Quote of the Day

Nothing ever exists entirely alone. 

Everything is in relation to everything else. 

- Buddha

 

Image: Pecos Valley Diamonds by Dominique Allmon ©2025

Jan Baraś-Komski

Jan Baraś-Komski - Portrait with Sunflower (Portret ze słonecznikiem), oil on wood, 1937

Jan Baraś-Komski is probably best known for his Auschwitz paintings and drawings. Born on February 3, 1915 in a small Polish town of Bircza, he entered the prestigious Polish Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow - the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych Jana Matejki w Krakowie, in 1934, where he studied painting and art history until 1939.

Like many young Poles in the early months of the war, Jan Komski, a Polish Roman Catholic, joined the resistance movement. In 1940 he was arrested while trying to cross the southern border under the assumed name of Jan Baraś in order to join the newly formed Polish Army in France.

 

He was first taken to the prison in the town of Tarnów only to be deported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, arriving there in the very first transport, together with 727 other Polish men, on June 14, 1940. He was issued the prisoner number 564. The early numbers were not yet tattooed on prisoners' arms. He wore a red triangle on his camp uniform which identified him as a political prisoner.

 Jan Baraś-Komski - Arrival

 

In the camp, Komski became part of the clandestine resistance movement created by Witold Pilecki. On December 29, 1942, he and three of his comrades, Mieczyslaw Januszewski, Boleslaw Kuczbara, and a German, the Auschwitz inmate N°2 and Kapo Otto Küsel, participated in one of the most famous escapes in the history of Auschwitz. A cart drawn by two horses passed the camp's gate in the afternoon. It carried Kuczbara, dressed in a stolen SS uniform holding forged papers. Three inmates that appeared to be escorted by the SS-man walked alongside. The escapees made it to the village of Broszkowice where they were hidden and given civilian clothes. 

 

Komski made it safely to the city of Kraków (Cracow), in what was then known as the General Government, (Gubernia Generalna), or the Generalgouvernement under the German governor Reichsminister Hans Frank. 

 

Jan Baraś-Komski - Eating and Starvation 

In January 1943 Komski was arrested in a routine roundup (łapanka) near the railway station in Cracow and held there in the Montelupi prison, after a failed escape and a brutal beating, till the end of September. On October 1, 1943 he was deported to Auschwitz for the second time. Not identified as a former escapee, with the help of the camp's underground movement, he was registered under the name of Józef Nosek and assigned prisoner number 152884. He was sent to the camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau where the guards did not know him, and transferred later that month to the concentration camp at Buchenwald in Germany proper.

We were like soldiers exposed every minute to a danger of dying, but we couldn't help ourselves, because we have nothing for our defense except the will to survive. But will not always was enough, because very often, in most cases, the prisoner died. - Jan Komski in an interview on January 30, 1992

Komski was moved a few times between different concentration camps and eventually ended up in Dachau where he was liberated by the units of General Patton's army on April 29, 1945. He survived because of his special talent as an artist.

 

After his liberation he lived in Displaced Persons camps in Bavaria where he met and married Zdzisława "Jean" who was also an Auschwitz survivor. They both emigrated to the United States with their son in 1949 where they became citizens. 

 

Jan Baraś-Komski at work in Virginia

 

In the United States Komski assumed a career as an illustrator for the Washington Post. He retired in 1984 but continued to draw and paint. 

 

After seeing Francisco de Goya's "Disasters of War" at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain in mid-1970s, Komski decided to paint the horrific scenes of life and death in the concentration camp as he remembered them.

 

To contrast the horrors of his past, at the same time he created a vast body of colorful work that depicted the beauty and serenity of Northern Virginia. 

 

Jan Baraś-Komski - Barge on Canal

 

He painted every day, even at the tender age of 86. Those who knew him reported that he loved life and was very alert, courteous and caring. 

Towards the end of his life, Komski visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum at Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau for the last time. He went there twice before. Most of his camp art is there on display in the museum.

 

On July 20, 2002 he lost his battle with cancer and passed away at the age 0f 87 in Arlington, Virginia. 

 

By Dominique Allmon

Jan Baraś-Komski - African Violet

 

 

Image sources: here, here and here

 

Also of interest

 

Muted Works of One Man's Silent Rage 

 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral history interview with John Komski

 

In German: Otto Küsel - der Kleinkriminelle, der in Auschwitz Leben rettete

Happy Year of the Wood Snake

In Chinese mythology the snake is a symbol of yin or the dark female energy in the Universe. Although feared as portent of danger, snakes were revered by the ancient Chinese as the symbol of mysterious forces.

The snake is the sixth sign in the Chinese Zodiac, which consists of twelve animal signs. According to an old tale, the snake was the sixth animal that finished the Grand Race organized by the Jade Emperor. There is also a Buddhist story about the twelve animals that were invited to a banquet given by the Buddha. The snake made it sixth, right after the dragon. Cunning and clever, the snake took a ride on a horse's back and slithered to the banquet right before the horse.

In Taoism the snake was regarded as a symbol of immortality, spiritual advancement and transformation.

Snakes are the most enigmatic, intuitive, and introspective, but also the most stubborn of all the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. Snakes are considered to be a symbol of rebirth, transformation, wisdom, and intuition. They represent the power of subtle persuasion and influence. They are resourceful, cunning and creative.

2025 is the year of the Wood Snake. It begins on January 29, 2025 and ends on February 16, 2026.

The Year of the Wood Snake is meant to be a year of steady progress, growth and renewal. It is a good year to focus on personal development and the strengthening of personal and business relationships. Now is the best time to discard anything that is no longer supporting you.

