Thangka
In Process
This piece is a contemporary re-imagining of a traditional thangka composition. Each individual has the potential for Buddhahood known as Buddha seed. During my experience of Kundalini Awakening I saw time as illusion and realized all beings have already achieved this potential and simultaneously exist as Enlightened Beings at one with the Universe. I had an experience of this life’s self as fulfilled divine potential. This mandala invokes that divine self in my current form, something that must be done in true humbleness before the ego clinging to illusion can be dissolved.
Flowers emerge from the pellucid void, the emptiness that is full. Above, the first sound is represented, the vibration of the big bang that continues to permeate the universe. Just below, the great eye represents the formation of consciousness as we understand it. Divine beings, forces, and archetypes float amid the void and call forth the central image. The path through the mandala is filled with ancestral themes and iconography which mingle and merge with Buddhist imagery. Sacred symbols which call forth my highest self surround the figure at the center and call it into being. Benevolent and loving beings from my life look down from above and offer blessings.
A painting of this scale and complexity done in the style of thangka and Indian miniatures may take years to complete and is then embellished with gold. This black and white inking is the first step in this process.