He said, "Well, Buddha traveled backwards in time and wove it in [laughter]." You know . . . you can see these things every now and then if you smoke the right thing or drop the right thing.
So we talked a lot about how perception works, how the rods and cones of your eyes are put together. He wanted these thangkas to fit in really cleanly, so they really connect with you on a neurological level, beyond thinking. It would just go right into your brain and sort of bypass the whole conceptual process. That's how you could say they're different. But again, using Western scale. In the past, thangka painters really knew how perception worked. The yogis had techniques to experience it, like pulsing blood across their eyelids with their eyes closed facing the sun so they could see the geometry of their eyes.
Tara by Jack Niland, 1971, Acrylic on canvas, 4x6 ft.
But those thangkas don't work anymore either because we have a different scale. Our buildings are at a different scale; our bodies are at a different scale. You know, everything around us has our sense of scale, so those old thangkas don't fit in either, even if they are very pure. It's like we're speaking a different language. So you have to constantly keep it fresh and invent it new. And that's another reason why Rinpoche wanted to use Western materials, like acrylic paint and staining canvas--something nobody would ever dream of in Tibet. We're used to looking at certain materials and then when you put the thangka up in a room, it's going to be a Western room. And he wanted the scale and materials to match the room, to vibrate harmonically with the room, whereas a Tibetan type of paint and Tibetan scale wouldn't. It's always going to be other, always going to be cultural artifacts on the wall. OK?
JW: Could you describe the major differences in technique?
Detail from Tara thangka by Jack Niland, 1971, Acrylic on canvas.
JN: OK, he did it by really making it into sort of a pure dharma, but all dharma in the end is talking about your mind. So the thangkas that he came up with are reflections of how our minds actually are constructed. So for instance, starting out by staining the canvas all one color-not gessoing it at all, but actually taking raw canvas and staining it with this chemical we had that you can add to acrylic paint so it can penetrate the fibers--that created the dharmakaya, which is the emptiness aspect of our minds--that our minds are essentially made up of emptiness. So, there's Buddhist teaching there. And in visual dharma, staining the canvas would be the equivalent of dharmakaya or the emptiness aspect. Then the second stage would be putting the outlines of the deity on in a contrasting color. And the outlines would be completely classical. You don't mess with the outlines. You don't mess with the deity. You don't change any implements. You want the scale to be exactly according to the thigses that were worked out. And the outline of the deity is like the sambhogakaya, the energy level, the speech level that arises spontaneously out of the emptiness. And so just having this kind of electric outline in this very contrasting color--the first one we did had a deep blue background and then a reddish orange outline, so it's very electric, like an energy, like sambhogakaya--it's not real, it's not a solid thing, it's an electric-field-energy deity.
Then the next stage would be to add variations on the color of the background and variations on the color of the outline, but then making really contrasting colors to both of those colors. By doing all that, it made everything more solid, and things become more differentiated in the forms and the backgrounds. And then we'd even put in some shading and everything. And that was like the nirmanakaya. It was like joining the two together--joining the dharmakaya emptiness and the sambhogakaya display of luminosity, which is the union stage. So all of this is dzogchen, I now realize--even as I'm speaking, I'm sort of realizing this. After you do the outline, that's what you do.
So we talked a lot about how perception works, how the rods and cones of your eyes are put together. He wanted these thangkas to fit in really cleanly, so they really connect with you on a neurological level, beyond thinking. It would just go right into your brain and sort of bypass the whole conceptual process. That's how you could say they're different. But again, using Western scale. In the past, thangka painters really knew how perception worked. The yogis had techniques to experience it, like pulsing blood across their eyelids with their eyes closed facing the sun so they could see the geometry of their eyes.
Tara by Jack Niland, 1971, Acrylic on canvas, 4x6 ft.
But those thangkas don't work anymore either because we have a different scale. Our buildings are at a different scale; our bodies are at a different scale. You know, everything around us has our sense of scale, so those old thangkas don't fit in either, even if they are very pure. It's like we're speaking a different language. So you have to constantly keep it fresh and invent it new. And that's another reason why Rinpoche wanted to use Western materials, like acrylic paint and staining canvas--something nobody would ever dream of in Tibet. We're used to looking at certain materials and then when you put the thangka up in a room, it's going to be a Western room. And he wanted the scale and materials to match the room, to vibrate harmonically with the room, whereas a Tibetan type of paint and Tibetan scale wouldn't. It's always going to be other, always going to be cultural artifacts on the wall. OK?
JW: Could you describe the major differences in technique?
Detail from Tara thangka by Jack Niland, 1971, Acrylic on canvas.
JN: OK, he did it by really making it into sort of a pure dharma, but all dharma in the end is talking about your mind. So the thangkas that he came up with are reflections of how our minds actually are constructed. So for instance, starting out by staining the canvas all one color-not gessoing it at all, but actually taking raw canvas and staining it with this chemical we had that you can add to acrylic paint so it can penetrate the fibers--that created the dharmakaya, which is the emptiness aspect of our minds--that our minds are essentially made up of emptiness. So, there's Buddhist teaching there. And in visual dharma, staining the canvas would be the equivalent of dharmakaya or the emptiness aspect. Then the second stage would be putting the outlines of the deity on in a contrasting color. And the outlines would be completely classical. You don't mess with the outlines. You don't mess with the deity. You don't change any implements. You want the scale to be exactly according to the thigses that were worked out. And the outline of the deity is like the sambhogakaya, the energy level, the speech level that arises spontaneously out of the emptiness. And so just having this kind of electric outline in this very contrasting color--the first one we did had a deep blue background and then a reddish orange outline, so it's very electric, like an energy, like sambhogakaya--it's not real, it's not a solid thing, it's an electric-field-energy deity.
