Key Words
Buddhism, Fantasy, Meaning of Life, Memory, Transcendence, Travel,About
When Gautama Buddha first saw the pains of the mortal world as a young prince, he became alienated and strove to understand the spirit and soul beyond the diseased, the dead, the old, and the wasted bodies. He flagellated his body by starving himself to a point where his backbone could touch his sternum, where his hair fell in patches whenever he touched it. He then realised that he needed a strong body to gravitate towards the spirit. Sitting under the bodhi tree, Gautama travelled the world in the depths of his imagination. Perhaps he was the first global soul – perhaps when we travel, when we search for home in our restless world today, sometimes we can touch him…
Inspired by Gautama Buddha and the musings of travel writer Pico Iyer, The Global Soul is a poignant tale of contemporary travellers in urban landscapes pursuing connection and contact. It embraces stories of Buddha, jet lag, airports, and Liyuan opera, featuring meditative Korean classical court songs within a contemporary soundscape. Contemporary mobility and ancient cultural treasures are brought together on this trip with no return ticket.
The Global Soul is a meditation about travel – time travel, travels in our imagination, travels in our heart, travels in our memory, travels to find the meaning of life, travel for business, travel for leisure. The global soul is about fantasy, about dreaming, about transcending our physical identity, about time flowing – to touch the impossible.
Meet Miss Ping, a traveller longing for lost love. Meet Millie, a business traveller weaving through the disorientation of a floating life. Meet the Woman who looks to the ocean to carry her away. Meet the Frequent Flyer who invents rituals in her history of getaways. Meet He, a traveller with a mission to uncover the meaning of the riddle of life. Meet the Child for whom every new place is a possibility, an adventure, a game. Meet the melodies that have travelled from a time far away. Meet the sounds that travel around us, within us, without us. Welcome to their travels.
Tags
Printed Matter
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Related Programmes
Writers’ Lab — 24-Hour Playwriting Competition (2000) & Singapore Young Dramatist Awards (2000/2001)
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