Vajradhara and the Realm Beyond All Words

Vajradhara and the Realm Beyond All Words.... more

by Ben Christian

Title

Vajradhara and the Realm Beyond All Words

Artist

Ben Christian

Medium

Painting - Digital

Description

Vajradhara and the Realm Beyond All Words.

Lord Vajradhara sits on a lotus and moon disc, silhouetted against the intimate darkness of the
night sky. He receives offerings from a celestial dragon, his disciple.

The dragon rises up in the illusory body from an ocean of clear light, paying homage to the Lama who is
indivisible from Vajradhara. The passionate nature of the disciple’s wish to become enlightened churns the
moonlit waters below; we see that powerful methods brought the disciple to experience the bliss of the
dharmakaya that is Vajradhara.

In this scene, the artist depicts how direct contact with Vajradhara will bring the disciple to ripening, and transport them from the terror of the cycle of pain to a seemingly magical world. Emerging from the clear light, the dragon’s first thought is to offer obeisance to the purity with which it has communed, exemplified in Lord Vajradhara, its Lama. Making the highest offering it can, the dragon offers the Lama blissful communion with ultimate reality itself, here represented in the form a diamond.

In his crossed arms Vajradhara holds a vajra, (signifying compassion or “method”) in his right hand, and a bell (evoking wisdom) in his left. Together, these ritual objects represent the union of method and wisdom in what will become to the disciple as the “blissful play” of reality. Himself the embodiment of “a rainbow arching over deathlessness” Vajradhara’s appearance in our world as the Lama releases in us the longing to enter the mandala. The form he manifests is a bliss-body; for the disciple, it is a gateway to a “higher” reality.

Stirred to action by forceful waves of compassion, the dragon harnesses the mystic – and empty - power of its
sheer willingness to help all beings and makes it a method. Where once before it appeared to renounce its beloved
moon pearl the dragon now holds it with wisdom, “making desire the path.”

The powerful attraction the dragon feels toward Lord Vajradhara and His virtuous activity ignites the fires of wisdom; spirals of light play across the dragon’s moon pearl. Intense realisations flood through the dragon; rain falls from the clouds… lightning illuminates the night sky.

Moonlight glimmers on the churning waters, whose turbulence is the loving wish to join with Vajradhara in the heart of Enlightenment, and to teach others how to do so too. The wish will bring its result; we sense the coming dawn.

may doubt be dispelled... JD

Uploaded

April 22nd, 2014