Carving, Culture, and Karma

Exploring the Creative, Material, Social Expressions of our Practice

a month of Bowl-Carving for Buddhists with Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey

Mondays September 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th, 2024

2pm Hawaii, 5pm Pacific, 8pm East

on zoom

How do we take time to understand and shape the movement from mental intention to physical action?

How do we develop social practices that restrain the tendencies toward ownership, self, and greed while cultivating generosity, non-identification, and love?

What will be the material culture of Western Buddhism in the next 100 years? What role do we have to play in that evolution?

For Jesse, much of his exploration of the lived values and expressions of his meditation practice have come in the form of craft: writing, weaving, music, food, art, etc. Spoon-carving has long been one of his favorite ways to try to understand more deeply the role of intention and action as they relate to the Buddha's teachings in his life.  It is not the same as meditation, but it has been an important a doorway into understanding the precepts, the 3 jewels, the 10 paramis, dependent-origination, and many other Buddhist teachings.

While he has led some workshops on the practice, mostly it has been not integrated into his Buddhist teaching because he has not felt he understood how to make the connection between wood-carving and the Dhamma explicit, meaningful, and clear. But in the last year, particularly during his sabbatical travels in South America, something finally became more coherent, especially in terms of how we begin to build a sense of shared material culture in our tradition - and it seemed like a good opportunity to create a learning experience for his vipassana students to take part in.

And so - Jesse would like to invite anyone interested to join him for a month of bowl-carving lessons and talk-story about all of these subjects during the month of September, 2024. On Monday evenings, we will carve together, share learnings, experiences, ideas about how our practice unfolds in the world, and how it may develop in the future. While spoons are great fun, there is something more profound, more universal - more resonant with our goal - about a bowl. But it is a harder project. Perhaps a more boring one! Maybe just as a matter of intuition, bowls seemed like a better place for us to start.

Wood-carving is not easy. Finishing your bowl within the month will take a lot of work and time on your own - outside our Monday class times. But the result will be a month-long shared experience of creation, a new skill set, and an object that you can use on your own or give away. That will be the one commitment/rule of our production process:

Never sell what we make together: use it or give it away.

If you think you have the interest and energy, please join us! No previous experience is necessary!

Costs

The cost for the course will be $120 - (Our normal rate of $30/zoom session day). Scholarships will be available.

There will be additional costs for materials - knives and wood blanks - if you need to purchase them, totaling around $125.

Here are some details:

For about $65 dollars you can buy both of the knives you need - straight knife and a crooked knife.

I recommend these two knives to start:

The Moraniv Double-Edged Hook Knife and the Moraniv 106 Straight knife

You will want to keep your blades sharp, so a stropping kit with compound would be good. Really, an old leather belt would be fine. But you can also purchase something like this.

(Those are all great tools and will serve you well for many years. If you know that you want to invest in more expensive, hand-made tools, just let us know and we can send you a few ideas.)

We will also be ordering cherry and birch bowl blanks from Emmit Van Driesche in Conway, Massachusetts, (about the size you see in the photo below) which he can sell us at 2 blanks for $43 - which includes the prices of shipping. PLEASE DO NOT ORDER FROM HIM YET. He will be preparing blanks for us in August, and we can order as the date nears.

TEACHER

Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey's teaching aims to inspire the skills, determination, and faith necessary to realize the deepest human freedom. He is a student of Michele McDonald and his approach is rooted in the tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. As a teacher of Vipassana (insight) meditation within the broader context of Theravadan Buddhism his teaching encourages an exploration of the relationship between ethics, insight, and action. Perpetually intrigued by the dynamics between inner and outer change, Jesse is a writer of numerous essays and author of Insurgent Heart: A Vipassana Manual for the Guerrilla Yogi. Links to his writing can be found on his website: www.dolessforpeace.org . He is a spoon carver who loves to teach people about how to work with their hands and explore the relationship between labor, ownership, and kamma. He is the resident teacher for Vipassana Hawai’i.

TEACHER DANA

In accordance with tradition, all Vipassana Hawai’i internationally respected teachers offer their teachings free of charge and are supported through the freely-offered generosity of students and supporters. Costs associated with retreats cover the growing expenses associated with online services, online storage, broadcasting equipment, and website administration - but do not support teacher time, training, effort, or energy. We believe that this commitment helps keep the purity of the teachings alive and thriving, as it has for millennia. They do not collect salaries in keeping with the time-honored tradition of sharing openly the chance for peace. This allows us to keep our registration fees as low as possible but also means that the livelihood of our teachers is precarious. As a result, we strive to give back in any for - including monetarily - so that they may continue their endeavors and share their wisdom. Vipassana Teachers must be supported in this way if we are to keep this tradition alive, healthy, and with integrity in the modern era. Dana, or generosity, can be offered by cash or check at the end of the retreat or online here.