Tibetan Buddhst Calligraphy Gallery & Charity Sale - Scorpion Seals aplenty

Well, you lucky people, here is an opportunity for you to indulge your own artistic interests, your desire to acquire, AND your charitable spirit. 

Some of the calligraphies created by Ngak'chang Rinpoche for the talk in Bristol have found their way into our tender care, and we display them here for your delight and delectation, and most importantly your purchase!

Below are images of the last remaining calligraphies created for the Drala Jong appeal. . . get 'em while they're hot!  Each of the calligraphies pictured here is for sale (bar the last one - see below) and each is a unique and original artwork.

Price: £150 plus postage and packaging (£4.99 UK, £9.99 airmail Rest of World)

Orders can be placed and payments made via the e-mail address at the top of this page.

Size: 30" x 20" (75cm x 50cm)

(Apologies by the way for my imperfect photographic efforts - I was unable to get a completely square-on shot of the artworks, despite standing on various pieces of furniture and trying various tacks.  I did think of trying to suspend myself from the chandelier to get a better angle, but realised that might have hurt my back - not least because we don't actually have a chandelier).

Just as an aside - before proceeding - but did you know that the blog piece on the Scorpion Seal is the most read item on this site?

Anyway, on to the calligraphies. 

É Ma Ho:

wonderment

(exclamation of delighted-surprise, wonder, or amazement)

Hung:

Seed syllable

(2 available)

Ga’chen

empyrean ebullience

(enrapturement, great joy, overjoyed, boundless beatific delight)

**SOLD**

rLung

spatial wind

(the subtle motility  which animates being, breath, breathing, air, vital current [vayu / prana] the subtle energy which moves within the spatial channels)

Nu-thu

magical radiance

(dynamic appearances generated through conjuring with energy of phenomena)

Gyü’trül

miraculous vision

(sGyu ’phrul ’drwa ba chen po’i ting ’dzin – meditative absorbtion within the interconnectivity-web of reality)

Seals central 

Ma-kyé

immensity of empty-potentiality

(that which allows all phenomena to arise, uncreated, unborn, unoriginated, non-produced, unmanufactured, unobstructed, devoid of artifice)

Long

 vast expansiveness of reality

(space basis space, immensity, limitless scope, unboundedness)

Dzü’drül

spatial enchantment and miraculous orchestration of phenomena

(creation of apparitions, magical power and display, telekinesis / psychokinesis, et cetera)

Gyü’trül

miraculous vision

(sGyu ’phrul ’drwa ba chen po’i ting ’dzin – meditative absorbtion within the interconnectivity-web of reality)

Seals to the left

Chö

(chos)

as it is - reality

(Dharma [and dharmas as in ‘phenomena’], teaching of Buddhas, religion [teachings / doctrine / scripture / text / tenet /precept] quality, attribute, characteristic, ability)

**SOLD**

This is the only calligraphy which is not currently for sale.  You may notice both the fine profusion of ink spots, and accompanying Scorpion Seal - associated with Wrathfulness - and also the fact that this is the only calligraphy where the script lies outside of the circle.  When asked, Ngak'chang Rinpoche confirmed that this is the first time he has written script outside of the circle on any of his works.  Thus it is that this work is particularly distinctive - and particularly desirable.  Several offers have been made for this work, but none yet accepted, and the current thought is that it will be raffled auctioned at a charity dinner later this year.  If you wish to submit a speculative electronic bid for this work, you could chance your arm via the e-mail address above.  This *may* be the only calligraphy Rinpoche ever creates in this way in his lifetime. . .

[Update - this last calligraphy was sold by auction mid-2012, with a final bid several times higher than the normal sale price of the other calligraphies - thank you to those who bid]

BTW - Blues Masters up next.

Diggin' it

Well, we're back from the latest Apprentice Retreat here in good old Blighty, and although the event itself was nothing to do with fund raising for the project, various folk have been diggin' the Drala Jong fundraising effort one way or the other.  Nearly £2,000 has poured into the appeal as a result.  It's particularly good to see this sort of casual fund raising happening, with lots of little projects providing people with things that they want and need, for small contributions here and there - including vajrayana instruments, gZi stones and shawls all donated to the project and sold to grateful practitioners.

As well as vajrayana artifacts 13 Sky Signature calligraphies were sold in Finland by Bar-ché and Me-sel, and several more found new owners during the retreat.

My lovely wife Shé-zér has also added a few pennies to the coffers in her one woman Dig-For-Dharma campaign - by selling 50 strawberry plants for the appeal. 

On it's own it won't keep Jerry from the door (but it will give Margo something to peer at over the hedge row).

Most significant though was the arrival in Britain of several of the Blues Masters images courtesy of Ngak'chang Rinpoche.  Their creation was sparked through his work on his autobiographical work An Odd Boy

Shortly we'll be posting images of the first set of Blues Masters works on the Blogsite - and they will be available for sale here, as well as being hung for viewing and sale at Aro Ling some time in the summer, when volume two of An Odd Boy is launched.  These images are a collection of works, that have been extensively recoloured and restored by Rinpoche using a host of tools available through the wonder that is Photoshop.  Up until this point they were only visible via Facebook, but thanks to the work of Lama Shardrol's sangha in the USA, they are now available on canvas.

Some of the source images were black and white, or of very low resolution, and have been touched up, sharpened and refined.  The Jimi Hendrix image was in fact sourced from a photograph of an original painting by Rinpoche himself - and again has been retouched for the Blues Masters collection.  Each image has had something like 60 to 100 hours of work put into it, before being printed to canvas in medium and large scale, for hanging.