Then the next stage would be to add variations on the color of the background and variations on the color of the outline, but then making really contrasting colors to both of those colors. By doing all that, it made everything more solid, and things become more differentiated in the forms and the backgrounds. And then we'd even put in some shading and everything. And that was like the nirmanakaya. It was like joining the two together--joining the dharmakaya emptiness and the sambhogakaya display of luminosity, which is the union stage. So all of this is dzogchen, I now realize--even as I'm speaking, I'm sort of realizing this. After you do the outline, that's what you do.
He said, "Put in variations of the blue," let's say. And then variations of that reddish orange and then put in completely contrasting colors like some greens, you know. Red, blue, yellow, green. And that brought it down to earth and made it look like a full-blown image that you could totally relate to. So he was not only invoking--the thangka is like a portrait of your mind; that's the way your mind works. The emptiness, the luminosity, and then they're joined together to create the world, the nirmanakaya. So he was actually creating a style of painting that was a reflection of your mind. That's how they're different. Was that the question?
JW: Could you describe the approach to drawing the figures--what the figures were meant to do differently than the other paintings we were looking at?
Mahakala by Jack Niland, 1971, Acrylic on canvas, 4x4 ft.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of this thangka, please let us know. chronicles@chronicleproject.com
JN: He wanted the figures to be the thing you see when you look at it. He wanted you to see a deity that basically seemed to be a real form--a three-dimensional form. And deities are supposed to be forms that are hollow and filled with light. So he didn't want them to be anatomically correct, with muscles and sort of illustration-style. It was supposed to be pure volumes--spheres and cylinders and cones--that kind of thing. The figure would seem to be made of these pure three-dimensional shapes that are joined together as I said, as opposed to a real human being with wrinkles and muscles and sinews. So the Buddhist deities are stylized or idealized volumes in space, because the volumes of course relate to shapes, and the shapes go into your eye. When it gets translated in your brain it has to go back to being volumes. Because the idea was to picture a deity. That's what these practices are about. You visualize a deity in front of you, then you visualize yourself as the deity, and the deity is always supposed to be seen as hollow. You know, a hole in space. And again this gets back to Trungpa's teaching that space is solid and forms are hollow. So when you saw the deity in a thangka, he wanted you to have a real instant sense of three-dimensional hollow form so you could visualize that in front of you and visualize yourself as that. And the Tibetan thangkas had degenerated into a bunch of gestures, and learned language, and you certainly didn't have any sense of form in a lot of them. And on the other hand he certainly didn't want it to look like anatomy lessons.
JW: You were describing that some of the forms were simplified. I was wondering what was dispensed with-what he saw as inessential.
JN; Well, when you have a fluttering scarf, how many flutters do you need in it to invoke the idea that it's fluttering? You really only need one or two little twists and flutters there. But the Tibetans had just heaped flutter upon flutter upon flutter. Part of this problem with the thangkas is that thangka painters weren't always religious monk types. They were these bands of gypsies that went from monastery to monastery. And they got paid by the deity [laughter]. And the longer it took, the more money they got. So that's why thangkas are sometimes crowded with tons and tons of deities--because the painters are getting paid by the deity. And the other way of paying them was that you had to constantly have parties for them and give them cool presents to inspire them, and give them lots of chang. So, the thangka painters weren't real practitioners. Every now and then a famous guru would have some vision or get into thangka painting. One of the early Karmapas came up with a certain school of thangka painting. There were always things like that, but by and large they were more like gypsies. So people wanted lots of brocades and gold and wanted the thangkas to look a certain way. They didn't really care if it looked like a deity. They weren't really concerned with "Can you visualize it?" because they weren't doing the practice. They were craftsmen.
JW: Could you describe the approach to drawing the figures--what the figures were meant to do differently than the other paintings we were looking at?
Mahakala by Jack Niland, 1971, Acrylic on canvas, 4x4 ft.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of this thangka, please let us know. chronicles@chronicleproject.com
JN: He wanted the figures to be the thing you see when you look at it. He wanted you to see a deity that basically seemed to be a real form--a three-dimensional form. And deities are supposed to be forms that are hollow and filled with light. So he didn't want them to be anatomically correct, with muscles and sort of illustration-style. It was supposed to be pure volumes--spheres and cylinders and cones--that kind of thing. The figure would seem to be made of these pure three-dimensional shapes that are joined together as I said, as opposed to a real human being with wrinkles and muscles and sinews. So the Buddhist deities are stylized or idealized volumes in space, because the volumes of course relate to shapes, and the shapes go into your eye. When it gets translated in your brain it has to go back to being volumes. Because the idea was to picture a deity. That's what these practices are about. You visualize a deity in front of you, then you visualize yourself as the deity, and the deity is always supposed to be seen as hollow. You know, a hole in space. And again this gets back to Trungpa's teaching that space is solid and forms are hollow. So when you saw the deity in a thangka, he wanted you to have a real instant sense of three-dimensional hollow form so you could visualize that in front of you and visualize yourself as that. And the Tibetan thangkas had degenerated into a bunch of gestures, and learned language, and you certainly didn't have any sense of form in a lot of them. And on the other hand he certainly didn't want it to look like anatomy lessons.
JW: You were describing that some of the forms were simplified. I was wondering what was dispensed with-what he saw as inessential.
JN; Well, when you have a fluttering scarf, how many flutters do you need in it to invoke the idea that it's fluttering? You really only need one or two little twists and flutters there. But the Tibetans had just heaped flutter upon flutter upon flutter. Part of this problem with the thangkas is that thangka painters weren't always religious monk types. They were these bands of gypsies that went from monastery to monastery. And they got paid by the deity [laughter]. And the longer it took, the more money they got. So that's why thangkas are sometimes crowded with tons and tons of deities--because the painters are getting paid by the deity. And the other way of paying them was that you had to constantly have parties for them and give them cool presents to inspire them, and give them lots of chang. So, the thangka painters weren't real practitioners. Every now and then a famous guru would have some vision or get into thangka painting. One of the early Karmapas came up with a certain school of thangka painting. There were always things like that, but by and large they were more like gypsies. So people wanted lots of brocades and gold and wanted the thangkas to look a certain way. They didn't really care if it looked like a deity. They weren't really concerned with "Can you visualize it?" because they weren't doing the practice. They were craftsmen.
