Flowers Fall and Return to Earth (花落以土) #16

Ilche Yusimjo (一切唯心造) means that all phenomena and laws of the world, visible or invisible, are made by the mind — a representative motto of Buddhist Yusim-non (唯心論, Mind-Only). It is a worldview that regards all things as products of mind, and the way a creator's will or spirit gives rise to a work — in photography as in any art — shares a common thread with Ilche Yusimjo.
Whether something is made and expressed by a person's intention or by tianran (天然), nature itself, some spirit dwells within it. Yet even when works are made simultaneously in the same place, the same time, and the same environment, completely different works arise depending on the artist's gaze — physiological and conscious — and as many "all-mind-onlys" are produced as there are viewers receiving the work.
Flower Falls into Earth (花落以土) is a work concerned with ji (地), earth, in the material world. The ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles regarded water, air, fire, and earth as the four equally fundamental sources of the world. He believed that all matter and things come into being or cease to be through the mixture and changing perception of these elements. Empedocles claimed that the fact that all things in the world repeatedly arise, grow, and perish — that they grow and move — is the human perception of changes in the mixture of water, air, fire, and earth.
Likewise, the Genesis Song among the most important myths and legends showing the primordial thought-system of ancient Tibetans describes the first world as composed of four elements: earth (地), water (水), fire (火), and wind (風). Each element has its own color, and is broken down further into particles standing in organic relation to one another.
A representative trait of Tibetan Buddhism — formed through the long struggle and fusion between Tibet's indigenous folk faith Bon and Buddhism — is the belief that rebirth (來生) and transmigration (幻生) take place even within this present reality. People wish to perform many good deeds in the present life and be reborn into a better existence. Within the space of Tibet, even amid the harsh journey of life — the environment given by yeon-gi (緣起, dependent origination) and yun-hwoe (輪回, samsara), the pilgrimages and obligations of o-che-tu-ji (五體投地, full-body prostration) — people believe in and follow the actions and dependences of "all-mind-only." They believe that what they wish for can be made so. The world of Hwarakitto is the same.
All things existing in any space carry within them the environmental and ecological consciousness and spirit of that place. The flower that breaks through the soil from below the earth, and the funeral flower thrown onto a hillside while remembering someone — both, intentionally or not, hold an "all-mind-only." And whether a flower of nature or a funeral flower, it is only a matter of time before all flowers, without distinction, are returned to soil. Whatever form has appeared, all things in the world are decomposed and dismantled, becoming earth and returning to the ground; the earth, with no discrimination, accepts everything, accepting all things back with infinitely wide generosity.
Thus, by the force of time, all forms are dissolved and sent back into nature, securing a space of emptiness (空). It is also helping the birth of yet another being. Whether flower, tree, or person — all things wait in the ground for the next cycle. The world of Hwarakitto is an image holding death and birth at once, a space where dissolution and creation exist together.