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Compassion's Magic Body: The Essence of Tibetan Tantric Art Thurman will discuss the Buddhist view of art and how it emanates from Buddhahood itself. Specifically, he will examine enlightenment in mind and body, Tantra, mandalas, creation-stage-visualization meditation, and the difference between liberative art and technologies of control. Robert A. F. Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University Sunday, November 04, 2007 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Bing Theater Los Angeles County Museum of Art 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036 image: its all good dev blackburn pencil on paper

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impromptu salon Local zaadzters who would like to meet for an impromptu salon* after Robert Thurmans lecture, please rsvp Compassion’s Magic Body: The Essence of Tibetan Tantric Art Sunday, November 04, 2007 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Bing Theater Los Angeles County Museum of Art 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles admission: $9.00 lecture: free, no reservation required Thurman will discuss the Buddhist view of art and how it emanates from Buddhahood itself. Specifically, he will examine enlightenment in mind and body, Tantra, mandalas, creation-stage-visualization meditation, and the difference between liberative art and technologies of control. Robert A. F. Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University *Salon: where the virtual and the physical meet discuss art, philosophy, culture and society launch projects, share ideas, fabulous food, network, brainstorm etc…… make things happen ;) image: Shiva's bliss dev blackburn pencil on paper

........the Western relation to art, in which the viewer stands outside the painting, analyzes and perhaps admires it--an essentially passive and appreciative stance. The Tibetan Buddhist, like Alice in Wonderland, steps through the picture plane and, through a process in which he/she must actively participate, requiring utmost concentration and mental stamina, becomes that of which the center is the symbol. That transformation does not fall spontaneously, as grace, upon the viewer: the practitioner must engage in the process. The mystical experience is achieved, not bestowed. Bodhisattvas Except for the Buddhas in their multiple forms and appearances, Tibetan art is dominated by its greatest deities, the Bodhisattvas. If the Buddhas seem remote in the state of nirvana, the Bodhisattvas represent a type of active Buddha-being, tireless, ceaseless and watchful, who care about and exert themselves on behalf of mortal beings....... A Bodhisattva is one who has reached the threshold of nirvana, meriting the final step into liberation, but who halts, choosing instead to remain in the worldly cycle of samsara, of birth, death, and suffering, in order to help all other beings achieve enlightenment. This is a core Mahayana concept and ideal; the arhat achieves liberation for himself, but the Bodhisattva defers eternal bliss in order to save all other beings. The path of the Bodhisattva is open to human beings, requiring a great vow of dedication, a supremely difficult yet attainable goal. ............. Yab Yum ...enlightenment is obtained through the union of wisdom and compassion. The figures in a yab-yum image are thus symbolic, the male deity representing compassion, the female representing wisdom (insight), and their embrace is a visual metaphor for the rapture of union. Dualism, the illusory perception of independent existence and origination, is the source of egoism, ignorance, and suffering; union, the goal of the mystic, the fundamental objective of yoga, transcends polarity and leads to bliss. This is bodhicitta, the nonpolarized state, the recognition of indivisible, indestructible truth--enlightenment. www.brown.edu/Research/BuddhistTempleArt image:Dakini Metropolitan Museum of Art New York 2007

There are things you can't develop in yourself if you just meditate apart from people. . You have to get out there where people annoy you and injure you. Then you have to take and tolerate that injury. As the Dalai Lama would say, If there's no enemy, then you can't develop tolerance. And if there are no people who need gifts, then you can't develop generosity. Robert Thurman Robert Thurman holds the first endowed chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the United States, at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of the international best-seller "Inner Revolution," and the co-founder and president of Tibet House U.S., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture. Professor Thurman also translates important Tibetan and Sanskrit philosophical writings and lectures and writes on Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism; on Asian history, particularly the history of the monastic institution in the Asian civilization; and on critical philosophy, with a focus on the dialogue between the material and inner sciences of the world's religious traditions. http://fyminc.typepad.com/bob_thurman_podcast/ "The practice of purification is one of the most important solutions to life's problems."—Lama Zopa Rinpoche Becoming Vajrasattva The Tantric Path of Purification Lama Thubten Yeshe Compassion’s Magic Body: The Essence of Tibetan Tantric Art Sunday, November 04, 2007 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Bing Theater Los Angeles County Museum of Art 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles admission: $9.00 lecture: free, no reservation required Thurman will discuss the Buddhist view of art and how it emanates from Buddhahood itself. Specifically, he will examine enlightenment in mind and body, Tantra, mandalas, creation-stage-visualization meditation, and the difference between liberative art and technologies of control. Robert A. F. Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University Local zaadzters who would like to meet for an impromptu salon* after Robert Thurmans lecture, please rsvp *Salon: where the virtual and the physical meet discuss art, philosophy, culture and society launch projects, share ideas, fabulous food, network, brainstorm etc…… make things happen ;) image: Plaques from a tantric ritual apron bone Tibet 17th century Metropolitan Museum of Art 2007