* “ Man is only truly alive when he realises he is a creative, artistic being…..Even the act of peeling a potato can be a work of art if it is a conscious act.”

Joseph Beuys

Inspired by the confident artists who have contributed to this issue and with an intention to overcome my lack of same I include some examples of rustic and rusty displays that have come forth from my domestic days.
These art works will leave you with no doubt as to the dilettante nature of this “artist”. However if you too have resisted creating works because of immature ego obstacles I urge you to open yourself to your own creativity. The possibilities are endless and can require nothing more than a playful mind. For too many years I thought that the joy was just in the thinking however I have discovered that there is merit in following through and manifesting installations with whatever comes my way.

Pamela Croci

  * interview with Willoughby Sharp, 1969; as quoted in Energy Plan for the Western man – Joseph Beuys in America compiled by Carin Kuoni, Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, 1993, p. 87

Remembering Sarnath

May all sentient beings

Ikebana

By Arne Schelling

Siddharthas Intent Europe has opened a new City Centre in Berlin.

It is located in the heart of Berlin and will be a centre for meditation, study, art, translation and other Rime activities.

All visitors are whole heartedly welcome.

Address: Güntzelstrasse 42, Gardenhouse, 3rd floor, 10789 Berlin, Germany

Email:  arne.schelling@gmx.de for practice details

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche teaching on Jamyang Khyentse Wango's lifestory at SI Germany’s new centre

By Nikki Keefe

SIA Northern Rivers group enjoyed it’s 3rd annual Vipashyana retreat in Rosebank, in the beautiful Byron Bay hinterland, late September 2011. This year we decided to shorten the course from 10 days to 5 days in the hopes of allowing more people to attend. This strategy worked out well and we doubled our numbers to 28 with people coming from far and wide. Our resident teacher Jakob Leschly guided us with his usual panache and humour, wonderful food was provided by our ever attentive hosts and we were fortunate to have 2 great yoga teachers, Nicky and Donna from our Melbourne Sangha who gave us a much needed daily workout. Sessions were a mixture of sitting, walking and tea drinking and when the sun was shining we were able to make use of the tranquil gardens. This all provided a very conducive atmosphere for meditation and contemplation.

Please see the 2012 SIA program for this years planned Vipashyana retreats in Adelaide, Blue Mountains and Northern NSW at SI Australia calendar download

Retreat participants September 2011

By Tshewang Dendup

The future of Bhutan is bright….. The future of Bhutan is full of promise…..
The future of Bhutan is a beautiful …..
These are the thoughts that overwhelmed us, the Samdrupjongkhar Initiative (SJI) and the Voluntary Artists Studio of Thimphu (VAST), during an art camp held in Dewathang, Samdrupjongkhar , January 2012.
Dressed in their ghos and kiras, sixty three youth from Dewathang and nearby areas descended with diligence on the campus of the Dewathang Primary School to absorb the offerings of the Art Camp. Moving with the ease of a seasoned instructor, Azha Kama, the founder of VAST was an instant hit with the youngsters, producing bursts of laughter with his endearing personality and gushes of sighs with the flourish of his master strokes.

Youth Art Camp, Dewathang, 2012

On the first day, Azha Kama and his team from VAST Thimphu steered the youth of Dewathang to produce installation art from garbage collected from the surrounding areas. When the mayor of Samdrupjongkhar arrived to join us for lunch, he couldn’t miss the display of the students’ work. There was a chair made from scraps, a dust bin fashioned from abandoned waste and robotic creatures created from pet bottles that had earlier scarred and trashed the otherwise scenic land of Dewathang.
The students were taught using a wide array of art materials that included the humble pencil on paper to the lush and luxurious marriage of acrylic on canvas. Along with ten young VAST members, Azha Kama was able to rope in veteran artist Sukhbir Biswa from Thimphu. As Mr. Sukhbir displayed his prowess in recreating the natural grandeur of Bhutan on canvas, the students sat enraptured, watching a new world unfolding in front of them. A world of colours with names like Antwerp Blue and Burnt Sienna, a world awaiting to be explored in charcoal or water colour, a world of creativity.
Thanks to Maiyesh Tamang, a VAST member who is studying at Kala Bhavan in Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan, we were able to bring three talented artists from the reputed academy which is home to the vision and spiritual legacy of the great Rabindranath Tagore. Tre from Meghalaya, Sajji from Kerala and Tshering from Himachal admired the rugged beauty of our land. During classes, they glided from table to table guiding the students, throwing in words of encouragement, thumbs ups for a jobs well done and rounds of applause for tasks completed on time. In a fitting conclusion to the art classes, Maiyesh, Tre, Sajji and Tshering supervised the production of more than a hundred elephants which were sculpted by the students from locally available clay.

