 |  |  |  | There is neither a painting in the mind
Nor a mind in the painting:
And yet, where else can one find a painting
Than in the mind?
Avatamsaka Sutra
"Preserving the Sacred Arts is always part of the preservation of Dharma"
~ Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche ~
Another subtle, graceful beauty of a White Tara by my favorite artist, Prem Lama of Nepal!!! I say it is "TOOGOODFOREBAY" because most people would not think it is possible to find a thangka of this quality on eBay and I am trying to correct that impression.
BIG!!!! Measures about 19 & 3/4 inches by 27 & 3/4 inches, excluding the outermost brown border.
This thangka is not mounted in brocade but I am now able to provide brocade mountings for my thangkas at very reasonable prices. The finest quality Varanasi brocade is available. It will take a while to get the mounting done, but it will be good practice in patience!
Check out my other items!
Recent Feedback Comments:
+ Ebay needs more sellers like this man and less flimflammin' JUNK vendors!
+ Breathtaking work on this piece - seller has a very VERY good eye for sweet work
+ Very scrupulous dealer - the "flaws" he mentioned are so hard to see - WOW!
+ VERY happy with sellers Thangkas! Brocades ordered have been superb! Five stars!
+ OTHER-WORLDLY art from an other-worldly honest and nice seller *PERFECT* thanks
+ Beautiful thangka Had brocade done after buying fabulous job A++++++ Thanks!!!!
+ The best thangka I've ever bought! Fast service & very gracious vendor!
+ WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! is right - this is STUNNING!!!!! VERY happy - Thanks again Wayne
+ The detail in this Thanka is AMAZING, incredibly intricate brushstrokes Thankyou
+ This seller has a great eye for thangkas! Buy with confidence! AAA+++ Thanks!!!!
I make every attempt to provide photos for my listings that are as accurate as possible in color, hue, contrast, and saturation, but even if they were perfect on my monitor it would not be possible to be the same on your system. There are small differences between every computer and monitor, and their settings, to make complete accuracy impossible. Also, the pure gold paint often reflects and will appear differently in person with other light angles.
I strive to provide the best quality thangkas for the price on eBay. They are all original paintings done with mineral pigments and pure gold paint on canvas. You won't find any imitation Chinese thangkas here! Please compare the detailed photos of my thangkas to other thangkas available on eBay to determine the quality. The photos in each listing are of the very same thangka that I am selling. Don't bother to compare them to the extremely low quality glut of fake "antique" or "old" "Tibetan" thangkas from China that have flooded the market in the last few years. There IS no comparison with these fakes.
I want to make clear that in no way, shape or form do I represent myself as an expert on Tibetan iconography or thangka painting. I am just a beginner in understanding this profound art form. If there is any kind of problem, let me know. I will never knowingly misrepresent anything I am selling. There is always the chance that I may have been fooled myself, but will try to correct the situation if that ever happens. Please contact me if you think I have been misled. I also don't try to exaggerate the colors or contrast in my photos to make them more appealing. I believe in karma and that honesty is always the best policy and will do business by these principles.
A word or two about the terrible thangkas done in sweatshops in China. If you look at about 90% (or more) of the thangkas for sale on Ebay, they are being sold from China and all look very similar. By similar, I mean the proportions are all wrong, there is no fine detail work at all and they are mostly iconographically as incorrect as it is possible to be. A lot of them seem to be of deities that don’t exist! Ebay doesn’t seem at all interested in shutting down this flood of fakes, because they are making very good money on them. Not only has China's brutal regime been systematically eliminating Tibet's culture and religion in Tibet, they are ruining the art of thangka painting where it is barely hanging on in exile in Nepal and India and a very few artists in Tibet.
Some people have thought that my thangkas are so detailed that they must be prints. I do not sell prints of thangkas. If I do start doing so they will clearly be identified as such! The best way to determine if it is an original painting is to hold it up to a bright light or the sun. You will clearly see different thicknesses of paint and some brush strokes.
