68x50cm

THE BUDDHA OF COMPASION          AVALOKITESHVARA

 Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is as white as the moon and wears a crown of five Buddhas. He has coiled hair with two central hands in front of the bosom with pearl beads in hands. He holds crystal beads in another right hand and raises another left hand as high as his ear picking up an eight-petal lotus flower. With smiles on the face four-armed Avalokitesvara is gazing at all beings silently. He is decorated with flowers, sitting cross-legged on a lotus and moon disc throne and radiating bright colorful lights.

  His incantation has great virtue. Chanting the incantation, the follower can eliminate diseases, punishments and fear of unexpected death. He can lengthen his span of life and become rich. At his deathbed, he can be reborn as a hu¬man being or as one of the God realm. The Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhists regard the Dalai Lama as the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara.

  On the popular level, Vajrapani, Holder of the Thunderbolt Scepter (symbolizing the power of compassion), is the Bodhisattva who represents the power of all the Buddhas, just as Avalokiteshvara represents their great compassion, Manjushri their wisdom, and Tara their miraculous deeds. For the yogi, Vajrapani is an archetype deity of fierce determination and symbolizes unrelenting effectiveness in the conquest of negativity. As such, this icon brandishes a vajra in an exorcising gesture in his right hand, and with his left hand makes the threatening gesture with index and little fingers pointed up. His taut posture is the active warrior pose (pratayalidha), based on an archer's stance but resembling the en garde position in Western fencing.

  is possibly the most popular of all Buddhist deities, beloved throughout the Buddhist world. The word avalokita means “observes the sounds of the world” and isvara means

“lord”. The full name has been variously interpreted as “the lord who hears/looks in every direction” and “the lord of hearing the deepest”. The great vow of Avalokitesvara  is to listen to the supplications from those in difficulty in the world and to postpone his own Buddhahood until he has helped every being on earth achieving enlightenment. Therefore, he is treated as the embodiment of all the Buddhas' compassion, the lord of infinite compassion in Mahayana Buddhism.

Avalokitesvara, who guards the world in the interval between the departure of the historical Buddha, Gotama Buddha (Sakkyamuni), and the appearance of the future Buddha, Metteyya Buddha. Our LokaNat is known in many names, depending on where he/she is worshiped and revered. In Thailand, he is known as Lokesvara. In Tibet, he is known as Avolakitesvara, in China, Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia she is known as Kuan Shih Yin Pusa and in Myanmar as Lokanahta or LokabyuhaNat, the same as known in Thailand Lokesvara. Not many in Myanmar know of her real name, because her image has went through some sort of transformation into a slightly different image by the Myanmar artist. However, her real image could be seen on mural wall painting of many of our ancient Pagoda in Bagan.

  Avalokitesvara is also an emanation of Amitabha’s compassion and with Amitabha’s figure represented in his headdress. He guards the world in the interval between the departure of the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, and the appearance of the future Buddha, Metteyya. Based on scriptures of the Pure Land school that were translated into Chinese between the 3rd and 5th centuries, the Pure Land sect practitioner look to rebirth in the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amitabha, Avalokitesvara forms part of a ruling triad, along with Amitabha and the bodhisatta Mahasthamaprapta. Images of the three are often placed together in temple.

VAJRAPANI

 Wrathful and extremly powerful Bodhisattva aspect ot thewaterelement(AkshobhyaBuddha).

He tranforms hate into highest wisdom-activity. Standing on a lotus-sun disc he is surrounded by wisdom fire. Around his neck he wears a serpent and below a tiger skin.

In his right hand he holds a golden sceptre (Vajra/ Vajrapani=Vajra  holder).

His left hand holds a loop for catching demons. His short mantra is OM VAJRAPANI

HUNG PHET   

 Tantric aspect of the enlightened mind, which transforms the energy of hate into active wisdom and magical perfection. A Bodhisattva-aspect which symbolizes the undestructible vajra-body of a Buddha. In the above form-emanation he stands on a sun-disk surrounded by wisdom flames, adorned with various nagas (serpents), holding a vajra (cepter) in his right and a demon noose in his left. He is an emanation of the water element (Akshobhya Buddha) and can arise in various forms and mandalas. His short mantra is OM VAJRAPANI HUNG PHET and his seed-syllable is the blue-black HUNG. Chana Dorje was a major secret meditation deity of e.g. Lama Yeshe, Geshe Rabten and Gangchen Tulku.

MANJUSHRI

Manjushri (tib.Jampal Yang) Manjushri is Bodhisattva of Wisdom and consider as a symbol of the Mind of all Buddhas. He appears in five peaceful and wrathful forms for the benefit of all living beings. In his right hand Manjushri holds a sword cutting ignorance and in the left one - stem of a lotus flower with Prajnyparamita Sutra. It is considered the believers praying to Manjushri and practicing his methods (sanskr. sadhana) receiving good memory, eloquence and holy mind The two traditional objects held by Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, symbolize his character: a book, which represents Manjushri’s role as the embodiment of wisdom, and a sword, which is the weapon with which he cuts through ignorance. This Tibetan image depicting one form of Manjushri, Sita Manjughosa, however, has no sword, most likely because it was created according to specific texts taught by a Kashmiri monk named Shakya Shri (1127–1225), who was active in Tibet in the early thirteenth century.

This mantra has absolutely no conceptual meaning. The syllables are the first syllables of each line of the Avatamsaka Sutra, which is a text concerned with the Perfection of Wisdom (prajñaparamita).