Body Temple

You are your own temple

Offer flowers, prayers, poojas

Worship god and guru within you

Performance, 2017, Owl Barn Residency, Gloustershire, UK

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This performance piece explores the theme on contemporary relation to the ‘act of worship’ in human lives.

In human history up until today, many people and religions have been worshipping a false god.

As a result, people caused destruction, accuse one other, created slave and master hierarchy, and killed one another in the name of God.

A human being is still not getting over religious dismay even after the enlightenment.

Many people are atheists in contemporary society. But also, many people are religious.

The problem with some religions is that they teach people to worship external gods. Some people follow gurus for seeking salvation, but by the following guru, they give away their own power to the gurus. That’s how gurus gather energy from people and develop their fame and power.

At the same time, we cannot deny that there is something in this world we cannot fully explain with mere science and logic. I’m interested in this inexplicable realm, the realm of the unknown.

Inspired by the Hindu traditional ritual called, ’Abhishekam’ I would like to propose a performance piece titled Body Temple’.

Abhishekam is the Hindu ritual of bathing the deity with water or other items such as milk or ghee while chanting mantras. By pouring liquid, power, and flower into the statue of the deity they worship, people believe that they are blessing God. Thorough cleansing and purifying of the external form of God’s statue, and purification ritual through Abhishekam, they believe their soul is also collectively purified and cleansed. After pouring the liquid and powers, they would close the curtain and the statue of the deity will be cleansed, and fully dressed in beautiful clothes and jewelry in the end.

Milk, honey, fruits juice, sacred water, water with sacred ashes, etc. are poured onto the statue one after another.

I conducted the Abhishekam ritual on my own body.

I believe that divine presence and gurus are within each one of us. The point of worship must be within us.

Through the blessing ritual of Abhishekam ritual onto my human organic body, I would like to suggest a new vision of human relationships with ‘act of worship’.

Many religions teach us to oppress our sexuality and plant a seed of guilt and shame onto our bodies.

However, the human body is the most precious vehicle of our soul. I engage with Tantric Teaching by Osho, “embracing our sexual nature fully, through which our true liberation from the body will naturally occur.”

Body Temple, performance documentation (English version) 13min

*The video can be watched with a donation-based contribution. Please make an inquiry via the contact page.

Body Temple, performance documentation (Japanese version) 13min

*The video can be watched with a donation-based contribution. Please make an inquiry via the contact page.