Youth Art Camp, Dewathang, 2012

Right from the moment we decided to hold the art camp, we at SJI wanted waste control and the philosophy of zero waste living to be the theme underpinning the art camp. As development reaches the nooks and corners of Bhutan, waste control is now a very visible issue of concern. We knew that in VAST, we had a partner that shared our concern in forming a sustainable waste control initiative in the kingdom. While we provided vegetarian meals with as much local produce as our resources allowed, we asked students and instructors alike to bring their own plates and mugs. We also served tea in locally made bamboo mugs thus we generated as little waste as possible. With the little waste we did create, we made sure that it was segregated into paper, plastic etc.
The students who took part in the camp are eager to continue with their new found zeal of creativity and concern to keep their community litter free. For a start, they have started collecting the plastic waste at home. SJI will be welcoming them once a month and the venue will be the campus of Rinpoche’s Shedra, the Chokyi Gyatso Institute. Armed with scissors, the students will shred the plastics and confine them into the wombs of sacks made from left over textiles from tailor shops. These handmade cushions will be one of their solutions to tackle the widespread menace of plastic and become an offering, a zero waste offering, to the shedra.

Youth Art Camp, Dewathang, 2012

By Melitis Kwong

It’s December, the sun is bright but there’s a chill in the air.  The local Indians have finished collecting grass for their cows and fire wood for their home.  Many young local Tibetans have gone for winter trading, leaving the old folks sitting in the sun continuing to swing their Mani wheels.  The Para gliders have packed up their gear for the season.  Nearby Chokling monastery has finished their 10 day drupchen and today, all the Tibetan shops are closed because the shopkeepers have all gone for the Lama dance at Sherab ling Monastery.  Here at DPI, we’re preparing for our 6 week winter closure and the renovation of the temples, laying new tile floors on the top two levels and a wooden floor in the  Buddha Hall located in the ground floor.

We’re also busy planning our Spring program 2012.  We’re happy that two of our regular faculty members, Kurt and Janet both from Friday Harbor, USA, are returning to lead programs at DPI.  Kurt will offer 4 week intensive classical Tibetan language courses and Janet will offer 3 creative writing workshops.  We also have the honor of hosting a few women teachers next Spring, Bhikkinus Dhammanada from Thailand, nun Samani Aagam from the Jain tradition and Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.  Khenpo Choyin Dorjee, one of the leading khenpos from Dzongsar Institute, will also offer 3 series of study on the philosophy of the middle way.

Looking back on 2011, DPI has hosted more than 20 programs.  In the Buddhist tradition, we received teachings from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, OT Rinpoche, Dzigsar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Drupgyud Tenzin Rinpoche and Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.

Participants from Dr. Bettina Baumer’s program on the Hindu Tantra of Kashmir Saivism.

From the Hindu tradition, we had a program offered by Professor Bettina Baumeron a Hindu Tantra and Kristna Chaitanya offered a 5 day Intensive Yoga retreat.  On the creative side, we had a few writing workshops, a photography workshop and, for the first time at DPI, we hosted a film workshop where some short length films (3 mins) were made by the students.

Rinpoche giving out Refuge names at Way of the Bodhisavtta teaching

The highlight of all the programs was DJK Rinpoche’s teaching in May where more than 270 people attended this third series of Way of the Bodhisavtta and at least 100 people took refuge with Rinpoche. A group of young Chinese from China was moved to tears when Rinpoche gave the Bodhisavtta vows.  As a gesture of celebration, different nationalities from the audience offered music and songs at the end of the teaching.  It was a very joyful experience.

DPI also hosted two very interesting conferences on education this year; the Learning societies conference in April and the conference on Indian perspectives on Shiksha (Education) in September.

