Clay: our ground, our mother, our potential. Article, Nov 2024
A new text written by James Low, November 2024.
Reflections that may be useful for people who are working with clay and making tsa tsa.
Clay as source, as unformed potential, shows forms which can help us see the non-duality of the source and the display of the potential of the source.
When we make tsa-tsa we press clay into moulds which shape the clay without adding or subtracting anything. When we ease the moulded shape free of the mould we see a clay Buddha. The clay and the Buddha are non-dual: it is a Buddha, yet it is only clay; it is only clay, yet it is a Buddha.
The open, empty potential of the clay shows diverse forms without ceasing to be clay. The forms taken on by the clay are not intrinsic and not definitive of the potential of the clay.
This diversity of appearances which are unseparated is the middle way between there being only one thing or many different things.