Life's Little Pleasures, Through A Monk's Eye

Though photography had been his passion since the age of 13, Buddhist monk Nicholas Vreeland had given it a good, long rest. "When I first went to the monastery, I didn't even have a camera, but my brother then gave me one and I kept it locked up in a trunk that I thought of as Pandora's Box." He took pictures every so often, reworking that creative muscle – "sort of like doing one's scales on a piano," he says. Little did he realize at the time that a lifelong artistic calling would ultimately support his life's true spiritual calling.

Nicky (as his close friends call him), a monk who spent decades in a Northern Indian monastery called Rato, will challenge your perceptions. He dresses in the trademark bright maroon and orange robes, his head is shaved and his demeanor is peaceful and serene. But his spiritual calm doesn't pigeonhole him as a predictable sort of devotee. He loves art, ice cream, laughing his head off. Far from stoic, he gives teachings laced with humor and seizes opportunities to savor life. 

Picture Perfect

I met up with Vreeland after seeing his photographs in an exhibition at Aurora Lopez's jewelry studio and showroom. He is showing 20 pictures at events around the world, touring from NYC to Paris to Tokyo and back; all of the pieces are up for viewing at the Talverna Gallery NYC through November 15. There are prints of street scenes (graffiti and cows in India), majestic landscapes as well as portraits of Rato monks and, yes, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Proceeds from sales benefit renovation and restoration of the space, housing mostly Tibetan monks forced to flee their homes due to political conflict in the country. It had been quite a while since Nicky had taken photos and the exhibit marks a sort of unveiling to the public of this humble monk's hidden talent. 

His driving force is his community. After so many years of hiding the artist in him, he found a reason to embrace and employ it. In fact, it was an opportunity to treat his talent as a responsibility. Suddenly, a need for honoring Rato, his home and place of spiritual growth, became a catalyst for integrating art back into his life. In fact, it seems that there is something distinctly spiritual about his work, a way to express his love for the world through his skilled eye.

"When you have a group of that are devoting their lives to coming to understand the ultimate truth and working at developing their inner non-virtues, it's definitely something that doesn't support itself. This particular community, as it was growing, was having a hard time supporting itself. And I'm not very good at raising money, asking people for money. And so I recommended that we work at making something."  

The group started producing bags, bedspreads, pillows, table cloths, pajamas. Vreeland realized he had his own gift to give, started sifting through old photos, and before you know it – he's on a world tour.

Getting a Dose of Goodness Down Under The Bridge

Vreeland grew up in Paris and traveled the world with his diplomat father. First exposed to Buddhism from his Tin-Tin children's books, he found his calling and relocated to Rato shortly thereafter. After spending years without returning home, he has started to transition into a balance between monastery life and the Western world, getting to watch his nieces and nephews grow up, being a part of their lives, and sharing his teachings back here in the US.

For a novice like me, there's something sort of gratifying about having access to lessons straight from the source. After all, why not take the principles of dharma outside of the monastery and into the world, spreading intention by action and example? 

So I shlepped over to DUMBO (Down Under The Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in Brooklyn to a Tuesday night teaching at The Tibet Center, a modest space adorned with breathtaking works of Tibetan art –sculptures and prints and paintings and offerings – balanced out by metal folding chairs and lamenated pages with verse and prayer. Vreeland leads a discussion on dharma teachings, this one centered on the pledge of commitment that devoted Buddhists take toward their way of life. 

Nicky's lesson was simple and clear. I stayed remarkably focused, my mind wandering only about as much as it does watching the nightly news. Even the good stuff. (Apologies, Anderson Cooper.) And I didn't feel guilty for moments I lost focus and found myself remembering how awesome my breakfast was or agonizing over my pending workload. (Apologies, Tonic.) I got back to the moment, listened to the message, and exercised compassion toward my own attention deficit.

Nicky knows a thing or two about compassion – about easing up on ourselves, making room for human nature. He knows that sometimes we've gotta "give ourselves a break," which I take to mean accepting our imperfect nature as part of mankind. He acknowledges that indulgence in pleasure can lead to craving and dissatisfaction if we allow it to control us, but there's no reason to deny life's comforts and delights completely. Gratitude and authenticity lend themselves to accepting joy without relying on it.

Take It In, Pass It On

If the life of a monk is devoted to following principles that support the well-being of all sentient beings, then bringing beauty and flavor and laughter to the table are really quite harmonious with mental clarity and truth. There's nothing hedonistic (in this borderline-hedonist's humble opinion) about embracing life's goodness with gratitude, savoring the simple pleasures of art and design, nourishment (and dessert). In fact, sometimes it can be downright spiritual.

For more information on Rato, how to contribute to its restoration funds, and a gallery of Nicky's photographs, visit the monastery's website here.

Black and white photos courtesy of Nicky Vreeland for Rato.