The Learning societies conference was organized by DPI along with a few India NGOs.  About 250 people from across India attended and the atmosphere was very informal and invocative.  A majority of the participants were University students and from different youth groups.  Movies were shown in the evenings and meals were prepared collectively with other youth groups.  A large tent was set up in the front gardens to accommodate this large gathering and the atmosphere was very mush like a festival.

The Shiksha Conference, on the other hand, was rather different.  This four day conference on Indian perspectives on Education was organized by Deer Park Institute and SIDH (Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas) under the patronage of Samdhong Rinpoche. There were 20 invited educationists and philosophers from different Indian traditions to present their thought and belief systems.  There were also 20 observers who participated in the discussion sessions.  Many invited speakers were highly educated scholars and distinguished  philosophers.

The speaker is the representative from Krishnamurti school, Center is Samdhong Rinpoche, to his left HH Ratna Vajra Rinpoche and Gyana Vajra Rinpoche, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche to the left and facing is Geshe Garwang Samten and Geshe Dorji Damdul.

Among the speakers was the vice chancellor from Jain Vishva Bharati University.  Jain philosophy has a strong emphasis on non-violence to such a degree that we noticed the Jain nuns will always choose to walk on pavement instead of grassy areas so they do not accidentally step on insects.  In Rinpoche’s previous teaching, he often talks favorably about the Jain tradition which is one of the oldest philosophical and religious systems in India though is not very widespread in the modern age.  We were glad to have a chance to meet these Jain nuns and, with Rinpoche’s encouragement, we invited them to come back next year to present Jainism at DPI.
The main purpose of the Shiksha conference was to put together the traditional views on education of the various great Indian traditions as well as current efforts being made by individuals and groups.  The second aim was to find the similarities and dissimilarities among these traditions and, more importantly, which of these are relevant today and how they can  be utilized in the present day education process.
There were many discussions on the concept of Kalayan-mitra or Guru-Chela, the student/teacher relationship which many Indian traditions uphold as valuable.  The concept behind this, as I understood, is the mutual responsibility of the teacher and students where they both need to have certain qualities and qualifications.
The qualities of the teacher are that he or she should come from an authentic source, an unbroken lineage and be verifiable by logic or reason.  Also the teacher must possess the ability to remove fear and help student to overcome obstacles.  And of course having wisdom, compassion and diligence is essential. The student should have faith in the teacher and the teachings, an aspiration and determination to learn and to cultivate purity of mind, concentration and the ability to see phenomenon as it is.  The qualities of wisdom, intelligence, enquiry , without bias , are also mentioned as important.

I think I have found ‘my perfect teacher’ but it might take me many lifetimes of accumulation of merit to become his perfect student.

Deer Park Institute staff with Rinpoche

To view the current upcoming program, please check DPI website at: www.deerpark.in

If you want to be on our mailing list, please send your request to: info@deerpark.in

We look forward to seeing you in the next season of program.

Saraswati statue in front of the Buddha Hall Temple at Deer Park, Bir.

84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a non profit global initiative to translate the Tibetan Buddhist Canon (Kangyur and Tengyur) into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.

Headed in the interim by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, 84000 is endorsed and supported by the lineage holders of all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as academics from eminent Universities.

As 84000 moves into the third year of our existence, we are pleased to report that we are now funding more than 60 translators worldwide to translate more than 10% of the Kangyur – approximately 8,000 pages of the Words of the Buddha.

The first live tour of the 84000 Reading Room is open now, with the online publication of the first batch of completed English language translations in a free online reading environment. Contact us at info@84000.co  if you would like to be notified of timing of the live tour.

Sign up on our quarterly electronic newsletter at www.84000.co/subscribe, and join us on Facebook to be updated on our exciting progress and developments!
For more information, Please visit our website at www.84000.co.

Dear Friends of The Siddhartha School

Thank you sincerely for your ongoing support and interest in The Siddhartha School project and a special big thank you to all those who over the past seven years have donated funds and working hours. It has been a long journey with much enthusiasm, learning, creativity and hard work from the numerous and generous contributors.