And it was easy for it to deteriorate into just making pretty pictures.
JW: How many of these did you make?
Avalokiteshvara by Jack Niland, 1971, Acrylic on canvas, 4x4 ft.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of this thangka, please let us know. chronicles@chronicleproject.com
JN: I only made six of those. An Avalokiteshvara-the first one-was 4 foot square, and Trungpa actually had it on his shrine for a couple of years in Four Mile Canyon when he was first living in Boulder. And then there was Vajrayogini, which still is up in Nova Scotia at one of my old girlfriends' house. And an eight-armed semi-wrathful Black Tara--that was one of the last ones. That's at my sister's in New Jersey. There was also a yab-yum. I was trying to paint one for each Buddha family. So Avalokiteshvara was blue. Vajrayogini was red, and Yab-yum was kind of ratna. And Black Mahakala was karma. I forget what else.. At any rate, the last one was a giant Buddha-white, huge. It was maybe 6 foot square. The last I saw it was hanging at the barn in Karm� Choling completely covered in these streaks of bird shit--pigeon shit--that were actually almost--a very cool grid-like thing covering. Kind of Jackson Pollock meets Buddha. At any rate, Trungpa loved Jackson Pollock, so it didn't offend me. But otherwise, I don't know what happened to the rest of them. Various girlfriends have them.
JW: How were they received?
JN: At the time it was in the early 70's, it was like, "Whoa! What's he doing? How come he gets to paint pictures all day and we have to do all this shit rota and clean the house? What's with him? And he's on acid all the time anyway." You know? So they were received kind of like "Whoa what the hell is that all about? I guess it's kind of cool." Nobody quite knew what to make of them. So they didn't really catch on. People would come in and see Trungpa's shrine, but people wanted the old-style Tibetan things. On the other hand, I heard that recently at a fire puja up in Nova Scotia, my friend who has the 4 foot by 6 foot Vajrayogini brought it to the Vajrayogini fire puja. And she said people really got off on it--really loved it because times have changed and I think most people are maybe getting a little tired of Tibet, you know? [laughter] You know what I mean? I mean, come on! It's the dharma you're interested in. But Tibetan culture has been so mixed up in it that people are finally wanting to make �� At any rate, she told me that people totally flipped over it, and that was the first time anybody has seen it since that period when I was painting them. I haven't. Nobody's seen them [until now].
JW: Did the Vidyadhara expect that people would continue making thangkas in this way?
Jack Niland working on Vajrayogini thangka at Tail of the Tiger, 1971
Photograph by Rachel Homer
JN: Well, yeah. He wanted to start a whole new style. At the same time that we were doing his thangkas, I remember building furniture that he had designed that came from Tibetan inspiration, but again was totally Western scale--furniture that fit into a modern house without looking like an antique. It would look like modern furniture. Really cool stuff. All the furniture he had designed was inspired by nomads. He thought all furniture should be very transportable, because nomads moved around all the time, and he said Westerners move around all the time. So, the idea was to make furniture that's movable, as opposed to the Victorian giant chairs that you can't get through the door anymore. And so we were designing clothes and jewelry and a whole look. The formula for the look, which I finally got out of him, was: a Japanese sense of space; a Tibetan sense of color and ornamentation; and a Western sense of scale and materials.
So the Japanese sense of space is very asymmetrical, as opposed to Tibetan space, which is very symmetrical. He wanted to have this asymmetrical space. And the Japanese sense of space is also very sort of neutral color--white or empty or beige or natural colors, that kind of thing.
JW: How many of these did you make?
Avalokiteshvara by Jack Niland, 1971, Acrylic on canvas, 4x4 ft.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of this thangka, please let us know. chronicles@chronicleproject.com
JN: I only made six of those. An Avalokiteshvara-the first one-was 4 foot square, and Trungpa actually had it on his shrine for a couple of years in Four Mile Canyon when he was first living in Boulder. And then there was Vajrayogini, which still is up in Nova Scotia at one of my old girlfriends' house. And an eight-armed semi-wrathful Black Tara--that was one of the last ones. That's at my sister's in New Jersey. There was also a yab-yum. I was trying to paint one for each Buddha family. So Avalokiteshvara was blue. Vajrayogini was red, and Yab-yum was kind of ratna. And Black Mahakala was karma. I forget what else.. At any rate, the last one was a giant Buddha-white, huge. It was maybe 6 foot square. The last I saw it was hanging at the barn in Karm� Choling completely covered in these streaks of bird shit--pigeon shit--that were actually almost--a very cool grid-like thing covering. Kind of Jackson Pollock meets Buddha. At any rate, Trungpa loved Jackson Pollock, so it didn't offend me. But otherwise, I don't know what happened to the rest of them. Various girlfriends have them.
JW: How were they received?
JN: At the time it was in the early 70's, it was like, "Whoa! What's he doing? How come he gets to paint pictures all day and we have to do all this shit rota and clean the house? What's with him? And he's on acid all the time anyway." You know? So they were received kind of like "Whoa what the hell is that all about? I guess it's kind of cool." Nobody quite knew what to make of them. So they didn't really catch on. People would come in and see Trungpa's shrine, but people wanted the old-style Tibetan things. On the other hand, I heard that recently at a fire puja up in Nova Scotia, my friend who has the 4 foot by 6 foot Vajrayogini brought it to the Vajrayogini fire puja. And she said people really got off on it--really loved it because times have changed and I think most people are maybe getting a little tired of Tibet, you know? [laughter] You know what I mean? I mean, come on! It's the dharma you're interested in. But Tibetan culture has been so mixed up in it that people are finally wanting to make �� At any rate, she told me that people totally flipped over it, and that was the first time anybody has seen it since that period when I was painting them. I haven't. Nobody's seen them [until now].
