In ancient Buddhist scriptures, desires and attachments that take hold of the human heart are repeatedly compared to **creeping vines**—taking root and growing back again no matter how many times they are cut away.

We may cut their stems again and again, believing that we have freed ourselves from the vines wrapped around our hearts. But as long as the roots remain, they will eventually begin to grow again, trapping us in the same suffering.

And cutting those roots is not easy.

This is because the things that cause us suffering do not always appear to us as “suffering” from the beginning.

They may appear as dependence, desire, jealousy, or longing.

Attachment itself can sometimes become a powerful energy that helps us live and move forward. But when it grows too strong, it can quietly begin to wind itself around the heart, transforming into a vine that causes us suffering.

There was a time in my own life when I struggled against my circumstances, believing that they were the source of my suffering.

Eventually, however, I came to realize that what was truly causing me pain was not simply the circumstances themselves, but also **my own inability to release what I had taken into my heart and continued to hold onto.**

The model for this work is my daughter, who was going through adolescence at the time.

As she moves through life, countless experiences will surely await her.

There may be times when she becomes caught up in circumstances beyond her control and experiences suffering that feels deeply unfair.

That is why I hoped she would learn to recognize the attachments that quietly enter the heart, changing their appearance until, before we realize it, they have taken hold of us and refuse to let go.

I wanted her to be able to turn away from those vines, look toward the direction she wishes to go, and continue living her own life.

In the painting, countless vines intertwine behind my daughter.

But she does not turn back.

She faces forward, while her hands form the **Dharmachakra Mudra**, the gesture associated with turning the Wheel of Dharma.

This work is also part of my *I wanna see you * series, in which I portrayed women from different parts of the world making the same Dharmachakra Mudra.

We are all human beings born on the same Earth, yet we grow up in different countries, environments, religions, and cultures.

And still, wherever we live and whatever our culture may be, we are members of the same species sharing the same planet—each of us living with uncertainty, attachment, pain, and suffering in our own way.

I wanted my daughter to meet people from many different parts of the world and to exchange words with them.

And I wanted her to understand:

**“The suffering you carry is not yours alone.”**

By listening to the words of someone living somewhere far away, and by sharing our own words in return, perhaps we can loosen the vines that bind us, even just a little, and find the strength to face forward once again.

This work carries that wish for my daughter as she begins to walk the path of her own life.