By Eleanor Heartney

(Note: Eleanor Heartney, a renowned American art critic and essayist, has written many books and essays of art commentary. She is the former President of International Art Critics Association, American Section (AICAUSA), and the incumbent Chair of Annual Awards of the Association. Heartney has been the contributing editor for many art magazines, including Art in America and Artpress, etc. Her commentaries have been frequently published in publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, etc.)

Throughout history, Western art has frequently provided representations of states of spiritual transcendence - a tradition that encompasses works as diverse as Bernini's St Theresa in Ecstasy, the majestic landscapes of Hudson River School painters like Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt, and the luminous abstractions of Mark Rothko. Less common in the West has been art that proposes to embody spiritual truths. In such works, the object is designed, not simply to inspire feelings of devotion or sublimity, but to have a transformative effect on the viewer and to bring him or her into direct contact with divine or supernatural energies. However, outside the Western art tradition, and even at its margins, this tendency is more common, forming a category of art that includes African fetishes, Byzantine icons, and the work of visionary artists like Ernst Fuchs and Arik Brauer.

Created as a form of Buddhist practice, the vibrant paintings of Buddhist Master Lee Sun-Don belong to this special category. A Buddhist Patriarch who follows the Yuan-Dao Bodhisattva, Master Lee was authorized as the third Dharma heir of Buddhist Forshang in 1993. He is also a teacher, entrepreneur, novelist, musician and founder of GP DEVA • Frontier Art, a corporate enterprise devoted to social responsibility and cultural inspiration. He began painting in 1998 in an effort to harness the visual vocabulary of line, form and color to convey the joyful essence of the teachings of Forshang Buddhism. His loose, gestural works provide lyrical representations of states of ecstasy, harmony and contemplation while literally embodying the transformative energies of the universe.

From the perspective of the Western art critic, these works have a kinship with various strains of modernist and postmodernist art. In their spontaneity and freedom, they bring to mind the immersion in the moment that is a hallmark of process art, particularly as practiced by John Cage, who was himself a student of Buddhism. They also recall Kandinsky's interest in art and spirituality and his efforts to find visual form for the ineffable energies and harmony of the universe. And of course, there is a connection between Master Lee's direct and unfiltered images and the tradition of the self taught, visionary artists who channel visions of alternate realities through their art.

However from the perspective of Buddhist thought, such familiar critical issues are secondary to the larger meaning of these works as exemplars of Buddhist practice. Master Lee's paintings are imbued with Buddhist teachings about the oneness of nature, the impermanence of visible reality and the need for mindful awareness of the surrounding world. Painted in a style that melds Asian and Western traditions, they contain elements of Asian calligraphy and western expressionism. In an innovative departure from traditional Buddhist paintings, normally realized in ink on paper, they are painted in oil on canvas. Each contains a "totem", a symbol of universal energy and harmony, apprehended in the process of deep meditation. Both the brushstrokes and the colors express various aspects of the Dharma. (Red, for instance, refers to elimination of the apparent afflictions, contradictions and chaos of the world through spiritual enlightenment, while purple embodies the bestowal of blessings and fortune while yellow and white stand for wisdom.) Each totem is designed to spark a sense of enlightenment and transcendence in the viewer.

These expressive paintings contain images of landscapes, of devotees in meditation or at the moment of enlightenment, of musical instruments as metaphors for the harmonic energy of the cosmos, and of elements of everyday life transformed by Buddhist consciousness. Some works are whimsical. "The Green, My Beloved (To Achieve Ultimate Freedom)", a painting of a pair of frogs at the edge of a lotus pond, is a reminder that the Buddha nature exists in every living being. "Accordance of all Dharmas" suggests that for baseball players the meeting of the ball with the bat is a metaphor the kind of union of mind and body that is the essence of enlightenment.

Other paintings convey various emotional states. "Ha • Ha • Ha!", for instance, notes that laughter and joy are indispensable components of enlightened understanding. "Heavenly Blessing to Those in Love", evokes a contemplative mood, presenting a couple in a romantic landscape setting overcome with a sense of beauty. The fiery red in "To Surmount All Evils" presents the warrior side of Buddhist practice, taking a stand against the forces that threaten peace and harmony. Meanwhile, "Mindfulness • Buddha • Presence" is a reminder that each of us carries the Buddha nature within ourselves.

Even for a viewer not schooled in Buddhist teaching, the message of these works is clear. Reality can be expressed in many forms and the one-ness of the universe is best understood by immersion in the world as we find it. Master Lee's message is one of engagement, not retreat, in which enlightenment means finding beauty and harmony beneath the apparent chaos of the world.