JW: Did the Vidyadhara expect that people would continue making thangkas in this way?
Jack Niland working on Vajrayogini thangka at Tail of the Tiger, 1971
Photograph by Rachel Homer
JN: Well, yeah. He wanted to start a whole new style. At the same time that we were doing his thangkas, I remember building furniture that he had designed that came from Tibetan inspiration, but again was totally Western scale--furniture that fit into a modern house without looking like an antique. It would look like modern furniture. Really cool stuff. All the furniture he had designed was inspired by nomads. He thought all furniture should be very transportable, because nomads moved around all the time, and he said Westerners move around all the time. So, the idea was to make furniture that's movable, as opposed to the Victorian giant chairs that you can't get through the door anymore. And so we were designing clothes and jewelry and a whole look. The formula for the look, which I finally got out of him, was: a Japanese sense of space; a Tibetan sense of color and ornamentation; and a Western sense of scale and materials.
So the Japanese sense of space is very asymmetrical, as opposed to Tibetan space, which is very symmetrical. He wanted to have this asymmetrical space. And the Japanese sense of space is also very sort of neutral color--white or empty or beige or natural colors, that kind of thing.
But then he wanted to have these hits of bright ornament and color--Tibetan style. He took a Tibetan thangka and he hung it in a Japanese room with tatami mats and screens-that kind of thing. But then taking both of those things and doing them fresh in Western materials and Western scale. So he came up with this whole thing-I mean, in the early 70's that's all we talked about. That's when we wanted to have guilds, and then there was the first shrine... Now, interestingly enough, the first shrine has reappeared-just a crystal ball and a book and some bowls. That was the first shrine in 1970. He described it as a dzogchen, a Maha Ati shrine. And since Maha Ati is dharma art, we always thought of it as the dharma art shrine. Why else would he have done it? Of course he wanted this style to take off. He wanted this to be the new look for everything. But... [laughter]
JW: That was my next question. It hasn't happened.
Sara by Jack Niland, 1970.
Rinpoche told Jack that this painting was the first Western thangka. The central image is inspired by Sara Kapp. The woman in the background is Tao Wolfe, shown in photo with Jack below.
JN: No, it hasn't happened. Trungpa realized, I think somewhere in the mid 70's, that artists just weren't buying into it. Everybody still wanted to do their own thing and work and do modern art according to what else was in the galleries and the concert halls so that they'd be up with their peers, and nobody really wanted to change what they were doing and start this style, which means you have to become kind of selfless. Take Art Deco, for instance: it means adopting a style that other people are doing. Whereas with modern art, everybody's supposed to be radically different from each other. You're not supposed to look like anything that your neighbor is doing. He realized that wasn't happening, so he started to manifest more and more traditional ways anyway, because he realized that he needed to do that to connect with people--that in the beginning, he could be walking around in jeans and a t-shirt and hang out with everybody and do all this crazy art stuff, and that was the only way to break through to people's consciousness. What was the question?
JW: It hasn't caught on.
JN: Oh, it hasn't caught on. Yeah, so the whole art thing was just ... Trungpa taught in reverse way. He started by teaching dzogchen. Then he taught the pure Vajrayana; if you read the transcripts of '73, '74, '75, they're just mind-blowing. And then he started laying the groundwork-more Hinayana, Mahayana. And then he finally got it all organized. We had to do a lot
Sara Kapp, circa 1970
Photograph by Rachel Homer
of Hinayana practice--dathuns and all this stuff. But it was all done backwards. Yeah, it didn't catch on, because a lot of the students, most of the students--I guess the artists wanted to do their own thing. And then the more scholarly people started finding out more and more about Tibetan Buddhism, and they wanted to learn about all the ... they wanted to be traditional. And they wanted to do traditional practice, and they wanted their shrine rooms to look more traditional. And they wanted their teachers sitting on thrones wearing robes. And everybody wanted everything traditional, and then all the thangkas were just the same old traditional thing.
You know, we still have our sense of style in our shrine rooms--the big space and the big bold scales, but that's just leftover imitation from Trungpa's days. Because everybody knows it's cool looking and it kind of works--our shrine rooms are really great compared to those other guys' shrine rooms that look just too imitate-y Tibetan--too, too claustrophobically Tibetan. They didn't catch on ... yet. Maybe they will. But it's going to be when people want to get together and create a look, a style, a new culture. If you want to rule a kingdom, you have to have a kingdom, and a kingdom is a culture and a culture is art. And art isn't just borrowing stuff from the past, but we seem to live in a nostalgic time in general these days.
JW: That was my next question. It hasn't happened.
Sara by Jack Niland, 1970.
Rinpoche told Jack that this painting was the first Western thangka. The central image is inspired by Sara Kapp. The woman in the background is Tao Wolfe, shown in photo with Jack below.
JN: No, it hasn't happened. Trungpa realized, I think somewhere in the mid 70's, that artists just weren't buying into it. Everybody still wanted to do their own thing and work and do modern art according to what else was in the galleries and the concert halls so that they'd be up with their peers, and nobody really wanted to change what they were doing and start this style, which means you have to become kind of selfless. Take Art Deco, for instance: it means adopting a style that other people are doing. Whereas with modern art, everybody's supposed to be radically different from each other. You're not supposed to look like anything that your neighbor is doing. He realized that wasn't happening, so he started to manifest more and more traditional ways anyway, because he realized that he needed to do that to connect with people--that in the beginning, he could be walking around in jeans and a t-shirt and hang out with everybody and do all this crazy art stuff, and that was the only way to break through to people's consciousness. What was the question?
