.
"Each morning, in pooja. Jains UNIQUE NEW INTERCULTURAL PROGRAMME FOR YOUNG PEOPLE United Religions Initiative (URI) UK is initiating a university-validated Certificate and Diploma in Intercultural Development for young people in the 18- 24 age group, and is currently embarking on a pilot phase prior to course validation There will be a large element of developing practical skills in this programme. It is not intended to be a course in comparative religion, but rather
ask to be forgiven for all they have done and in return to forgive others. The Jain prayer is: “May I forgive all souls and have them forgive me. For me. Majadanek represents the heart of darkness, a place where all of us could meditate on how to be forgiven for our acts of violence in word and deed. So much of modern culture seems to be programmed for violence. A second part of morning pooja involves holding a mirror to reflect images of the divine (transcendent Self) into the heart centre. The practice presents a way of bringing the divine and forgiveness in our own hearts. For me this practice is beautifully described in a book by three Jewish girls who died in the camps. Talking with Angels is a book that transcribes the conversations with angels (agents of the divine) experienced by four girls in Hungary between 1943 and 1944. Three of the girls perished in the concentration
camps, and the only survivor published the book in 1953. I was very moved by one of the passages and its relationship to the Jain mirror (pooja) practice. "Listen carefully! There is a wonderful mirror in you. MIRROR THAT REVEALS ALL! IT DWELLS INSIDE OF YOU AND REFLECTS THE DIVINE. BUT ONLY IN SILENCE. If a tiny mosquito alights on its surface, the mirror is clouded. If the mirror is not clear, you cannot create. Focus all of your attention on it. Heaven does not hide before the wonderful mirror." My idea is to have each viewer meditate on an image and reflect it into their heart centre. For me the clouding on the mirror is our lack of forgiveness and compassion, our violence and negative judgment."
Each viewer is asked to sit in one of the chairs, with a hand mirror mounted to the right of each chair, The mirror reflects an image projected on a scrim in front of the viewer, into the viewer's heart centre. Even though Ann is from a Catholic background and a practising Jain, the images are meant to appeal to people of all faiths, not one particular religion. The child represented in the projections represents new possibility. The images are to inspire meditation on the cosmos and the positive potential found in all hearts. For further information on Ann McCoy's work, please visit her web site www.annmccoy.com
a community-based programme that builds skills and develops an awareness of how to work with and between different faith groups.
The Certificate will comprise six modules - Organiser Skills. Leadership Skills, Community Module, Faith and Culture, Youth Module and Special Projects Module. All of these will involve community-based learning in which the modules are essentially self-contained activities and can be taken as stand-alone pieces of work. Each of the modules has
an interfaith/intercultural context, although only one - Faith and Culture - will focus exclusively on these issues.
URI UK envisages that in the future an additional layer will be implemented which, alongside the work for the Certificate, will lead to a Diploma. This layer will be more academically-oriented and will suit those such as university graduates who would like to develop professionally. Please visit www.uri.org.uk for further information.
Photo: Marta Kubiszy/Elizbieta Zajecka
September - November 2003. Jain Spirit
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