Transcript Buddhist Art - Seema Kohli

Introduction
• The world today is in the middle of a global economic
meltdown. Clearly , the need of the hour is hope and positive
energy. Art is a means of visual communications that transcends
all barriers and is an effective vehicle for spreading global peace
and stability. Buddhism is considered to be a religion that
advocates global peace and harmony in all its various nuances. I
would like to expand on the notion of the Buddhist goddesses and
their influences in the field of art and uniting the world as a whole.
• I am a child of the Cosmos. The Universe is my realm and I
am an intrinsic part of it. I have always been intrigued by the
cosmic cycle of life and the Powers that be. My oeuvres are a
manifestation of all that is around, from creation to procreation, to
the final liberation. My creative expression is channelized through
my emblematic figures, and therein unfolds the story of the
Cosmos. And Buddhism as a religion is truly an inspiration.
• The Indian Buddhist world abounds with goddesses—
voluptuous tree spirits, maternal nurturers, potent healers
and protectors, transcendent wisdom figures, cosmic
mothers of libration, and dancing female Buddha’s. I will
not take too much of your time by expanding on the
fascinating history of these goddesses as they evolved
through the early, Mahayana, and Tantric movements in
India and found a place in the pantheons of Tibet and
Nepal.
• The female deities of Buddhism are of many forms.
There are Buddha’s in female forms and goddesses who
are bodhisattvas. There are also historical figures such as
lineage founders, and they all can function as deities.
There are also yidams and dharma protectors in a
peaceful, semi-wrathful or wrathful form.
• Early Buddhism saw the goddesses in the form of Prithvi
(Mother Earth), Mayadevi, Yaksinis (Voluptuous, Magical nature
spirits), Sri Lakshmi (symbolizing good fortune), Hariti (Goddess
of Motherly love).
• Later there emerged Prajnaparamita (Luminous Mother of
Perfect Wisdom), Parnasavari (Healing Goddess clothed in
leaves), Marici (Lady of sunrise splendour), Sarasvati (the
Divine Muse), Vasundhara (Lady Bountiful) and Usnisavijaya
(Bestower of long life and immortality), amongst others.
• However, the best known of the female Buddhist deities is
Tara. Tara is known in two forms, White and Green.
Yaksinis (Voluptuous, Magical nature spirits) by
Seema Kohli.
Sararvasti (the Divine Muse) by Seema Kohli
From the Hindu tradition emerges the Goddess
Saraswati. In ancient times she was associated with a
great river that was said to flow down from heaven,
cleansing and fertilizing Earth. Her rituals took place on
the banks of this river, in the cycle of the agricultural
year. But since Earth herself is impermanent and
tectonic changes have caused her river vanish.
Saraswati’s connection to water has since been
transformed into a connection with the very life force of
water itself. She has since appeared in the moving, vital
waters of springs and brooks and falls everywhere.
When you hear the rain whispering against your
windowpane, it is the voice of Saraswati.
Tara
Goddess of loving kindness
Saraswati
by Seema Kohli
Saraswati by Seema Kohli
• Just as in the classic tale of Siddhartha, the rivers
of India have always been seen metaphorically as
“crossing from the world of ignorance or bondage to
the far shore… the world of enlightenment or
freedom. ” The traveler crossing here undergoes a
spiritual transmigration from a state of samsaric
confusion through purification to enlightenment.
• A font of inspiration, insight and wisdom, this
goddess represents the highest levels of refinement
and grace. She is intellect, poetry, science, music
and the beauty of ritual. As an artist, I pay
obeisance to her, for without her blessings, my
creativity would not flourish.
• Ever since I remember, I have always been on the
quest of the essence of relationships, with the Self,
between the Self and the Inner Self, between the
Inner Self and the Ultimate Soul.
In the course of the journey, I discovered
Hiranyagarbha
(the
Golden
Womb)
while
contemplating on the Yajur Veda. This then became
the central premise of my creation and finally my own
existence. The creative process has been slow and
enriching, akin to a spiritual experience and I have
traversed and transcended boundaries, within and
without.
As an artist, delving into y Creative reservoir and
tapping into my subconscious data has been a
rewarding and fulfilling experience. The mundane was
suddenly transformed into the new. It was alchemy of
experience into colour and that I wanted to offer the
Divine.
