Matsuda Hisae - Leading with love: inspiration for spiritual activists

Parallax Press

P.O. Box 7355

Berkeley, California 94707

parallax.org

Parallax Press is the publishing division of Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism

Text 2018 Parallax Press

Artwork 2018 Maude White

All rights reserved

Cover and text design by Jess Morphew

Illustrations 2018 Maude White

Photographs of artwork 2018 Gary Gold

Illustrator photo Mallory DAlessandro

Editor photo Hisae Matsuda

Translation of song text of De noche (At Night) Ateliers et Presses de Taiz, Taiz, France

Excerpt from You Worry Too Much by Jalal ad-Din Rumi, reprinted with permission of Jain Publishing Company, Fremont, California

The Peace of Wild Things 2012 by Wendell Berry, reprinted with permission of Counterpoint Press, Berkeley, California

Ebook ISBN9781946764386

v5.3.2

a

To my mother, who is a compass and a beacon MW

To Meia, Leo, and Nina HM

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper.

THICH NHAT HANH

These words are printed on the calendar above my desk at Parallax Press, and they are also next to my writing table at home. They remind me that no matter how divided or separate we may feel in our activism, spirituality, work, or family lives, in reality we are always interconnected. As someone who earns her livelihood editing books, paperthat dry, flat medium pressed from the flesh of trees and other plantshas a special meaning for me. But its significance goes deeper. Paper was a precious substance in ancient cultures, the main means humankind has had for centuries to keep and continue its stories from one generation to another. It is sacred. If you were to visit my native Japan, for example, you would see shrines and sacred trees garlanded with cut-and-folded paper zig-zags called shide, representing bolts of lightning; in ceremonies, priests purify you by waving not a smudge stick, but a wand tassel-ed with these same paper shide. In his book Awakening of the Heart, Zen teacher and Parallax founder Thich Nhat Hanh writes how a sheet of paper does more than symbolize the sacred; it contains the whole universe within it:

Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine.

You cannot point out one thing that is not heretime, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sun-shine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything coexists with this sheet of paper. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.

How wonderful, then, that in this book of quotes by and for spiritual activists we are able to include these cut-paper art pieces by New York artist Maude White. Using nothing more than a blank sheet of paper and a very sharp X-Acto knife, Maude reveals images that convey the intricacy and interconnectedness of existence. I believe very strongly that art can heal, Maude writes in her artists statement, art can be a gentle conduit, a precious, living thing that can enter both creator and viewer and thereby extend them and connect them.

Maude, like some of the people quoted in this book, is an artivist whose intention is to inspire and not merely to illustrate. My work is created with love for the primary purpose of sharing love and encouraging love between others, she says. I am not creating for arts sake.

The editors at Parallax Press and I have chosen the quotes in this book with a similar intention of sharing voices of healing, love, and connection, especially during these dark days. The number of refugees from wars, environmental destruction, poverty, and societal breakdown in our world is unprecedented in history. As a species, we humans are finally becoming aware that we need to find new ways to take care of each other, ourselves, and our planet to survive and thrive.

Here are words from some of the most prominent inspirations of the modern peace movementMahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh and his studentspeople who have forged their spirituality in the fire of open conflict, war, and injustice. Sometimes the battlefield is an inner one in the form of personal, familial, or generational trauma; we also chose quotes from people who work courageously in their communities with little recognition or who use a deeply personal practice to transfigure their pain into beauty through their art. Some of the people we chose to quote are household names, while others are relatively unknown. They all share the trait of standing up for truth and love, sometimes at great personal risk. Following in the Parallax Press tradition of publishing people who bring beauty and joy into their work for peace and justice, weve also included visionaries of social change who are poets, gardeners, artists, singers, musicians, cooks, teachers, farmers, and writers.

These quotes are for activists who know theyll burn out without self-care, mindfulness, and compassion, who need to hear words of encouragement and to know that they are not alone. Words are powerful, and the right words at the right time can uplift and inspire us during the most difficult experiences life may bring.

May these words on paper remind you of our interconnectedness. There is a community of people who are walking alongside us, from all over the world and throughout history, inspiring and supporting us as we move forward into a future we cant yet imagine, but which we know exists, about to be realized in the present moment.

Hisae Matsuda

January 2018

Richmond, California

Thich Nhat Hanh, Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2011), 413.

To be alive in this wonderful self-organizing universe, involved in the dance of life with the senses to perceive, with lungs to breathe, with organs that can obtain their nourishmentthis is a miracle for which there are no words.

JOANNA MACY

Go into nature, fall back in love with the natural world, and let your commitment stem from that place of connection. What you see may spark a powerful connection that will motivate you into action.

XIUHTEZCATL MARTINEZ