 

Focus and discipline will be necessary for you to achieve what you set out to create. But be careful because the Year of the Snake may bring you some difficult puzzles and mysteries that will not be easy to solve. You will have to be more creative than ever if you do not want to get entangled in difficulties. 

 

No matter what the predictions for the Year of the Snake may be, remember that you are the ultimate master of your fate. If the circumstances allow, now is the time to take care of your finances, renovate your house, take care of the environment, and do something good to nourish your body and restore your own health.

Wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous Year of the Wood Snake - Dominique 

 

  新 年 快 樂 !

 

Dominique Allmon©2025

 

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Medicine Buddha

Ancient teachings tell us that merely seeing the Medicine Buddha, or even seeing an image of the Medicine Buddha, or hearing the name of the Medicine Buddha, can confer inconceivable benefits. - Spiritual Bliss

Bhaisajyaguru, commonly known as the Medicine Buddha, is the Buddha of healing and medicine in Mahayana Buddhism. He is a fully enlightened being capable of healing both, the outer and the inner, suffering or dukkha by applying his teachings as medicine. He has unbiased compassion for all sentient beings. He offers protection from physical harm and mental afflictions, as well as other dangers and obstacles. He helps the faithful to eradicate the three unwholesome roots (poisons) or kleshas of attachment, hatred and ignorance that are considered to be the source of all suffering.

In a Sanskrit manuscript called Medicine Buddha Sutra (Bhaisajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāja Sūtra) he was described as a bodhisattva who upon enlightenment made twelve great vows:

1. To illuminate countless realms with his radiance and enable anyone to become a Buddha.
2. To awaken the minds of sentient beings through the light of lapis lazuli.
3. To provide all sentient beings with all necessary material needs.
4. To correct heretical views and inspire all sentient beings toward the enlightened path of the Bodhisattva.
5. To help all sentient beings follow the Moral Precepts of Buddhism even if they have failed before.
6. To heal sentient beings born with deformities, illness or other physical sufferings.
7. To help relieve the destitute and the sick from their suffering.
8. To help women who wish to be reborn as men achieve their desired form of rebirth.
9. To heal sentient beings from their mental afflictions and delusions.
10. To help the oppressed be free from their suffering.
11. To relieve those who suffer from terrible hunger and thirst.
12. To help clothe those who are destitute and suffering from cold weather or mosquitoes.

The idea of Buddha as a metaphorical healer is as old as Buddhism itself and goes back to the historical Buddha who found the cure for suffering and presented his formula as the Four Noble Truths.

Medicine Buddha is one of the emanations of the Gautama Buddha as understood in Mahayana Buddhism. He is venerated in China, Japan and Tibet. He is often depicted as a seated Buddha with a stem of the Aruna fruit (Terminalia chebula) wearing the three robes of a Buddhist monk, sometimes blue-faced or having a blue body and holding a lapis lazuli medicine bottle.

Bhaisajyaguru (Medicine Buddha) Mantra

namo bhagavate bhaiṣajyaguru
vaidūryaprabharājāya tathāgatāya arhate
samyaksambuddhāya tadyathā:
oṃ bhaiṣajye bhaiṣajye
bhaiṣajya-samudgate svāhā

The practice of Medicine Buddha is considered to be a very powerful tool for liberation from suffering. The faithful recite either the dharani or the mantra that helps them overcome the inner "sickness" of attachment, hatred and ignorance. It also helps ease the outer, physical suffering and purify the negative karma.

By Dominique Allmon

Dominique Allmon©2025

Images: Medicine Buddha by Dominique Allmon

 

Labyrinth of Dark Passages

Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed. - Stanisław Lem, Solaris (1961)

Stanisław Lem on AI and Consciousness

We may not solve the riddle of consciousness in the coming millennium, but we may be able to imitate intelligence so perfectly that, surrounded by legions and swarms of imitations, we will come more and more closely under their protective tutelage. 

Nowadays we are offered veritable orchards of electronic apples of paradise, which will inevitably have both good and bad sides, because such is the ambivalent nature of things. 

Our greatest achievements, secondary or not secondary to biology, have served us to destroy the biosphere and to engage in vile war games, and finally, a great deal of what we have already managed to create on the way to the yet-to-be-achieved artificial intelligence often serves to foolishness, amusement, and eccentricities that are incomprehensible to me. 

I have read many works and books that absolutize the possibility of creating a non-human intelligence, as well as a no smaller collection of well-motivated justifications that are supposed to prove to the reader that this concept cannot and will never be realized. It is indeed difficult to rise above the crowd of such contradictory and expertly justified opinions. 

Without a multitude of dreams, attempts, disasters, there would be no aviation. Without constant assaults, artificial intelligence cannot appear. 

I am convinced that both the quantity and quality of these programs, directed especially at successive generations of computers working in parallel and at contaminating clusters of pseudo-neural networks, will achieve an expanding range of efficiency and thus will increasingly imitate the presence of an intelligent consciousness, and will even be taken by many people for a person or a personality embodied in a machine. In a sense, this will be a fraud practiced on people as interlocutors or collaborators of the machine, because imitators of this kind will not yet possess authentic, personally localized, conscious intelligence, called psychic life. 

The title of Carrel's old book "Man, the Unknown Creature" is still relevant. Not only do we not know ourselves, but we also do not know how we will behave in unforeseen situations. I do not know whether the insights that will eventually make it possible to create artificial intelligence will be good for our health. Let's hope so. 

From "The Blink of an Eye" by Stanisław Lem, (2000) 

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