As many of you are aware, we have been seeking to establish the school on a beautiful rural property in Lindendale near Lismore. This property had originally been built as a health centre in the 1980’s and the building modifications required to transform it into a small school did not appear to be substantial. However we recently received from Lismore Council the response to our Development Application (DA) to operate a school on this site. There are 48 conditions of consent for our DA. Unfortunately, Council’s requirements are beyond what we had expected and are extremely prohibitive, with estimated costs for road works alone in the vicinity of $400,000. This would bring the total spend to open the school at this site to approximately $800,000. Consequently the Board has made the reluctant decision not to continue with this site.

We are now considering other options and will certainly advise you of progress.

Thank you for the patience and generosity of all the people who have donated funds and energy to the school project to date.

With our best wishes and regards,

The Board of The Siddhartha School

“ Just as the bee takes the nectar and leaves without damaging the colour or scent of the flower so do the wise move through the world.”
The Buddha

All of us have memories of places, people and works of art that stick firmly in our minds. Amongst my remembered bright lights is the first sighting of paintings by a long time student of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Nancy Koh.

To read and see some of her works follow this link  http://www.worldartmuseum.cn/sjt_special/nancy/index_en.html

Childlike Sentiments – Professor Ting Yen-yung in retrospect

Cum

Mind as the Moon: the Art of Nancy Koh.

Joint exhibition

Bother not what is true or untrue Just go on practicing, through and through, Chinese ink and brush on paper By Nancy Koh

The Floral Deity dedicates a song in beaming glow The sentient eye joins in echo, Oil on canvas 121.92 x 91.44 cm By Nancy Koh

Rinpoche By Nancy Koh

Miksang is a Tibetan word that translates as ‘Good Eye’, and is based on the Shambhala and Dharma Art teachings of the late meditation master, artist, and scholar Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Skaters. Toronto City Hall. Toronto Canada © Michael Wood. 2012

To me the path of Miksang is about uncovering truth, the truth of pure perception in our moment to moment experience. We see something penetrating, something pure and self-existing, and then we have the opportunity to express that perception without making anything up. We can be totally honest about what we saw. In that moment of staying with the perception, we hang out in the push and pull of wanting to manipulate it. But that all dissolves and is cut when we press down and feel the shutter click. It is the joy of letting go.

Julie DuBose.

Co-Founder. Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography
www.miksang.com

Michael in a Puddle. Boulder, Colorado. © Julie DuBose. 2012

By Dolma Gunther

A scholarly young monk embarks upon an intriguing journey only to discover that the wisdom he seeks is much closer than he imagines, and much stranger than he could possibly envisage.

Finding Manjushri was produced on a shoestring and filmed on location in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, in northern India, with a cast of amateur actors drawn from the local refugee Tibetan community. Preproduction stretched over ten weeks, utilising local trades and craftspeople to produce sets, props and costumes under the supervision of director of photography Al Donnelley and director Dolma Gunther.

The shoot itself took 15 days, complicated by weather – no less than the worst subcontinental monsoon in 15 years – and the vagaries of the Indian electrical supply system. One complicated scene had to be lit with candles after a tree fell on powerlines near the town on the morning of the shoot. The mule that appears in the film is a pig in the original story – but the pig who arrived on the day of the shoot was an impossible prima donna, and had to be recast.

The rough-cut of the film premiered in a tiny guest house in front of almost the whole village much to the delight of the local cast and crew. The film was only made possible with the wonderful support of the local community and the efforts of a number of people. Most notably, Orgyen Tenzang – who plays Lodro – translated the script into Tibetan and cheerfully endured being soaked to the skin time and time again in freezing weather.

Lodro and Dolma on set

The whole production was a journey in itself, rich with cultural exchanges and common warmth.

The entire inspiration for the whole film was DJK Rinpoche, of course and that the original story is a story that Rinpoche occasionally tells and that is where I first heard the story. Rinpoche also gave permission for me to do the film and reviewed versions of the script that I wrote.
 

At the moment the film is still in the last stages of postproduction and is being entered into short film festivals around the globe but we are trying to raise money to cover the cost of a professional sound editor and a colourist. So any donations or contacts are very welcome!

Synopsis

Lodro is a brilliant young monk at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery high in the Himalayas in India. He excels at debate and is top in his classes in philosophy and dialectics. As blessed as he already is, he is consumed by the wish to encounter Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, in order to improve his studies. Every day he takes out a postcard of Mount Wutaishan and strokes it lovingly; for he knows that Manjushri has promised that anyone who makes pilgrimage to Mount Wutaishan will meet Manjushri in person. One day he gets up courage to ask Rinpoche, the head of the monastery, to go on pilgrimage.