JW: It hasn't caught on.
JN: Oh, it hasn't caught on. Yeah, so the whole art thing was just ... Trungpa taught in reverse way. He started by teaching dzogchen. Then he taught the pure Vajrayana; if you read the transcripts of '73, '74, '75, they're just mind-blowing. And then he started laying the groundwork-more Hinayana, Mahayana. And then he finally got it all organized. We had to do a lot
Sara Kapp, circa 1970
Photograph by Rachel Homer
of Hinayana practice--dathuns and all this stuff. But it was all done backwards. Yeah, it didn't catch on, because a lot of the students, most of the students--I guess the artists wanted to do their own thing. And then the more scholarly people started finding out more and more about Tibetan Buddhism, and they wanted to learn about all the ... they wanted to be traditional. And they wanted to do traditional practice, and they wanted their shrine rooms to look more traditional. And they wanted their teachers sitting on thrones wearing robes. And everybody wanted everything traditional, and then all the thangkas were just the same old traditional thing.
You know, we still have our sense of style in our shrine rooms--the big space and the big bold scales, but that's just leftover imitation from Trungpa's days. Because everybody knows it's cool looking and it kind of works--our shrine rooms are really great compared to those other guys' shrine rooms that look just too imitate-y Tibetan--too, too claustrophobically Tibetan. They didn't catch on ... yet. Maybe they will. But it's going to be when people want to get together and create a look, a style, a new culture. If you want to rule a kingdom, you have to have a kingdom, and a kingdom is a culture and a culture is art. And art isn't just borrowing stuff from the past, but we seem to live in a nostalgic time in general these days.
There is no culture in America either. There is no vision going on in the art world or anything. It's all retro, and even in movies--everything is retro and nostalgic, and so it seems to be a universal problem. On our scene and in general in the West as well, there was no real look. There is, sort of--but hodge-podge. There's no vision-forward style thing going on.
JW: I think you just gave another controversial interview.
JN: Oh. Could have been a lot more controversial. So is that it? Any other questions?
JW: Not offhand, unless you want to add something.
JN: I'd love to say that it's all waiting there, that usually dzogchen comes at the end, but Rinpoche had it at the beginning, so maybe we can do things correctly and have it at the end. Early on, he said in order to have an enlightened world, it has to look enlightened. He said all those other cultures had a look. Japan has a look. China has a look. Tibet had a look.
Jack Niland with Tao Wolfe, New York, circa 1970.
Photograph by Rowland Scherman
Greece had a look. Egypt had a look. These cultures were like enlightened cultures and had a cool look, you know, that everybody agreed on. So it wasn't just this hodge-podge of different things. That's when he said that, in order to be an enlightened world, it has to look enlightened, which means you have to design all the objects in it to be from an enlightened point of view. And he said [his] idea would be if we sold stuff in K-mart, so it isn't like exclusive, one of a kind, or chic, or really expensive, but mass-produced K-mart. And he actually mentioned bedsheets. So why couldn't we design a bedsheet that has our feel, this energy--cheerful bedsheets that wake you up. Maybe that isn't a good idea; you're supposed to go to sleep with bedsheets. But, at any rate, that was the level, and he actually mentioned K-mart and mentioned bedsheets as his ideal. He said when we're selling things in K-mart, we'll know we've succeeded. We're on our way.
So the only way people can learn this--they're certainly not going to study classic Buddhism and Shambhala. It's just too lengthy and expensive and too foreign, too ancient. But people can at least learn the principles of dharma art and see that it's a reflection of your mind and it's completely natural and clear, and the essence of what has happened throughout history anyway. People intuitively have done this forever. And it's cool because it's uplifting and it's cheerful. And it's beautiful--a word that you don't hear much in the pop world. And it could still happen. But people can learn the principles without becoming Tibetan Buddhists or Shambhalians. And principles alone are a path. At any rate, it's still waiting there. The whole world--look at any kind of art criticism--it's just how sucky everything is, and everything is just retreading the same old thing. Everybody's just doing endless variations of the same old stuff. The culture in movies--everything is not going anywhere; there's no vision. The last time there was any vision probably was in the 60's, and before that in the 40's, and the 30's. Trungpa used to say in the 1920's things were really waking up and there were great things going on. But everybody knows what it means when there's a common world vision, and I don't know if gangsta rap is it [laughter]. That's exactly our idea of baggy pants and you know, whatever. So it still can happen and I think loads of people want it to happen. It's just funny that Western Buddhists are still wanting to be traditional, and, Western culture is basically nostalgic at this point. So, anybody want to sign up? Help!
J.N.
.https://web.archive.org/web/20131117011143/http://www.chronicleproject.com/stories_119.html
_______________________________________________________________
JW: I think you just gave another controversial interview.
JN: Oh. Could have been a lot more controversial. So is that it? Any other questions?
JW: Not offhand, unless you want to add something.
JN: I'd love to say that it's all waiting there, that usually dzogchen comes at the end, but Rinpoche had it at the beginning, so maybe we can do things correctly and have it at the end. Early on, he said in order to have an enlightened world, it has to look enlightened. He said all those other cultures had a look. Japan has a look. China has a look. Tibet had a look.
Jack Niland with Tao Wolfe, New York, circa 1970.
