This thangka is the first in a series in progress whose deep meaning is related to ECOLOGY. I am happy to present my approach here in a little more detail.
This creation is directly derived from my fundamental interest in the issues of NATURE and BIODIVERSITY, even from a gentle "Artivist" aspiration, all of course underpinned by my commitment to the path of the Buddha.
THE TEAR AND THE FLOWER
During the invasion of Tibet by China (1950), fleeing the massacres and destruction that she was perpetrating there, many tulkus deployed Tibetan Buddhism throughout the world through their exile movement.
Whether from monasteries created in friendly Himalayan lands or in the West, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche for example... are among this first generation of teachers who chanted sutras and dharanis towards the USA or Europe.
With the migration of refugees - teachers and disciples alike - texts that had never left remote monasteries and other unpublished termas were thus revealed to the entire world.
By wanting to enslave a people, to erase its unique artistic and spiritual heritage, the Republic of China has triggered the opposite effect.
At the same time after the war, the deployment of Zen in the West was confirmed; the arrivals of Shunzyu Suzuki, Taizan Maezumi, Kobun Chino Roshi... on the Californian shores extended the movement initiated by DT Suzuki, and a few years later, the arrival of Taisen Deshimaru was decisive in Europe.
The blood shed has caused Sanghas to flourish throughout the world and opened access to study for all, which has more recently been masterfully amplified by the advent of the internet.
While HH the 14th Dalai Lama has suggested that this incarnation could be his last, Thich Nhat Hanh has also predicted that "The next Buddha will be the Sangha."
The relationship to the mind and to information is changing at a speed that overwhelms me (us?). The transmission pathways of Buddhism are also in constant transformation.
Imagine, ma petite,
Dear sister mine, how sweet
Were we to go and take our pleasure
Leisurely, you and I
To lie, to love, to die
Off in that land made to your measure!
A land whose suns' moist rays,
Through the skies' misty haze,
Hold quite the same dark charms for me
As do your scheming eyes
When they, in their like wise,
Shine through your tears, perfidiously.
There all is order, naught amiss:
Comfort and beauty, calm and bliss.
[ Extract from "Invitation to the Voyage", The Flowers of Evil, Charles Baudelaire ]
~ ECOSATTVA... WHAT ?
As a result of the spread of the Dharma outside Tibet combined with the advent of new technologies, our homes are becoming the new monasteries and zendos are now adjacent to our bedrooms.
On the path, wherever we are, we have never been so "empowered": informed and accompanied.
Our awareness definitively engages our responsibilities, individual and collective.
Faced with the climate emergency, how can we respond to the announced disaster and remain alert, driven by an intention to be and act to "save all beings" , however unrealistic this wish may be?
If She works for the sake of all sentient beings, including herself, including BIODIVERSITY, without however aspiring to a specific result, the Bodhisattva, aware of ecological issues, never renounces her commitment. Without being able to embrace everything that is possible to do, without knowing what would be the most effective means, She does her best, always, whether in contemplation, or practicing compassion in action. Activism and meditation encourage each other in a virtuous dynamic.
The sitting and retreats can now take place at home; the Ecosattva is also invited to act locally, on his piece of land and with the LIVING that surrounds him. Planes on the ground, Baudelaire suggests how much the journey is spiritual for the beings who are aware to what appears.
WHAT DOES THIS BODHISATTVA COME TO TELL US?
"Om
Shanti
Shanti
Shanti "
[ Inner peace, Peace with Humanity, Peace with Nature/Cosmos", as Satish Kumar translates it.]
While inspired by the form and energy of the thousand-armed AVALOKITHESVARA, this painting — ARTIST AS ECOSATTVA — breaks free from traditional codes and proportions. By evoking a dialogue between Dharma, contemporaneity and its crucial environmental issues, I wanted to share an intimate intention through this first figure in a long series. I am sometimes asked if She is me — not that I take myself for an awakened being, I opted for this suggestion for the sole purpose of showing how central this questioning is to me (a little for simplicity too, some friends having refused to play the models). The rest of the current series is not constructed with this mirror effect.
The reason for my inability to paint in recent months finally became apparent to me. It resulted from the unconscious correlation of two inevitable involutions: the predicted ecological disaster, and the uncontrolled advent of artificial intelligence. That alone...! This knot posed — there, here, now — the crucial question:
" What is the role of the artist witnessing the crossing of nature loss tipping points? "
Between crippling eco-anxiety, a "what's the point?" bordering on nostalgic lethargy, a feeling of being overwhelmed despite my fifty years old in better health than ever, a questioning of the relevance of throwing away my brushes and the urgency of training in AI... I wandered in the dark mists of the summer 2024, to finally let " what will be the torch of my last years on earth " be revealed.
As we have seen, the Bodhisattva never gives up. " Dungkar " * answers — chapter #32 — that AI cannot give the artwork the breath of life that makes it vibrant to Humanity (at least for my generation).
I will therefore remain conscious and engaged, wooden brushes, natural pigments and linen canvas as means of action in a tangible, palpable and embraceable reality.
As only a testimony, this thangka shows how I appropriate the revelation of autumn:
- from where I was incarnated and live today: in the West, in France, BRITTANY. The figure wears a Breton headdress instead of the traditional crown as a sign of attachment to her native land and its ecosystem.
- By pleading for the protection of BIODIVERSITY: The LYNX in one bubble, CUMULUS in the other occupy the place of the lineage in the traditional representation.
- The calligraphy "Love" serves as a lotus cushion and recalls the primordial motivation,
- just like the mantra of Compassion : "Om Mani Padme Hum" which is the one of Avalokiteshvara .
- The seat and the cosmic mudra also evoke how imperative is the need to study one's mind and phenomenology.
The first in a series of large formats born from the same aspiration to advocate for the preservation of NATURE, the canvas announces the upcoming performances of Yeshé Tsogyal, Milarepa, Dorje Yudronma (currently in progress at the studio), Tara... and many others who will deliver their contemporary message to us in the service of this extraordinary PLANET.
* " Dungkar " is the little collection of notes that I channeled this summer: https://www.carolinemaby.art/en/post/dungkar .
LEARN MORE
About this painting
And
And to get " Dungkar " ( ~ in French only ) :