Wu Kang and the Katsura Trees

This, from the Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Entitled "Wu Kang on His Way to Fell the Katsura Trees on the Moon", a beautiful color woodcut by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, (1839 - 1892) from the Meiji Period in Japan. [NOTE: Just a thought, but this woodcut would make a terrific t-shirt. I mean, really, what forester wouldn't love this].   

Four Years Ago Today

Four years ago I was paused at the Washington Monument at Eakins Oval at the end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkaway in Philadelphia getting ready to go into the Philadelphia Museum of Art (see Bodhisattvas). The momument is crowned by a statue of a uniformed George Washington on his horse; I was more captivated by the decidedly stern, yet noble American indian depicted on the lower tier. [NOTE: Statue by the German sculptor, Rudolf Siemering]. 

2. Bodhisattva (again)

Another unidentified bodhisattva. From the Song Dynasty (960-1279); wood with traces of paint and gilt decoration. 

"Bodhisattvas are beings who are dedicated to the universal awakening, or enlightenment, of everyone. They exist as guides and providers of succor to suffering beings, and offer everyone an approach to meaningful life. A bodhisattva, carrying out the work of buddhas, vows not to personally settle into the salvation of final buddhahood until he or she can assist all beings throughout the vast reaches of time and space to fully realize this liberated experience."

-Taigen Dan Leighton
Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and Their Modern Expression

[NOTE: Those who are visiting Bodhisattva Week for the first time can find some context here].

Dance

I invest a lot of time studying the ecology of rattan in the wild (see Hukaung Valley Rattan Survey, An Unusual Rattan, and Glimpses of Transects, for example), and I'm also a big fan of art (see Folk Art, Spirit Money, and Museé d'Ethnographie du Vietnam, for example) and spend hours wandering through museums. This post nicely integrates both obsessions. Shown above, "Dance" (rattan and split bamboo) by Honda Shōryū at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Beautiful.

4. Bodhisattva

I wouldn't have known without the label. This beautifully rendered sandstone statue from late 7th century Cambodia (Khmer Empire, pre-Angkor Period), sans multiple arms, layers of necklaces, flowing white robes, vase of pure water, wish-granting jewel, or willow branch, and of ambivalent sexuality - is Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion (see Quan Ăm, Om Mani Padme Hum) and one of the most widely revered archetypes in Mahayana Buddhism.

"Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva doing deep Prajna Paramita
perceived the emptiness of all five conditions,
and was freed of pain..."

-The Heart of the Perfection of Great Wisdom Sutra 

[NOTE: Those who are visiting Bodhisattva Week for the first time can find some context here].

3. Bodhisattva

This one is a bit different. Unidentified bodhisattva from the early Tang Dynasty (618-907); gilded bronze with traces of paint decoration.

'What we are doing in taking the bodhisattva vow is magnificent and glorious. We no longer are intent on creating comfort for ourselves; we work with others.  This implies working with our other as well as the other other. Our other is our projections and our sense of privacy and longing to make things comfortable for ourselves. The other other is the phenomenal world outside, which is filled with screaming kids, dirty dishes, confused spiritual practitioners, and assorted sentient beings". 

The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, Volume Three.

[NOTE: Those who are visiting Bodhisattva Week for the first time can find some context here].

2. Bodhisattva

Another unidentified bodhisattva. From the Song Dynasty (960-1279); wood with traces of paint and gilt decoration. 

"Bodhisattvas are beings who are dedicated to the universal awakening, or enlightenment, of everyone. They exist as guides and providers of succor to suffering beings, and offer everyone an approach to meaningful life. A bodhisattva, carrying out the work of buddhas, vows not to personally settle into the salvation of final buddhahood until he or she can assist all beings throughout the vast reaches of time and space to fully realize this liberated experience."

-Taigen Dan Leighton
Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and Their Modern Expression

[NOTE: Those who are visiting Bodhisattva Week for the first time can find some context here].

Bodhisattvas

This from the spectacular Asian Art wing of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. That's Guanyin seated in the middle (Song Dynasty, 960-1269, wood with traces of paint), flanked by a pair of unidentified bodhisattvas (Southern Song Dynasty, 1127-1279, wood with traces of paint). The altar set and incense burner are from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). [NOTE: I had this whole wing to myself yesterday; non-flash photography is permitted. I was in heaven...].