Now let me expand on the best known of the female
Buddhist deities --- Tara. In Sanskrit, the name Tara
means Star, but she was also called She Who Brings
Forth Life, The Great Compassionate Mother, and
The Embodiment of Wisdom, and the Great
Protectress.
Tara is best known in two forms, White and Green.
White Tara
Green Tara
• Tara or Arya Tara, 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.
• Before she was adopted by Buddhism, Tara was
worshipped in Hinduism as a manifestation of the goddess
Parvati. The feminine principle was not venerated in
Buddhism until the fourth century CE, and Tara probably
entered Buddhism around the sixth century CE.
• According to Buddhist tradition, Tara was born out of the
tears of compassion of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. It
is said that he wept as he looked upon the world of
suffering beings, and his tears formed a lake in which a
lotus sprung up. When the lotus opened, the goddess Tara
was revealed.
• A similar tradition has White Tara born from the tears of
Avalokiteshvara’s left eye and the green Tara was born
from a beam of blue light emanating from one of the eyes
of Avalokiteshvara.
Green Tara
Green Tara
by Seema Kohli
• White Tara shines with the brightness of a thousand full
autumn moons. Seated in a full lotus pose and with a slightly
smiling countenance, her attention is focused inward. The
strength of that transcendental inwardness produces a
tremendous flowering of energies. In support of her promise to
Avalokiteshvara to be aware and to help relieve the sufferings
of beings, she is graced with seven eyes, on her hands and
feet as well as well as the third eye on her forehead. With her
two human-like eyes, she envisions the dualistic world of
human beings and simultaneously sees the unity of ultimate
reality that is symbolized by the third all-knowing eye.
• The Tibetan appreciation of human life is direct and simple.
No matter how tough it gets, obtaining a human birth is one’s
only chance for enlightenment. Therefore, within this system,
do whatever you can to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha,
accumulate good fortune and work for your own and all
sentient beings’ enlightenment. White Tara is an especially
beloved resource appealed to for long life in general, but she’s
also seen a mother, who cares for her children.
• The peaceful, compassionate White Tara gently protects and
brings long life and peace. The more dynamic goddess, Green
Tara is the “Mother Earth ” , and a fierce goddess who overcomes
obstacles, and saves us from physical and spiritual danger.
• Adopted by Buddhism, she became the most widely revered
deity in the Tibetan pantheon. In Buddhist tradition, Tara is
actually much greater than a goddess– she is a female Buddha,
an enlightened one was has attained the highest wisdom,
capability and compassion. . . One who can take human form and
who remains in oneness with the every living thing.
White Tara
Green Tara, with her Half-open lotus, represents the
night, and White Tara, with her lotus in full bloom,
symbolizes the day. Green Tara embodies virtuous
activity while White Tara displays serenity and grace.
Together, the Green and White Taras symbolize the
unending compassion of the goddess who labors day and
night to relieve suffering.
All schools of Tibetan Buddhism have a version of a
hymn dedicated to the Twenty-one Taras. It has been
chanted in monasteries and nunneries based on the lunar
cycle ---and one night, caught out in the fury of a storm or
the insanity of a battle, a practitioner remembered:
Homage to you,
who destroys malefic magical wheels
With the sounds of TRAT and PHAT
And tramples with right leg outstretched and left leg
drawn in
Dazzling amidst whirling flames
This pays homage to the Seventh Tara, “Unchallenged
Furious Lady”, who averts wars, lightning and hail storms
by intoning trat and phat, which in Sanskrit means to tear
and cut. These syllables avert lightning strikes and
hailstorms and destroy the weapons of war.
Green Tara
• As Green Tara she offers protection from all the
unfortunate circumstances one can encounter within the
samsaric world. As White Tara she expresses maternal
compassion and offers healing to beings who are hurt or
wounded, either physically or psychically.
•Goddess Tara is probably the oldest goddess who is still
worshipped extensively in modern times. Tara originated
as a Hindu goddess, the Mother Creator, representing the
eternal life force that fuels all life.
•As a Buddhist deity, Tara’s realm extends beyond the
walls of the treasury. Several of the 21 forms of Tara are
golden : as Tara of the Perfections she guides her
followers in generosity, joyous effort, mortality, patience,
meditation, and the ability to calm negative impulses such
as avarice, laziness and distraction; as Tara, Mother of
the Buddha's, she can render lethal poisons harmless.
