Buddhism and Art – Mingyur Rinpoche
Meditation will open up our minds and hearts, which will then stimulate artistic development. Buddhist teacher and meditation master Mingyur Rinpoche speaks on the benefits of practicing Buddhism with art, and making art Dharma practice.
Here is a video from YouTube of the OM Mani Padme Hum Mantra for you to enjoy – it is just over an hour long.
On the meaning of: OM MANI PADME HUM
The jewel is in the lotus or praise to the jewel in the lotus
by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet.
It is very good to recite the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast.
The first, OM, is composed of three pure letters, A, U, and M. These symbolise the practitioner’s impure body, speech, and mind; they also symbolise the pure exalted body, speech and mind of a Buddha. Can impure body, speech and mind be transformed into pure body, speech and mind, or are they entirely separate? All Buddhas are cases of being who were like ourselves and then in dependence on the path became enlightened; Buddhism does not assert that there is anyone who from the beginning is free from faults and possesses all good qualities. The development of pure body, speech, and mind comes from gradually leaving the impure states and their being transformed into the pure.
How is this done?
The path is indicated by the next four syllables. MANI, meaning jewel, symbolises the factor of method – the altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love. Just as a jewel is capable of removing poverty, so the altruistic mind of enlightenment is capable of removing the poverty, or difficulties, of cyclic existence and of solitary peace. Similarly, just as a jewel fulfils the wishes of sentient beings, so the altruistic intention to become enlightened fulfils the wishes of sentient beings.
The two syllables, PADME, meaning lotus, symbolise wisdom. Just as a lotus grows forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud, so wisdom is capable of putting you in a situation of non-contradiction where as there would be contradiction if you did not have wisdom. There is wisdom realising impermanence, wisdom realising that persons are empty of self-sufficient or substantial existence, wisdom that realises the emptiness of duality (that is to say, of difference of entity between subject and object), and wisdom that realises the emptiness of inherent existence. Though there are many different types of wisdom, the main of all these is the wisdom realising emptiness.
Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolised by the final syllable, HUM, which indicates indivisibility. According to the sutra system, this indivisibility of method and wisdom refers to one consciousness in which there is a full form of both wisdom affected by method and method affected by wisdom.In the mantra, or tantra vehicle, it refers to one consciousness in which there is the full form of both wisdom and method as one un-differentiable entity. In terms of the seed syllables of the five conqueror Buddhas, HUM is the is the seed syllable of Akshobhya – the immovable, the un-fluctuating, that which cannot be disturbed by anything.
Thus the six syllables, OM MANI PADME HUM, mean that in dependence on the practice which is in indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech and mind into the pure body, speech, and mind of a Buddha. It is said that you should not seek for Buddha-hood outside of yourself; the substances for the achievement of Buddha-hood are within. As Maitreya says in his SUBLIME CONTINUUM OF GREAT VEHICLE (UTTARA TANTRA) all beings naturally have the Buddha nature in their own continuum. We have within us the seed of purity, the essence of a One Gone Thus (TATHAGATAGARBHA), that is to be transformed and full developed into Buddha-hood.
(From a lecture given by His Holiness The Dalai Lama of Tibet at the Kalmuck Mongolian Buddhist Center, New Jersey.)
Transcribed by Ngawang Tashi (Tsawa), Drepung Loseling, MUNGOD, INDIA
Seven Wonders of the Buddhist World
In this fascinating documentary, historian Bettany Hughes travels to the seven wonders of the Buddhist world and offers a unique insight into one of the most ancient belief systems still practised today.
Buddhism began 2,500 years ago when one man had an amazing internal revelation underneath a peepul tree in India. Today it is practised by over 350 million people worldwide, with numbers continuing to grow year on year. In an attempt to gain a better understanding of the different beliefs and practices that form the core of the Buddhist philosophy and investigate how Buddhism started and where it travelled to, Hughes visits some of the most spectacular monuments built by Buddhists across the globe.
Her journey begins at the Mahabodhi Temple in India, where Buddhism was born; here Hughes examines the foundations of the belief system – the three jewels. At Nepal’s Boudhanath Stupa, she looks deeper into the concept of dharma – the teaching of Buddha, and at the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, Bettany explores karma, the idea that our intentional acts will be mirrored in the future. At Wat Pho Temple in Thailand, Hughes explores samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death that Buddhists seek to end by achieving enlightenment, before travelling to Angkor Wat in Cambodia to learn more about the practice of meditation. In Hong Kong, Hughes visits the Giant Buddha and looks more closely at Zen, before arriving at the final wonder, the Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles, to discover more about the ultimate goal for all Buddhists – nirvana.
