The Ten Paramis by Stefania Russell

An exhibition of paintings by Ireland-based artist Stefania Russell inspired by the 10 Buddhist ‘paramis’ or ‘perfections.’

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“Everything depends on us treating each other well.
And if we said it enough, perhaps we’d believe it,
and if we believed it enough, perhaps we’d live it,
treating every other human like someone
who holds our very existence in their hands.“

– Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

The Ten Paramis are the heart qualities for ethical sensitivity and form the Buddhist practice to guide our daily life with Anukampa, a caring and loving connection with ourself and the world.

This is a collection of 10 paintings that has come into life during the period of a year long study, practice and reflections around these themes.

Thank You! to the Insight Meditation Centre and the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies in Redwood City, California for making this possible and deep gratitude to the teachings of Gil Fronsdal and Vanessa Able with the support of the the whole Sangha, the community around it.

– Stefania Russell

“You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made
Something greater from the difference.”

– Alberto Ríos

“To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden
as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.”

– Dhammapada v.183

“Can I weave a nest of silence,
weave it of listening,
listening, listening,
Layer upon layer?
But one must first become small,
Nothing but a presence,
Attentive as a nesting bird,
Proffering no slightest wish
Toward anything
that might happen or be given,
Only the warm, faithful waiting,
contained in one’s smallness.
Beyond the question,
the silence.
Before the answer,
the silence.”

– May Sarton

“One who is peaceful, without hate, and fearless is said to be wise.”

– Dhammapada v. 258

“What people truly seek is not mere meaning but a profound sense of aliveness.”

– Joseph Campbell

“If you can look across the distance without wanting to close it up, if you can own
your longing in the same way that you own the beauty of that blue that can never be possessed?
For something of this longing will, like the blue of distance, only be relocated,
not assuaged, by acquisition and arrival.”

– Rebecca Solnit

“In everyone’s life, there is great need for an anam cara, a soul friend. In this love, you are understood as you are without mask or pretension. The superficial and functional lies and half-truths of social acquaintance fall away, you can be as you really are. Love allows understanding to dawn, and understanding is precious.
Where you are understood, you are at home.”

– John O’Donohue

“Among our most powerful human capacities is to sense how any experience can awaken the heart’s natural tendency toward freedom and care. This is what inspires the “way-seeking mind” – the inner urge to grow in wisdom and compassion.”

– Gil Fronsdal

“To listen is to lean in softly with the willingness to be changed by what we hear.”

– Mark Nepo

“Clearly see phenomena
As they arise, here and there.
Knowing this – undefeated and unshaken-
Develop the mind.”

– Majjhima Nikaya 131

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