— Mud Maid by Susan Hill for the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornall, England —

This work strongly reminds me of a reclining Buddha. Most sculpture depicting the reclining Buddha refer to the death (or parinirvana) of the renowned teacher. Some of these statues are quite elaborate. More than one is gilded with gold leaf.

But the humble coat of grass and moss on the Mud Maid speaks to me with greater authenticity than gold. In this sculpture I see a theme of simultaneous disintegration and continuance. The body looses its pattern, but not its life.

The Buddha taught that this disintegration and continuance are a fundamental truth of our lives that our egos only obscure. You are not the child that you were at three years of age, nor are you a different one. So the Buddha observed, “The fire burns through the night; at no two moments is it ever the same flame, nor is it a different one.” In contemplation triggered by this sculpture, I begin to appreciate the kaleidoscopic, birthless, deathless nature of reality.