Thangka. Thangka Very Much.

Crevasse, Franz Josef, New Zealand

In the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon, Yeshe Tsogyal appears on three levels: in a physically embodied, historical, human form (nirmanakaya), she appears as the princess of Karchen, Yeshe Tsogyal, a queen of Tibet. In a visionary, symbolic body (sambhogakaya), she is known as Vajrayogini, one of the most important female yidams (deities used as a support for meditation) of Tibetan Buddhism, practiced as a Vajrayana ritual in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage. In her most subtle, formless essence of open space aspect (dharmakaya), she is Samantabhadri, the female side of the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, the essence of basic goodness, the direct nature of mind, and ultimate source of the lineage in Nyingma Buddhism.[1]

Yeshe Tsogyal, artist Ang Tsherin Sherpa

Supplication to Yeshe Tsogyal

Mother of all the victorious ones, dharmadhatu samantabhadri,
Very kind, only mother who protects the subjects of Tibet,
Bestower of supreme siddhi, chief among the dakinis of great bliss,
Yeshe Tsogyal, we supplicate at your feet.

Grant your blessings so that outer, inner, and secret obstacles may be pacified.
Grant your blessings so that the lives of the gurus may be long.
Grant your blessings so that this kalpa of disease, famine, and war may be pacified.
Grant your blessings so that the casting of curses, spells, and sorcery may be pacified.
Grant your blessings so that life, glory, and prajña¥ may increase.
Grant your blessings so that our wishes may be fulfilled spontaneously.

This was written by Khakhyap Dorje [Karmapa XV], the boy nurtured by the jñanadakinis. May virtue and goodness increase! Translated by the Vajravairochana Translation Committee, used with permission.

Cynthia Jurs with Earth Treasure Vase in ceremony in Alaska

 

The Story of the Earth Treasure Vase Mandala

by Cynthia Jurs

In 1990, I was invited by my vajra brother, Jim Casilio, to join a small group trek into the Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal on a pilgrimage to meet a 106-year-old Tibetan Lama, H.E. Kushok Mangden, Charok Rinpoche, a hermit who lived in a cave high in the Himalayas. Charok Rinpoche was the guiding teacher and root guru of a Sherpa friend, Lama Ngawang Tsultrim Zangpo, who served as our guide into the mountains to meet the venerable Rinpoche. As I walked along the path day after day, I contemplated what to ask this ancient holy person that would be of benefit not just to me, but to others as well. [click to read most fascinating story]



Notilia

[1] Yeshe Tsogyal: Woman and Feminine Priniciple - Rita Gross & Acharya Judith Simmer Brown. Published Shambhala Times, August 2009.


Photograph of crevasse taken by Antoniak and swiped from Travelpod. Want more ice?

 Thangka Art

Ang Tsherin Sherpa was born in 1968 in Kathmandu, Nepal. He started studying thangka painting at the age of twelve under the skillful guidance of his father, Master Urgen Dorje, a renowned thangka artist from Ngyalam, Tibet. After six years of intense formal training, Tsherin went to Taiwan to study Mandarin and computer science. Three years later, he returned to Nepal and resumed working with his father in numerous projects that included painting thangkas and monastery murals.
Tsherin came to the US in 1998 and worked as a thangka artist and as an instructor at The Healing Buddha Center in California. Presently, he lives in Oakland, California where he continues to paint thangkas and to offer classes in thangka painting.