Meditation at the United Nations
@ Bodenrader
1620 W Carroll Ave, Chicago, IL 60612
Opening Saturday, September 12th, from 6PM - 8PM
On view through Saturday, October 24th
Meditation at the United Nations
Noah Barker
Barbara Ess
Shadi Habib Allah
Harrison Kinnane Smith
Mark Lombardi
Tanoa Sasraku
Graham Wiebe
September 12 – October 24, 2026
And what to make of it? This Heart-Home of the World-Body? Guru told us: “The soul of the United Nations was born the day the Supreme embodied the Dream itself. For the Supreme, the Dream-Reality and the Reality-Dream are always together and are always the same thing. A divinely political centre and a truly spiritual centre are not two different things.”
But since the home had been dutifully ransacked and the heart so abruptly arrested, the fugitive-body became unmoored from its surrogate-world. This happened over days and over centuries and then all together at once. A sharp, sudden pain, an acute panic, a thought of all there is left to be done and all that could have been achieved quite some time ago. The final world-breath collapsed under time-weight and the pressure of the vacuum-home.
Guru continued: “On a practical level, do not expect anything from others on the physical plane. If you expect anything from the world, then you will feel miserable because the world does not understand you, the world does not care for you. If you can do everything unconditionally, then you will have peace of mind. This is one way.”
As he spoke it became clear that his Ultimate Truth had, since the beginning, been evacuated of all meaning, all potential of meaning, all potential of potential. Its borders were dissolved and usurped by a parallel force without orientation. Extrajudicial or esoteric. And so we maintained this vague spiritual oasis for the World-Body, liberated from the doctrines of any one system of belief or morality, situated within the confines of the dilapidated Heart-Home, obfuscated by the liberal ideals of progress and cooperation. Operation Absolute Respite.
Someone uttered: “There is so much injustice and nothing we can do to help ourselves.”
Guru replied: “You say there is nothing you can do, but I am giving you a way to protect yourself. We have been meditating here for five or ten minutes. This meditation has real power. In your office there is much injustice. Injustice itself is a kind of negative power, a destructive power. Another way of protecting yourself is to have peace of mind. You can feel peace; you can swim in the sea of peace when you meditate with us on Tuesdays and Fridays.”
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Tags: Barbara Ess, Bodenrader, contemporary art, Graham Wiebe, Group Exhibition, Harrison Kinnane Smith, Mark Lombardi, Meditation at the United Nations, Noah Barker, Shadi Habib Allah, Tanoa Sasraku, West Town
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