Sheba Remy Kharbanda

Creatrix | Visionary | Alchemist

Metaphysics Practice

13 Moons Project

Director

Installation - Five Rivers: A Portrait of Partition

Oral History - Vilayati Tarti/Foreign Land Project

Video

third quarter.jpg

Words

waxing gibbous.jpg

Forthcoming

Dreaming the Motherland series
*
*
Selves seeing selves and the power of being visioned, witnessed, seen

Dreaming the Motherland series
*
*
No matter what, no matter where, these become the roots I stand on

Meditations on Power V
☀️
I took the long route to the motherland which involved an extended layover in the city of my birth, my first material home in this incarnation. Earlier this year, after tangling with a bad case of the flu (first case of it in my life), I stumbled upon the West London Buddhist Centre, a not-so-small oasis in my old stomping grounds. I have made many soul friends here and so whenever I am in town, I make a point of attending the lunchtime sit in their peaceful and welcoming meditation room. On Tuesday I entered the room for my last sit in 2018 and noticed a photo of the order’s founder sitting on the altar. The energy in the space was the same as it always was, expansive and welcoming. So I made nothing of it. After everyone had settled, the teacher for the day explained that the photo was there to commemorate the passing that morning of the order’s founder. Urgyen Sangharakshita.
He was 93. Teacher concluded by asking us to continue to breathe, and well, for as long as we have left in this incarnation.
☀️
There is much controversy surrounding Sangharakshita, that the order is cultish, that there has been a pattern and practice of enabling and excusing abuse. For a while, this info kept me from fully opening my heart in the space. Nevertheless, on hearing the news, I had to take a private moment to shed a tear for this soul’s transition, for a journey that I know was rife with questioning and doubt - like all of us.
☀️
It is a sad fact of human existence that great people are sometimes also very bad. There are no absolutes in life. Leading aside this habit of ours of lionizing personalities, which if we’re honest is the root of a lot of our dissociation around so-called “good” and “bad,” it is a testament to something which I don’t feel competent to name that this human managed to create such an important space and for work that feels as necessary and relevant as ever.
☀️
Continued in comments

©2018 Sheba Remy Kharbanda