Also 1 or 2 people have thought that the paintings are on paper. They are all on cotton canvas, but they are treated with a layer of gesso (like plaster of paris or gypsum) and rubbed smooth. Some of them are so smooth you cannot see the individual fibers. To prove to yourself that the painting is on canvas, try ripping the corner of the border area and you will see threads.
Emergence of Tārā as a Buddhist deity
Within Tibetan Buddhism Tārā is regarded as a Boddhisattva of compassion and action. She is the female aspect of Avalokitesvara (Chenrezig) and in some origin stories she comes from his tears:
Then at last Avalokiteshvara arrived at the summit of Marpori, the 'Red Hill', in Lhasa. Gazing out, he perceived that the lake on Otang, the 'Plain of Milk', resembled the Hell of Ceaseless Torment. Myriads of being were undergoing the agonies of boiling, burning, hunger, thirst, yet they never perished, but let forth hideous cries of anguish all the while. When Avalokiteshvara saw this, tears sprang to his eyes. A teardrop from his right eye fell to the plain and became the reverend Bhrikuti, who declared: 'Son of your race! As you are striving for the sake of sentient beings in he Land of Snows, intercede in their suffering, and I shall be your companion in this endeavour!' Bhrikuti was then reabsorbed into Avalokiteshvara's right eye, and was reborn in a later life as the Nepalese princess Tritsun. A teardrop from his left eye fell upon the plain and became the reverend Tara. She also declared, 'Son of your race! As you are striving for the sake of sentient beings in he Land of Snows, intercede in their suffering, and I shall be your companion in this endeavour!' Tara was also reabsorbed into Avalokiteshvara's left eye, and was reborn in a later life as the Chinese princess Kongjo (Princess Wencheng)."
Tārā is also known as a saviouress, as a heavenly deity who hears the cries of beings experiencing misery in samsara.
The Tārā figure originated not in Buddhism but in Hinduism, where she, Tārā, was one of a number of Mother Goddess figures alongside Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Parvati, and Shakti. In the 6th century C.E., during the era of the Pala Empire, Tārā was adopted into the Buddhist pantheon as an important bodhisattva figure just a few centuries after the Prajnaparamita Sutra had been introduced into what was becoming the Mahayana Buddhism of India. It would seem that the feminine principle makes its first appearance in Buddhism as the "Mother of Perfected Wisdom" and then later Tārā comes to be seen as an expression of the compassion of perfected wisdom. However, sometimes Tārā is also known as "the Mother of the Buddhas", which usually refers to the enlightened wisdom of the Buddhas, so in approaching Buddhist deities, one learns not to impose totally strict boundaries about what one deity covers, as opposed to another deity.
White Tara Sadhana
The brimming nectar of immortality borne on the continuum
of Wish-Fulfilling Wheel Holy White Tara.
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Refuge and Generating Bodhicitta (three times)
I take refuge until I am enlightened in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. By the positive potential I create by practicing generosity and the other far-reaching attitudes, may I attain Buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings.
The Four Immeasurable Thoughts
May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes,
May all sentient beings be free from suffering and its causes.
May all sentient beings never be separated from sorrowless bliss.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger.
The Seven Limbs
Reverently I prostrate with my body speech and mind,
And present clouds of every type of offering, actual and mentally-transformed
I declare all my negative actions accumulated since beginningless time
And rejoice in the virtues of all holy and ordinary beings.
Please remain until cyclic existence ends
And turn the wheel ofDharma for sentient beings
I dedicate all the virtues of myself and others to the great enlightenment.
Outer Mandala
This ground, anointed with perfume, flowers strewn,
Mount Meru, four lands, sun and moon,
Imagined as a Buddha land and offered to you
May all beings enjoy this pure land.
Inner Mandala
The objects of attachment, aversion and ignorance – friends, enemies and strangers, my body, wealth and enjoyments – I offer these without any sense of loss. Please accept them with pleasure and inspire me and others to be free from the three poisonous attitudes.
idam guru ratna mandala kam nirya tayami
(I send forth this jewelled mandala to you, precious gurus)
Emptiness meditation
om sobhawa shuddha sarva dharma sobhawa shuddho ham
(I am the embodiment of the purity of all subjective and objective phenomena.) |
From the sphere of emptiness appears a white lotus and on it a moon disc. On that appears my own mind in the form of a white syllable tam which transforms into an utpala flower marked by tam. This transforms into the self-generated, life-granting Arya Tara with one face and two arms. Her right hand holds a utpala flower. In youthful aspect, she is adorned with all the major and minor marks of a tathagata and is endowed with seven eyes.