• The most widely known forms of Tara are:
• Green Tara, known as the Buddha of enlightened activity
• White Tara, also known for compassion, long life, healing and
serenity; also known as The Wish- fulfilling Wheel,or Cintachakra
• Red Tara, of fierce aspect associated with magnetizing all good
things
• Black Tara, associated with power.
• Yellow Tara, associated with wealth and prosperity
• Blue Tara, associated with transmutation of anger
• Cittamani Tara, a form of Tara widely practiced at the level of
Highest Yoga Tantra portrayed as green and often conflated with
Green Tara.
• Khadiravani Tara (Tara of the teak forest), who appeared to
Nagarjuna in the Khadiravani foest of South India and who is
sometimes referred to as the “22nd Tara”
•
Yellow Tara by Seema Kohli
Tara of the Teak Forests by Seema Kohli
• As Tara, Proclaiming the Sound of Hum, she fulfils
her vow to the monks, who, legend tells us,
assumed she’d want to become a man to reach
enlightenment : she gathers beings from whatever
realms she can and out of her infinite compassion
“draws them forth to bliss without exception”. There
is even a tara with a wrathful frown, the Tara who
crushes Maras, or embodiments of evil which
obstruct those attempting to practice dharma. There
is no conflict in the idea that she can be at the same
time golden, glorious, and wrathful; a goddess and
a mother, furious and lovingly empathic.
• Tara also embodies many of the qualities of
feminine principle. She is known as the Mother of
Mercy and Compassion. She is the source, the
female aspect of the universe, which gives birth to
warmth, compassion and relief from bad karma as
existence. She engenders, nourishes, smile at the
vitality of creation, and has sympathy for all beings
as a mother does for her children.
Blue Tara – Goddess of
Liberation
• In seventh-century Tibet, Tara was believed to
be incarnated in every pious woman. She
especially came to be associated with two
historical wives of the first Buddhist king of Tibet,
Srong-brtsan-sgam-po(d.649). His wife from
imperial China was said to be an incarnation of
White Tara, while the king’s Nepalese wife was
an incarnation of Green Tara. It may be that the
desire to regard both these pious woman as
incarnation of Tara led to the concept of the
goddess’s green and white forms.
• The lotus is a recurring motif in my creations
and symbolizes purity, hope and awakening of
the mind, body and soul. Buddhism is a lifetransforming philosophy that compels one to
introspect and soul-search and thereby through
one’s own human revolution brings about a chain
reaction in society and the world at large.
• The message of the Buddha is one of
equanimity, but one based on a foundation of
love, compassion and joy---qualities shared with
many a Goddess.
Buddha
• Just like Buddhism is a platform for peace and
global harmony, through my oeuvres d’art I too
would like to be a harbinger of peace and use my
art to spread the message of peace and love all
around the world. It is time that we all took a step
towards this cause and I would like my art to
speak the language of global peace.
• We may rarely have so dramatic a need for Tara’s help,
but caught in your personal malestorm, does it not feel as
if you must fulfill at least twenty-one different functions,
all of them equally important, equally demanding, equally
relevant to somebody else’s happiness ?
• But thankfully Tara is approachable. She is a Buddha.
Whenever you call upon her, she is there. Remembering
her motivation to act for the benefit of all beings,
whenever you feel overwhelmed by the demands made
upon you, perhaps you can allow yourself to concentrate
on her image. She radiates the strength to be of help.
She is known as the One who protects from Fears.
• Often a sense of being overwhelmed comes from
doubting our ability to meet our own and others’
expectations. Doubt is considered a kind of fear, and Tara
of the Rosewood Forest responds to quiet that fear, to
instill confidence.
Shakyamuni Buddha
•
Buddhism has transformed my way of life. The lotus within me has bloomed and flowered, emitting
fragrances of creativity that have consumed my canvas and rendered it a cosmic creation. As a meditative
practice, my powers of concentration have increased manifold, thereby making it easier for me to paint for
hours without any distraction. I have come to understand my roots, my purpose and my Being.
• I have learned to set aside time for Me, so as to be able to introspect and understand who I am. All this
would not have been possible without the influence of Buddhism in my life and my art.
Om Ah Hum!