After a bit of a hiatus, drawing is back in "Religion of Trees." Today's class was a working our way through representative chapters from Stephanie Kaza's wonderful Buddhist Conversations with Trees. (I might have time later to tell you how this provided the perfect text for approaching a more general first year seminar topic: how to read a book - and why.)
The last of the chapters I'd selected, "Cutting Wood," narrates her experience stacking and then cutting wood for her fire - with a chainsaw! Kaza's reflection is framed in terms of a koan: "What is my relationship with wood?" I was going to have us take time to write on this ourselves, but the clock ran out. Instead, I made the prompt for our drawing just "wood." Assorted relationships are examined and unexamined here. (The recursive one at top left is by yours truly.)
