Valerie Hellermann
Helena, Montana
Transmission, 2007
Porcelain, photo decal

Many thousands of Tibetan Buddhist Rinpoches (religious monks and teachers) have suffered imprisonment and torture under the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Despite their great suffering, they refuse to hate their enemy. With great compassion, they transform their minds and accept their situation as a teaching example. Here they offer discourse to those who will listen:

Live in joy, never hating those who hate us.

Live in freedom, without hatred, even among those who hate.

Joy consists not in returning hate for hate, but in refusing to be tainted by such a negative emotion.

This refusal gives us freedom from the burden of harmful feeling.

Bio
It was upon moving from Westchester County, New York, to Big Sky Country in Montana that Valerie Hellermann took her first ceramic class. From day one, the feel of clay in her hands and the instinctive shaping of mud into form was a new-found passion. Her work reflects her world travel experiences, Buddhism, and her work on issues of peace and social justice. Hellermann leads medical mission teams to areas of extreme need, including Zankar in Northern India, an extremely remote area inhabited by Tibetans, and the Greek island of Lesbos, where thousands of international refugees cling to existence.

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