Photograph by Rowland Scherman
Greece had a look. Egypt had a look. These cultures were like enlightened cultures and had a cool look, you know, that everybody agreed on. So it wasn't just this hodge-podge of different things. That's when he said that, in order to be an enlightened world, it has to look enlightened, which means you have to design all the objects in it to be from an enlightened point of view. And he said [his] idea would be if we sold stuff in K-mart, so it isn't like exclusive, one of a kind, or chic, or really expensive, but mass-produced K-mart. And he actually mentioned bedsheets. So why couldn't we design a bedsheet that has our feel, this energy--cheerful bedsheets that wake you up. Maybe that isn't a good idea; you're supposed to go to sleep with bedsheets. But, at any rate, that was the level, and he actually mentioned K-mart and mentioned bedsheets as his ideal. He said when we're selling things in K-mart, we'll know we've succeeded. We're on our way.
So the only way people can learn this--they're certainly not going to study classic Buddhism and Shambhala. It's just too lengthy and expensive and too foreign, too ancient. But people can at least learn the principles of dharma art and see that it's a reflection of your mind and it's completely natural and clear, and the essence of what has happened throughout history anyway. People intuitively have done this forever. And it's cool because it's uplifting and it's cheerful. And it's beautiful--a word that you don't hear much in the pop world. And it could still happen. But people can learn the principles without becoming Tibetan Buddhists or Shambhalians. And principles alone are a path. At any rate, it's still waiting there. The whole world--look at any kind of art criticism--it's just how sucky everything is, and everything is just retreading the same old thing. Everybody's just doing endless variations of the same old stuff. The culture in movies--everything is not going anywhere; there's no vision. The last time there was any vision probably was in the 60's, and before that in the 40's, and the 30's. Trungpa used to say in the 1920's things were really waking up and there were great things going on. But everybody knows what it means when there's a common world vision, and I don't know if gangsta rap is it [laughter]. That's exactly our idea of baggy pants and you know, whatever. So it still can happen and I think loads of people want it to happen. It's just funny that Western Buddhists are still wanting to be traditional, and, Western culture is basically nostalgic at this point. So, anybody want to sign up? Help!
J.N.
.https://web.archive.org/web/20131117011143/http://www.chronicleproject.com/stories_119.html
_______________________________________________________________
ОНЛАЙН-УЧЕНИЕ ДЗОНГСАРА КХЬЕНЦЕ РИНПОЧЕ
༄ Молитва-устремление Еше Цогьял
к Маха-Гуру ༄
терма Пема Лингпы
🌸 Учение пройдёт в день Гуру Ринпоче, восьмого лунного месяца.
ДАТА: 16 сентября 2021
Первая сессия: 14:00 - 15:30 (мск)
Вторая сессия: 15:45 - 17:15 (мск)
Учение пройдёт на английском языке. Чтобы зарегистрироваться и получить ссылку на Zoom-конференцию, нужно написать письмо на электронную почту peling.lochod@gmail.com
Мы будем держать вас в курсе любых обновлений.
🙏🏽 Текст молитвы на русском языке: https://dharmarakshita.org/2016/11/04/yeshe-tsogyal-prayer/
༄ Молитва-устремление Еше Цогьял
к Маха-Гуру ༄
терма Пема Лингпы
🌸 Учение пройдёт в день Гуру Ринпоче, восьмого лунного месяца.
ДАТА: 16 сентября 2021
Первая сессия: 14:00 - 15:30 (мск)
Вторая сессия: 15:45 - 17:15 (мск)
Учение пройдёт на английском языке. Чтобы зарегистрироваться и получить ссылку на Zoom-конференцию, нужно написать письмо на электронную почту peling.lochod@gmail.com
Мы будем держать вас в курсе любых обновлений.
🙏🏽 Текст молитвы на русском языке: https://dharmarakshita.org/2016/11/04/yeshe-tsogyal-prayer/
Архив Дхармаракшиты
Молитва Йеше Цогьял
English | Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano | Nederlands | བོད་ཡིག ༈ མ་ཧཱ་གུ་རུ་གསོལ་འདེབས། ། Молитва Йеше Цогьял Терма Пема Лингпы ན་མོ་གུ་རུ༔ НАМО ГУРУ Намо Гуру: почтение Гуру! སློབ་དཔོན་ཆ…
“Feeding Your Demons” with Lama Tsultrim Allione, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEbJ_maF_fo
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YouTube
“Feeding Your Demons” with Lama Tsultrim Allione
PLENARY KEYNOTE/ “Feeding Your Demons”
with Lama Tsultrim Allione
The ultimate compassion is to nurture and love, rather than resist and destroy our enemies, obstacles, and demons. Lama Tsultrim Allione shares the teachings and practices of Feeding Your Demons…
with Lama Tsultrim Allione
The ultimate compassion is to nurture and love, rather than resist and destroy our enemies, obstacles, and demons. Lama Tsultrim Allione shares the teachings and practices of Feeding Your Demons…
10 сентября. День рождения Егора Летова.
"Для меня единственно важное из всего, что происходит со мной и вокруг меня - эта вот «открытая дверь», постоянное ожидающее присутствие истинного, родного начала, существующего параллельно всей этой дешевой бутафории. И творчество - это в некотором роде трамплин туда. И, наверное, поэтому человечеством, отчетно или безотчетно, но твердо и жестоко искореняются носители, хранители и, тем более, воплотители этого Имени Имен."
Фото - Алексей Устимов, выступление "Гражданской Обороны" на фестивале "Окна Открой" в Санкт-Петербурге, 1 июля 2006 года.
"Для меня единственно важное из всего, что происходит со мной и вокруг меня - эта вот «открытая дверь», постоянное ожидающее присутствие истинного, родного начала, существующего параллельно всей этой дешевой бутафории. И творчество - это в некотором роде трамплин туда. И, наверное, поэтому человечеством, отчетно или безотчетно, но твердо и жестоко искореняются носители, хранители и, тем более, воплотители этого Имени Имен."
Фото - Алексей Устимов, выступление "Гражданской Обороны" на фестивале "Окна Открой" в Санкт-Петербурге, 1 июля 2006 года.
