Zuni Icosahedron’s Hua-yen Buddhaverse is a performance that simultaneously behaves as a guided meditation, transporting the audience on an immersive journey to mindfulness.
Since the 1980’s, the Hong Kong based experimental theatre company has been consistently reinterpreting, reinventing and recreating existing frameworks and traditions in theatre.
By explicitly appropriating new media art technologies such as digital projection and immersive sound design in what is traditionally a non-digital space, audiences are introduced to a new way of interacting with these ancient practices – exploring what could be considered the ‘technological sublime’.
“The digital world is made up of the digits ‘0’ and ‘1’ upon which an infinite digital world is thus created. The inspiration for the multimedia design of the performance Hua-yen Sutra originates from the concept of ‘One’ and ‘Many’, or ‘Unity’ and ‘Diversity’, in the World of Hua-yen.”
From the perspective of Zazen, meditation practice is not about attaining some special, new state of mind or being, but about fully realising the inner dignity of this present body and mind. Hua-yen further explicates the importance of the relationship of wholeness to everyday activities, mirroring the central emphasis of Zen training on expressing clear awareness amid ordinary conduct. With Thích Nhất Hạnh’s guidance of “Mindfulness through movement”, people can keep all the mindful moments in the present.
