The Mogao Caves, set near the ancient Silk Road city of Dunhuang, are an oasis of Buddhist art that evolved over many centuries. As professor and theater director BLAZINGPeter Sellars embarks on his most ambitious project to date—a ten-year study in and BEACON of Dunhuang—he returns to themes that have animated his long and storied career: 124 that ideas and practices are shared across geographies and time, and that the art of performance can best reveal these living traditions. In the following text, Sellars tells BLAZING BEACONThomas Francis about his long-standing fascination with the Mogao Caves and his desire to bring the experience of the caves to a wider audience. 125 HOMAS FRANCIS How did you first learn about Dunhuang, and what was inspir- ing about it at the time? PETER SELLARS Well, for twenty-five years I’ve been completely obsessed with one of the first Mahayana Buddhist texts, the Vimalakrti Sutra, which prob- ably dates in its worldly form from the first centurya.d . It’s the first of a new brand of sutras that was followed by the Lotus Sutra, the Flower Ornament Sutra, and the Amitabha Sutra, which are about getting Buddhism out of the monastery, out of the intellectual sur - round of pure mind theory, and moving it into a public space where a nonliterate audience can en- ter the highest levels of practice. The strategies are amazing, in the Lotus Sutra they almost read like supermarket giveaways—everything is like, “No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, you’re already a Buddha.” That’s extremely differ- ent from the long, complex, straight-and-narrow path of the earlier texts. The Vimalak rti Sutra is quite entertaining. Like most of the sutras it’s in dialogue form: every time there’s a sutra it’s because Buddha has gath- ered a bunch of people to teach them something, or a bunch of people have gathered to ask him to teach them something. In fact one of my favorite parts of every Buddhist sutra is chapter 1, because it’s ten pages of guest list. Every time Buddha speaks, everybody is there, and they’re from all the worlds: animal worlds, spirit worlds, human worlds, gods and demigods—everybody is assembled. That for me is one of the most moving things: understand- ing that wherever you are, all the people you ad- mire are present—Martin Luther King is standing right next to you. If you have one beautiful, posi- tive, inspired thought, if your mind is directed pos- disciples are freaked out—they all say, “Get away, Previous spread: The Nine Story Temple The Mogao Caves. Photo by at Mogao, a UNESCO World itively and you’re focused on doing something of woman unclean, horrifying, stay back.” She’s in a Mick Roessler Heritages site in northwest benefit to other human beings, you’re not alone. very good mood, high hilarity, and she exchanges China, with sand dunes on the plateau above the cliff. In chapter 2, Buddha tells his disciples that bodies with S riputra. The switch is a great the - Photo View Stock/Alamy there’s a businessman, Vimalak rti, who is sick, but atrical moment, a kind of virtuosic and thrilling Stock Photo they can learn a lot from him because he’s very theater trick, and profound at the same time. Opposite: wise, so they should go visit him and offer him S riputra is freaked out now that he’s in a woman’s The Mogao Caves can be comfort. The disciples refuse to go; they’re of - body, so she says to him, “Still feeling unclean?” seen from a distance. Carved into the cliff face, the site fended by this guy Vimalak r ti. It’s ver y mov ing: if [laughter]. sits along the Daquan River you’re serious about Buddhism you renounce the TF Bait and switch. and is surrounded by desert. Photo View Stock/Alamy PS world and devote yourself to spiritual practice, so As far as I know, it’s the first statement in all Stock Photo the idea that this guy is both a businessman and of world literature about the equality of women. I has spiritual teachings to offer the disciples is a don’t know of anything else before the first cen- stunning reversal. Finally Buddha says “Just go.” tury that just lays it out with that kind of vividness So they arrive, but their heads are too big to fit into [laughs]. Then a few chapters later it’s five minutes Vimalak rti’s house, so one of the first miracles is to noon and S riputra panics, he says, “Oh my god, performed to reconfigure the architecture so that we’re going to miss lunch,” because as a Buddhist the disciples can all fit inside [laughs]. Then they’re monk you have to go out begging for food and eat all sitting down, but they need to sit on lion thrones, by noon, and then you’re not allowed to eat for the so lion thrones are flown in from some other galaxy rest of the day. So they’re going to miss lunch and [laughs]. Then Vimalak rti is lying on his sickbed, S riputra is freaked out. Vimalak rti says, “Dear the disciples are sitting on the other side of the S riputra, have you come here for spiritual teach- room, and finally Buddha’s most famous disciple, ing or for lunch?” There’s lots of comedy in it. S riputra, breaks the ice and says, “Okay, if So Vimalak rti sends for takeout, a billion you’re so holy, how come you’re sick all the time?” galaxies away, where there are these beings who Vimalak rti’s answer is astounding: he says that live only on perfume. It’s an entire world of per - all human beings carry with them so much pain— fume and magical fragrance. The perfume people acknowledged and unacknowledged, spoken and travel a billion galaxies to Earth in less than a sec- unspoken—that the only way he can hear what ond, they arrive with takeout, and everybody is they’re trying to say is to be in more pain than they given the perfume feast. It’s the best meal they’ve are. He can listen through pain to recognize what ever had. Then the perfume people start sniffing people are going through; his sickness is his Bud- around. They notice that everything on Earth is dhist practice. dirty and smells bad, and they say, “How can you TF So the room is silent. people live here?” So Vimalak rti does this amazing PS Right. Then in the next chapter, a goddess teaching where he explains to the perfume people is floating around in the rafters of the newly en- that they live in their sublime gated communities larged room and she decides to drop in. Buddha’s of perfection, but here on Earth people have to deal 126 with bad smells, dirt, inadequacy, anger, and there- the edge of a river about twenty miles outside Dun- fore they have to learn to practice compassion and huang. This was around the fourth century a.d. understanding and wisdom and love. In this way Interestingly there’s a tradition of Buddhist life on Earth is actually superior to places where rock-cut temples in the same formation in India, life is easier. in the Ajanta Caves in a cliff above a river bend. Anyway, the whole sutra has these amazing There the rock was such that you could carve into reversals, these miracles, this unexpected humor. it, so there are these amazing Buddhist sculptures YOU COME The high goes low, the low goes high. I’ve always emerging from the rock. The sculptors could not wanted to stage it. For twenty-five years I’ve been make a mistake, because they couldn’t put back collecting books with images of the Vimalak rti the rock that they’d just chiseled out. There was a ACROSS THE Sutra, and most of them turn out to be, of course, tradition of three prayers to every chisel stroke, be- in the Dunhuang caves. I was assembling an entire cause they had to be totally concentrated; so their shelf of books without ever quite putting it together car v ing was a spiritual practice. In Dunhuang, far- DESERT WHERE that all roads lead to Dunhuang [laughs]. ther along the route, the rock is crumbling, it has The Getty Conservation Institute in Los An- no substance, so they couldn’t carve, they had to geles has been work ing w ith the Dunhuang Acad- paint. They’d carve out caves, plaster them, then emy on the protection and preservation of the caves paint on the plaster surface. THERE’S NO for twenty-seven years. In the summer of 2016, the This was China’s westernmost frontier, and Institute and the Academy, together with the Getty it was a very violent time; the area was quite con- Research Institute, mounted a stunning exhibition: tested. Tibet ruled Dunhuang for a period in the COLOR, ONLY Cave Temples of Dunhuang. As the exhibition was eighth and ninth centuries. And the caves reflect taking shape, I was able to be part of a series of en- all of this in an interesting way. The interiors of counters with the curators and was invited to im- the caves were carved out and plastered as if they ag ine some of the ancillar y prog rams.