Друзья!
У нас радостная новость – монахи прилетели в Россию!
Сегодня к обеду они должны быть в Калмыкии для подготовки к обширной программе.
На сегодняшний день удалось получить все разрешения для выезда только для троих монахов. А этого недостаточно для проведения сложной практики Друбчо Хаягривы. Вместо Друбчо под руководством Лхунтрула Дечен Гьюрме Рипоче состоится пятидневный ретрит по НЮНГНЕ, перед которым состоится посвящение Авалокитешвары и будут дарованы наставления по ретриту.
Мы прилагаем все усилия, чтобы четвертый монах долетел до России как можно скорее!
Просим вас продолжать практиковать и посвящать практики устранению всех препятствий для того, чтобы все ритуалы и учения состоялись в Москве, Калмыкии, Бурятии и Санкт-Петербурге!
Будем держать вас в курсе событий!
РАСПИСАНИЕ
КАЛМЫКИЯ
17 сентября
Посвящение Авалокитешвары и наставления по ретриту Нюнгне
18-22 сентября
Ретрит Нюнгне
БУРЯТИЯ
28-29 сентября
Учения, Лунг и посвящение Хаягривы
30 сентября – 4 октября
Друбчо Хаягривы
МОСКВА
15-16 октября
Учения, передача Лунга и Ванг Курукуллы
Место проведения: Буддийский центр Рипа
17 октября
Огненная Пуджа Курукуллы
Место проведения: Храмовый комплекс со ступой в Отрадном.
19 октября
Передача лунга на Друбчо Гневного Гесара и дарование Прибежища
20-24 октября
Друбчо Гневного Гесара
28 октября
Учения для закончивших Нендро
29 октября
Учение по Нендро. Дарование Прибежища.
30 октября
Ритуал благословения детей
Дальнейшая часть программы ждет подтверждения! Сообщим в ближайшее время.
Молимся и посвящаем заслуги тому, чтобы все запланированные практики, ритуалы и учения состоялись!
У нас радостная новость – монахи прилетели в Россию!
Сегодня к обеду они должны быть в Калмыкии для подготовки к обширной программе.
На сегодняшний день удалось получить все разрешения для выезда только для троих монахов. А этого недостаточно для проведения сложной практики Друбчо Хаягривы. Вместо Друбчо под руководством Лхунтрула Дечен Гьюрме Рипоче состоится пятидневный ретрит по НЮНГНЕ, перед которым состоится посвящение Авалокитешвары и будут дарованы наставления по ретриту.
Мы прилагаем все усилия, чтобы четвертый монах долетел до России как можно скорее!
Просим вас продолжать практиковать и посвящать практики устранению всех препятствий для того, чтобы все ритуалы и учения состоялись в Москве, Калмыкии, Бурятии и Санкт-Петербурге!
Будем держать вас в курсе событий!
РАСПИСАНИЕ
КАЛМЫКИЯ
17 сентября
Посвящение Авалокитешвары и наставления по ретриту Нюнгне
18-22 сентября
Ретрит Нюнгне
БУРЯТИЯ
28-29 сентября
Учения, Лунг и посвящение Хаягривы
30 сентября – 4 октября
Друбчо Хаягривы
МОСКВА
15-16 октября
Учения, передача Лунга и Ванг Курукуллы
Место проведения: Буддийский центр Рипа
17 октября
Огненная Пуджа Курукуллы
Место проведения: Храмовый комплекс со ступой в Отрадном.
19 октября
Передача лунга на Друбчо Гневного Гесара и дарование Прибежища
20-24 октября
Друбчо Гневного Гесара
28 октября
Учения для закончивших Нендро
29 октября
Учение по Нендро. Дарование Прибежища.
30 октября
Ритуал благословения детей
Дальнейшая часть программы ждет подтверждения! Сообщим в ближайшее время.
Молимся и посвящаем заслуги тому, чтобы все запланированные практики, ритуалы и учения состоялись!
Forwarded from Дзогчен трансляции на русском
Друзья! Сегодня в среду 15 сентября в 16:00 Мскв, Йогин традиции Дрикунг Кагью - Друпон Ринчен Дордже Ринпоче дарует посвящение Ваджрайогини.
Присоединиться к русскому переводу посвящения можно будет на Ютуб канале "Тотренгцал". https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdD42sv7n2FzQMCLd13taUA
И в конференции в зуме:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvd-mqqjMpE9VFgkfOev8GQ0IFbNmwcsiT
872 0024 8391
105
В скором времени планируется перевод садханы и цикла лекций по Ваджрайогини одного из лам традиции Дрикунг.
Чтобы присоединиться к переводу Ванга в зуме, а также быть в курсе наших переводов - подписывайтесь на наш канал анонсов учений по тантре и дзогчен в телеграмме: (t.me/dzogchen_ru)!
О Ринпоче: https://vk.com/topic-183987968_48165683
Практика Ваджрайогини является основой практики 6-и Йог в Тантре и получение этого посвящения, от столь высокого мастера, может создать предпосылки для вашего продвижения на пути тибетской йоги.
Сделать подношение Ламе можно тут: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QRYFZWZ9TE2CW&fbclid=IwAR2uZr82EhTjKy7o1lGefL7xrj40FwE6h6OXSK5Ryv0BaGbFaalnZrwGmHo
Подношение проекту волонтеров переводов учений: на карту: 2202 2005 0072 3406 сбер (Римма А.)
Присоединиться к русскому переводу посвящения можно будет на Ютуб канале "Тотренгцал". https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdD42sv7n2FzQMCLd13taUA
И в конференции в зуме:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvd-mqqjMpE9VFgkfOev8GQ0IFbNmwcsiT
872 0024 8391
105
В скором времени планируется перевод садханы и цикла лекций по Ваджрайогини одного из лам традиции Дрикунг.
