Tibetan Work In Progress

Work on the Green Tara Mandala in San Diego continues apace.

"Seated on a lotus at the center of the mandala, Green Tara is ever ready to respond to the suffering of beings afflicted with emotional obscurations. Arrayed around the mother of mercy are her twenty-one manifestations. Each of the mandala's four gates are ornamented with the eight-spoked Dharma wheel attended by two deer, symbol of the Three Jewels: the Buddha teaching the Dharma to the Sangha." - Wisdom Publications, http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductDetail.asp?PID=13183

Wikepedia has this to say:
"Tara (Sanskrit: तारा, tārā) or Ārya Tārā, also known as Jetsun Dolma (Tibetan language:rje btsun sgrol ma) in Tibetan Buddhism, is a female Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism who appears as a female Buddha in Vajrayana Buddhism.. She is known as the "mother of liberation", and represents the virtues of success in work and achievements. In Japan she is known as Tarani Bosatsu but virtually unknown in China.^[1]"

"Green Tara/Khadiravani is usually associated with protection from fear and the following eight obscurations: lions (= pride), wild elephants (= delusion/ignorance), fires (= hatred and anger), snakes (= jealousy), bandits and thieves (= wrong views, including fanatical views), bondage (= avarice and miserliness), floods (= desire and attachment), and evil spirits and demons (= deluded doubts)."

Tibetan Monks in San Diego

Here are some photos I shot yesterday at the San Diego Natural History Museum. 

Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery started work Wednesday creating a Mandala sand painting, a 2500-year-old Tantric Buddhist healing practice.  They are producing a Green Tara Mandala, which the museum says "Buddhists believe can lead to personal and planetary healing during times of uncertainty and economic crises."

Although I had planned to be on hand early, a surprise last-minute appointment at the UCSD Pain Clinic meant missing the opening ceremonies, which a fellow museum member told me was very impressive. Cymbals, drums, bells and trumpets, accompanied by deep, full-throated chanting filled the three story high open space of the museum's main hall. By the time I arrived on scene three monks had completed the chalk-line layout and had begun to lay down the colored sand from long metal tubes. The tubes, which are tapered, are rubbed vigorously with a sort of wand along a raised metal sawtooth ridge, the vibration sending the grains spilling out the small nozzle end in an incredibly fine stream. The result is a low-tech air brush sort of effect. Their concentration as they worked, as one would expect, was intense, 

their focus complete.

I hung around for several hours, wandering away to look at the various exhibits, including the beautiful new William Stout murals, depicting prehistoric life in the various epochs of our region's past. Bill Stout is an old friend, we first met 40 years ago, at the very first San Diego Comic Con in 1969. Bill is simply one of the very best painters of prehistoric life working today, and the SDNHM is very lucky to 

have secured his services.

I hope to get back to the museum some time over the weekend and see the finished or near-finished image. When completed, the painting will be destroyed sometime on Sunday. This traditional final destruction serves to remind the viewer of the transitory nature of all things, including ourselves.

Here's a link to the museum website, which includes a video of the monks at work; 

http://www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/bodyworlds2/events.php

Here's a link to the Drepung Loseling Monastery site;
http://www.drepung.org/