Do you have a meditation practice?
William Bloom and the Spiritual Companions Trust have very recently published Meditation Masterclass which can be downloaded (for a small fee).
‘How to Meditate’, in Momma Zen by Karen Maezen Miller is recommended – it shares a practice of the simplest kind: breathing in and out to the count of ten, repeated. The work of The Lorians brings many rich resources for finding our way into an inner life that is congruently framed in terms that resonate now.
The vast subject of Meditation and Prayer also opens the door to the subject of Forgiveness. A few treasured prayers below bring some of these concepts into view, including Binnie A Dansby’s work with Forgiveness as a living practice, and arising from A Course in Miracles. This work has been and is of huge influence, and brings together the spiritual and the biographical in ways that make it clear that they are inseparable. A Course in Miracles focuses profoundly on the process of forgiveness as a metaphysical inquiry into the mind.
Binnie Dansby on The Process of Forgiveness:
You are invited to do your own research, and to write your own prayers. Let get as real as we can with each other about where you / we really are with your/ our inner practices.
It’s time to deepen, together. For most of us that means it’s time to start.
Again, and again. And again.
When the heart is hard there is no love
in the house no sap to bend the tree
no song to greet the rising sun
no dance, not free.
like a shrivelled hardened nut
it hides within its shell
it knows no overflow,
it feels like hell.
But life in all its compassion knows
it will have to fashion mighty blows
to crack, to shatter open,
to bring into the light this heart.
In these awakening moments
rivers of tears are cried
and hours of pain felt,
very delicate moments
regaining a vulnerable state.
A softened heart bathed in tears
knows the enfoldments of the love of All love
and no longer needs to hide
pp61 Silently Within, Modern Sufi Poetry
Deborah O’Brien Bell
Due 15 January
Assignments should be submitted as PDF files via ‘My Portal’ in the student database (please refer to “How to submit assignments’ in the Resources section of this classroom for further details).
Assignments that relate to Faith Paths should be 1000 – 1300 words in point 11 (this is usually the length of two sides of an A4 page, depending on spacing and formatting).
Each Faith Path assignment has three questions:
Question 1: In what ways does your engagement with this faith path support the deepening of your own practices and approaches when seen in the light of your development as a OneSpirit minister? In what way does the transformative power of this encounter deepen your understanding of your own presence, purpose and ministry in the world? Please be specific about the path itself and what it is showing you about your development journey.
Question 2: In what ways does your engagement with this faith path bring you a deeper understanding of your own shadow and that of this faith path? What does this insight require from you to allow healing, both in your own life, and specifically in your journey to becoming a OneSpirit minister? Please be specific about how engagement with this path has deepened your insight into prejudice, oppression, and injustice, both in terms of how this has been formed inside you, or experienced by you, and how you may have been impacted by this (potentially looking from all ‘sides’ within and from outside of you)
Question 3: What would you say, if asked as a student of OneSpirit, is the essence of this path in your own words and understanding?
Due 28 November
Assignments should be submitted as PDF files via ‘My Portal’ in the student database (please refer to “How to submit assignments’ in the Resources section of this classroom for further details).
Assignments that relate to Faith Paths should be 1000 – 1300 words in point 11 (this is usually the length of two sides of an A4 page, depending on spacing and formatting).
Each Faith Path assignment has three questions:
Question 1: In what ways does your engagement with this faith path support the deepening of your own practices and approaches when seen in the light of your development as a OneSpirit minister? In what way does the transformative power of this encounter deepen your understanding of your own presence, purpose and ministry in the world? Please be specific about the path itself and what it is showing you about your development journey.
Question 2: In what ways does your engagement with this faith path bring you a deeper understanding of your own shadow and that of this faith path? What does this insight require from you to allow healing, both in your own life, and specifically in your journey to becoming a OneSpirit minister? Please be specific about how engagement with this path has deepened your insight into prejudice, oppression, and injustice, both in terms of how this has been formed inside you, or experienced by you, and how you may have been impacted by this (potentially looking from all ‘sides’ within and from outside of you)
Question 3: What would you say, if asked as a student of OneSpirit, is the essence of this path in your own words and understanding?
The Buddha
Watch the videos below about the life of the Buddha.
This first video is an animation telling the story of how the Buddha found enlightenment, which we invite you to watch and receive from a younger place in you, what speaks most strongly?
This second video is from Sarah, discussing the life of the Buddha.
Below is a longer documentary, which you may wish to watch in chunks, about the history of the Buddha.