Screened by a full moon behind her, her three places are marked by three syllables om ah hum. From the seed syllable at her heart, light is emitted, inviting the wisdom beings and initiating deities.
The wisdom beings merge inseparably with me; Tara, and the initiating deities confer empowerment. By the overflow of nectar, my crown is adorned with Amitayus. From the tam at my heart light is emitted, activating the infinite nectar of longevity from beyond cyclic existence and dissolving h back into my heart.
Mantra Recitation and Visualization
From the red hri at Amitayus' heart, rays of red light shine out into the ten directions, hooking back the essence of long life from all samsaric and non-samsaric beings and from the four elements and also hooking back all the life previously stolen by black magic and so forth. All this is drawn into the nectar in the long life vase in Amitayus' lap. The nectar increases endlessly and overflows into my crown and completely fills my body
At my heart, in the tigle on the white tam, sits my own guru (or anyone whose long life you want to pray for). Surrounding him on a moon disc, are all sentient beings: enemies, friends and strangers. Surrounding them, on the edge on the moon disc, are the letters of the mantra:
om tare tuttare ture mama ayur punye jnyana pushtim kuru ye soha
The nectar flowing through my body completely elminates from my guru (or for whomever you are doing this practice) all hindrances to his/her long life, (which are in fact my own karmic vision*). The nectar also purifies the hindrances to life and the black karmic vision of all sentient beings. At the same time, light from the letters of the mantra fills my own Tara body and the bodies of all the sentient beings at my heart, especially of those practicing virtue in the three worlds
*This applies only to the appearance of sickness in regards to the guru.
While doing this visualization, repeat the mantra 21 times:
om tare tuttare ture mama ayur punye jnyana pushtim kuru ye soha
Then as often as you like:
om tare tuttare ture soha
Think strongly: the hindrances that cause my guru to appear sick or that prevent his holy wishes from being fulfilled are all purified. All sentient beings are purified, and all human beings who are accumulating virtue by just even taking refuge or by repeating om mani padme hum achieve long life.
Upon seeing the signs of untimely death instantaneously, by clearly beholding the holy body of the Wish- Fulfilling Wheel Tara, may I intrepidly conquer the lord of death and swiftly attain the rank of an immortal master of knowledge.
Dedication of Positive Potential
Due to this merit may I soon
Attain the enlightened state of Arya Tara
That I may be able to liberate
All sentient beings from their suffering.
May the precious bodhi mind
Not yet born arise and grow;
May that born have no decline,
But increase forever more.
Translated by Barry Clarke, with additional meditation
given by the Venerable Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, 1982
Revised and edited by the Education Department
FPMT International Office, 1997
© Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.
Please note: I will declare honestly on the Customs Form unless asked to do otherwise. I can not insure for more than the declared value for Customs.
I will be glad to combine shipping and insurance on multiple items. I will ship worldwide with the buyer paying the actual shipping costs. Email me for costs and options to your country.
Satisfaction guaranteed, but I can't control the U.S. or foreign Postal Services, or make you read the item description carefully. If there is any problem, let me know and we will work it out.
I would appreciate it if you would read my “Me” page. There is information there on how to help the Tibetan cause.
Through the wonders of codependent arising,
One sees the shimmering of the moon in a lake;
When you swim there and search for the moon,
Nothing is found; the moon disappears.
It is natural to my senses and conception
that an autonomous, substantial “I” appears;
yet when I search the complex of my body and mind,
akin to milk in water, this independent “I” dissolves.
In the magical meeting of rain, clouds, and sun,
a brilliant rainbow of the five colors appears –
its unmoving ends seem rooted to the ground;
yet as you approach, it runs away and fades.
The Love Dance of Emptiness and Appearance
Chone Lama Rinpoche (b. 1816)
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