Al with cast

In his attempt to reach the fabled mountain of Wutaishan, Lodro battles adversity in the form of unrelenting storms, seductive women, bullying cooks, local thuglords and worst of all, a growing disillusionment  and deconstruction of his own expectations and conceptual frameworks.

What Lodro needs to learn is that often, in the getting of wisdom, it is what you lose that is more important than what you gain. When Lodro’s desperation reaches such a point that the lines of reality, illusion and magic all seem to blur, he realises that the blessings of bodhisattvas can manifest in extraordinary ways, and that Manjushri is closer than he ever imagined.

The link to the film is:  www.findingmanjushri.com

Finding Manjushri, A film by Dolma Gunther and Al Donnelley

Julie Adler

julieadler.com

All quotes are from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Arising - work in progress by Julie Adler

“This is all my doing”

Abiding - work in progress By Julie Adler

“Abiding is a madness”

Ceasing - work in progress By Julie Adler

“In the bardo state, you don’t have to close your eyes. Your eyes are gone”

Paul Ferguson

I study traditional thangka painting with Ang Tsherin Sherpa as well as assist him on some of his contemporary works. The more I work with Tsherin, the more I contemplate what it means to preserve tradition as well as break away from it yet attempt to keep its essence intact. For example, I remember Rinpoche saying we shouldn’t visualize the deity with the trappings of Indian royal jewelry like you see in thangkas but to “modernize” them. As a thangka painter, it’s challenging request but seems necessary since the traditional style isn’t matching what your guru is saying. Anyway, it’s a very interesting time for Buddhist artists right now.

www.aaa-a.org/2011/05/03/conversation-with-ang-tsherin-sherpa/

Gasmasks By Ang Tsering Sherpa

Preservation by Ang Tsering Sherpa

Two Spirits By Ang Tshering Sherpa

Ngawang Kundrol For Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche

My Master is like the sky
Not delimitated by substancial things
For sky like light pours through everywhere
Without movement.

My Master is transparency
That reveals itself not as in a dream
But present and unmoving
He reveals the dream.

My Master’s patience has no equal
Even as my mind turns upon itself
His smile holds me intact
On a bright moon sliver.

My Master is the rain and night I see
And the cold I feel on my feet
And through all things I separate
He loves seamlessly.

Photos by Tom Brosnam

Dispelling the Darkness of Obscurations

Recognising our true essence at the Dawning of the Dharmadatu

The story of Krisha Gotami & the mustard seed

With installation by Adrienne Shaw

Krisha Gotami was a young woman who had the good fortune to live at the time of the Buddha. When her first born child was about a year old, it fell ill and died. Grief stricken and clutching its little body, Krisha Gotami roamed the streets, begging anyone she met for a medicine that could restore her child to life. Some ignored her, some laughed at her, some thought she was mad, but finally she met a wise man who told her that the only person in the world who could perform the miracle she was looking for was the Buddha.
So she went to the Buddha, laid the body of her child at his feet, and told him her story. The Buddha listened with infinite compassion. Then he said gently, “There is only one way to heal your affliction. Go down to the city and bring me back a mustard seed from any house in which there has never been a death.”
Krisha Gotami felt elated and set off at once for the city. She stopped at the first house she saw and said: “I have been told by the Buddha to fetch a mustard seed from a house that has never known death.”
“Many people have died in this house”, she was told. She went on to the next house. “There have been countless deaths in our family” they said. And so to a third and a fourth house, until she had been all around the city and realised the Buddha’s condition could not be fulfilled.

Rinpoche,Sogyal 1992, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Rider, United Kingdom pp28,29.

By Adrienne Shaw

By Adrienne Shaw

Adrienne Shaw

Please see www.brigittereisz.de for further works

Untitled, 2010, 60 x 70cm, egg tempera on canvas, By Brigitte Reisz, Photo by Alistair Overbruck

Untitled, 2010, 152 x 117cm, egg tempera on canvas, By Brigitte Reisz, Photos by Alistair Overbruck

Untitled, 2007, 300x 480 cm, egg tempera on canvas, By Brigitte Reisz, Photos by Alistair Overbruck