Чтобы присоединиться к переводу Ванга в зуме, а также быть в курсе наших переводов - подписывайтесь на наш канал анонсов учений по тантре и дзогчен в телеграмме: (t.me/dzogchen_ru)!
О Ринпоче: https://vk.com/topic-183987968_48165683
Практика Ваджрайогини является основой практики 6-и Йог в Тантре и получение этого посвящения, от столь высокого мастера, может создать предпосылки для вашего продвижения на пути тибетской йоги.
Сделать подношение Ламе можно тут: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QRYFZWZ9TE2CW&fbclid=IwAR2uZr82EhTjKy7o1lGefL7xrj40FwE6h6OXSK5Ryv0BaGbFaalnZrwGmHo
Подношение проекту волонтеров переводов учений: на карту: 2202 2005 0072 3406 сбер (Римма А.)
Zoom Video Communications
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Ванг Ваджрайогини!. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about…
ЗАВТРА ▪ОНЛАЙН-УЧЕНИЕ ДЗОНГСАРА КХЬЕНЦЕ РИНПОЧЕ
༄ Молитва-устремление Еше Цогьял к Маха-Гуру ༄
•
терма Пема Лингпы
📆 ДАТА: 16 сентября [день Гуру Ринпоче]
Первая сессия: 14:00-15:30 (мск)
Вторая сессия: 15:45 - 17:15 (мск)
💠 YouTube:
https://youtu.be/ASncDl_DFU8
только английский язык
💠 Zoom:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87440468244
Webinar ID: 874 4046 8244
с русским синхронным переводом
🙏 Молитва в русском переводе: https://dharmarakshita.org/2016/11/04/yeshe-tsogyal-prayer/
После обсуждения с Ринпоче данное учение все же будет сопровождаться синхронным переводом, в том числе на русский язык. Запись учения будет размещена на официальном международном канале "Намерения Сиддхартхи", и русские субтитры появятся как только они будут подготовлены переводчиками.
#ДзонгсарДжамьянгКхьенцеНорбуРинпоче
༄ Молитва-устремление Еше Цогьял к Маха-Гуру ༄
•
терма Пема Лингпы
📆 ДАТА: 16 сентября [день Гуру Ринпоче]
Первая сессия: 14:00-15:30 (мск)
Вторая сессия: 15:45 - 17:15 (мск)
💠 YouTube:
https://youtu.be/ASncDl_DFU8
только английский язык
💠 Zoom:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87440468244
Webinar ID: 874 4046 8244
с русским синхронным переводом
🙏 Молитва в русском переводе: https://dharmarakshita.org/2016/11/04/yeshe-tsogyal-prayer/
После обсуждения с Ринпоче данное учение все же будет сопровождаться синхронным переводом, в том числе на русский язык. Запись учения будет размещена на официальном международном канале "Намерения Сиддхартхи", и русские субтитры появятся как только они будут подготовлены переводчиками.
#ДзонгсарДжамьянгКхьенцеНорбуРинпоче
YouTube
Mahā Guru aspiration prayer of Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal
Mahā Guru aspiration prayer of Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal
/ A terma treasure of Pema Lingpa
/ A terma treasure of Pema Lingpa
Космология полей будд - Джамгон Контрул "Мириады Миров"
"Наш мир - бесконечно малая частица величественной картины космоса, — тринадцатая в последовательном ряду мировых систем, покоящихся в океане бесконечного множества миров, и все они лежат на ладони Будды Вайрочаны. Эта часть вселенной называется мир Полный Цветов; у него в миллиарды раз больше измерений, чем миллиард мировых систем, описываемых в космологии ограниченных чисел. Это область влияния единственного проявленного измерения пробужденности (нирманакаи)."
"В каждой поре тела Вайрочаны проявляются бесчисленные мировые системы, а в каждом атоме этих миров заключается бесконечное множество других миров и образов Вайрочаны. Каждый из образов Вайрочаны, в свою очередь, содержит в себе бесчисленных будд и бесчисленные поля будд. Вайрочана объемлет всю вселенную, а вся вселенная образует Вайрочану. Если Конгтрул имеет в виду, что все это необъятное проявление миров находит свое воплощение в каждом обретающем просветление существе и что такое существо вмещает в себя все эти миры, то в свете бесконечного числа будд десяти направлений перед нами предстает непостижимая, неизмеримая картина космоса, в котором частное включает в себя общее, а общее содержится в частном; иными словами, каждое объемлет все и все объемлет каждое."
"Наш мир - бесконечно малая частица величественной картины космоса, — тринадцатая в последовательном ряду мировых систем, покоящихся в океане бесконечного множества миров, и все они лежат на ладони Будды Вайрочаны. Эта часть вселенной называется мир Полный Цветов; у него в миллиарды раз больше измерений, чем миллиард мировых систем, описываемых в космологии ограниченных чисел. Это область влияния единственного проявленного измерения пробужденности (нирманакаи)."
"В каждой поре тела Вайрочаны проявляются бесчисленные мировые системы, а в каждом атоме этих миров заключается бесконечное множество других миров и образов Вайрочаны. Каждый из образов Вайрочаны, в свою очередь, содержит в себе бесчисленных будд и бесчисленные поля будд. Вайрочана объемлет всю вселенную, а вся вселенная образует Вайрочану. Если Конгтрул имеет в виду, что все это необъятное проявление миров находит свое воплощение в каждом обретающем просветление существе и что такое существо вмещает в себя все эти миры, то в свете бесконечного числа будд десяти направлений перед нами предстает непостижимая, неизмеримая картина космоса, в котором частное включает в себя общее, а общее содержится в частном; иными словами, каждое объемлет все и все объемлет каждое."