Liberate your soul

Krissy Keefer of Dance Brigade
(photo by Anastacia Powers Cuellar)

San Francisco's feminist troupe

Dance Brigade

presents

THE GREAT LIBERATION UPON HEARING

 

at Dance Theater Workshop 

Thursday-Friday, July 7-8 (7:30pm)

Saturday, July 9 (2pm and 7:30pm)

Writer/director/choreographer Krissy Keefer, called a "rabble-rouser" by the San Francisco Weekly, has turned to the Tibetan Book of the Dead for her unique new work, performed by a group of 12 including a taiko drummer. The Tibetan Book of the Dead, whose actual title is "The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State" or "Bardo Thodol," acts as a guide for the dead during the state that intervenes death and the next rebirth. It is read aloud to the dead while they are in the state between death and reincarnation in order for them to attain liberation.

Founded in 1984, the feminist group Dance Brigade engages diverse communities and artists in their multicultural, multi-media dance/theater works. At home, in San Francisco, they operate the Dance Mission Theater, support the dance company, produce a series of annual events showcasing both emerging and established Bay Area choreographers, and conduct dance programs for adults and youth. For more information, click here.

For reservations, call 212-924-0077 or click here.

Dance Theater Workshop

219 West 19th Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues), Manhattan

(map and directions)

When you're ready to move beyond Oprah...

The gorgeous, always imaginative Rubin Museum of Art is well into a series of seven Wednesday evening conversations called Tibetan Book of the Dead Book Club in association with its special exhibitions, Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife and Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures. Each Wednesday, curator Ramon Prats explores the TBD from different perspectives with an expert representing a particular discipline. They inquire: Does the TBD have relevance, wisdom and practical application for us today?

This week, I attended Prats's talk with Jungian psychoanalyst Morgan Stebbins on "The Analysis of Dreams," a topic of perennial relevance. According to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, dreams will always be relevant as long as humans exist, as long as humans remain unenlightened. Enlightened beings do not dream. They no longer have to, for to dream is to open onto an altered level of awareness in which we come face to face with avoided, unknown or normally inaccessible issues.

Stebbins discussed how Tibetan ideas and traditions around this heightened state of awareness parallels the theories and practices of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychoanalytic approach, he said, represents a journey into the "totality of one's being--the Buddha nature" where one can gain information on unconscious patterns of behavior, insight into so-called symptoms that are actually "symbolic attempts to get to somewhere new." Dreams herald a shift towards liberation.

And the TBD considers this liberation through hearing, as Prats mentioned, in his intriguing introductory remarks. Why hearing, I wondered? One sentence from a TBD passage read later suggested the reason: "So, recognize what I show you without distraction." We are simply too distracted by illusion to get with reality. Like children in school, we have to be brought to attention and made to hear. The Bardo afterlife process, Tibetan Buddhists believe, first brings the soul to that required place of attention and learning before it can move on in its journey. But dreams offer powerful opportunities for growth within our lifetime.

And what of the images of deities of wrath, featured in so much Tibetan art? And what of our own terrifying nightmares?

"Psychologically speaking, nightmares are great news," says Stebbins. "Wake up! Look at this! It has a lot of energy. You have a lot of energy you're not using. Change is scary."

Upcoming TBD Book Club sessions will feature Rabbi Neil Gillman on "The Death of Death" (July 28), Brooklyn Museum curator Edward Bleiberg on "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" (August 11), medium Jesse Bravo on "Channeling the Dead" (August 18) and Roshi Enkyo O'Hara on "How to Die" (August 25)--all at 7pm. Click here for full information and tickets, and promptness--in both ticket purchasing and showing up to get a good seat--is strongly advised.

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan

Directions