 

Images include a host of Blues artists from both the USA, and also from the British Blues boom.  Where images were cut or cropped, instruments have been restored from scratch by adding them from other photographic sources from the period.  Friends and relatives of many of the Blues artists pictured have been good enough to get in touch with Rinpoche and express their appreciation of the work that has gone into bringing these performers to life.  Now they will be made available for public sale - with 100% of the proceeds going to charity.

The most ambitious part of the Blues Master project will appeal to fans of An Odd Boy.  Amongst the images there are several restored pictures of the band Savage Cabbage - in which Rinpoche himself played. As no extant image of the band on stage could be found, these works have required sourcing faces, bodies and instrument images from a host of different sources - including Rinpoche's son - a bass player himself - providing a body double for the performers in their stage poses.

The next two posts will catalogue the currently-available Blues Masters and Calligraphy images that are available to buy - and will detail how supporters of the appeal can get these unique works to hang upon their walls at home.

Earthen Spirituality

Sky McCain will be signing his book Planet as Self, an Earthen Spirituality in Aro Ling at 2pm on Saturday 24th March. 

In his book, Sky McCain challenges us to stop and and think about possible alternatives in the way we look at the planet and to question our suppositions as to what it means to be part of a living planet. 

As a response to this challenge, Chris Bloor (Dro-wang Pawo) will lead an Earthen Spirituality Walk before the signing at 11am from Aro Ling. The walk will explore Green Spaces around the Gloucester Road in search of a practical and experiential answer to Sky's challenge.

The walk will be from 5 to 6 miles long (or less than 4 if we catch a bus to cut off the last bit) depending on the abilities of those who turn up. You will need to be fit enough to walk at least 4 miles and to have appropriate footwear and clothing. The walk is free, but you will need money for bus fare and refreshments.

In the afternoon (2pm) Aro Lamas She-zer Khandro and Namgyal Dorje will be exploring a Buddhist respose to Sky's challenge.

There are no charges for the walk, talk or discussion, all donations on the day will go to the Drala Jong Retreat Centre Appeal. Refreshments will be available on a donation only basis.

Fundraising 101 - part 1 - make every penny count

Now, before I start I have got to confess that I have no idea of the background to why people append the figure '101' to a subject line - but it is clearly a popular passtime.  The main aim of calling something 101 seems to be to create the impression that the writer is about to list the finest selection of fascinating fundamentals regarding a particular plan, course of action, random assemblage of pseudo-factoids, crummy one-liners or almost-interesting statements about their subject of choice.  I'm pretty sure that with only the briefest of idle googling sessions I could probably conclusively prove beyond reasonable doubt (or reasonable boredom threshold) that there is no one in the world who can really list 101 interesting things about *anything* that they claim to have knowledge of on a website without inducing a coma in the readership.  But hell, pitching a 101 is clearly popular - and if there is one thing it's important to play for in the fundraising game it is popularity.

I'm not saying 101 sites are all rubbish, by the way.  Far from it.  It's just the ones that I managed to tolerate reading in researching this Blog never actually listed a hundred and one ideas - not even on how to survive a zombie apocalypse.

So, without further rambling, I think I should start to describe ways in which anyone - yes anyone - even you - can raise money for a worthy cause, without having to rob a bank or sell your major internal organs on the interweb.

Rule 1 - make every penny count

Would you like the government to spend your tax money on nuclear bombs, or on the charity of your choice.

Think about it.

Think a bit more.

Yes, I know that there was that place you went on holiday that year that would probably benefit from a bit of fission-based rennovation - but really, bombs or charity. . . ?

Right, assuming that you've gone for the charity option (yes, I too had to think about this a bit, but whilst bombs are lovely it's hell trying to get the shoes to match, isn't it?) then make sure every penny that you collect  from others, or donate directly, is a tax efficient penny.  Many countries run schemes that endeavour to support charitable giving, and they all in essence direct your government to spend your tax dollar, pound or euro on what *you* want them to spend on, rather than what they fancy spending it on (mostly banks these days, rather than bombs, but there you go).

Some examples follow:

The United Kingdom - Gift Aid

Gift Aid is a scheme supported by the British Government - HM Revenue & Customs to be precise - which is intended to encourage people to donate to charity.  You can read the ins and outs of it here, but all you really need to know is that if you are a UK income tax payer, you can tell the charity to whom you are making a donation that you are Gift Aiding the donation.  They will do the rest - and in effect they will get an extra 25% from the government on every donation made.  So, for those donors pledged to contributing £2,500 to the Drala Jong appeal - you need only contribute £2,000 and the government will cover the rest.  If you are a higher rate tax payer, things get even better, with the difference between the 20% and 40%/50% tax rates being tax deductible. (so I'm told - I'll worry about that the day I become one).  Sang-ngak-chö-dzong is the registered charity of the Aro gTér Tradition in the UK, and accepts donations online.

In Britain the Gift Aid scheme extends to include donations of objects which are then sold on at the donor's request.  That is to say - if you donate your Renoir collection to the charity for sale for their benefit, the proceeds of the sale (up to the limit allowed by the law) would be elligable for Gift Aid.

The USA - Tax Deductable Giving to a 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Organisation

The US tax laws also enable tax efficient giving, with the IRS giving advice on what you need to be aware of in making donations in this manner.  Aro Gar Inc. is the charity of the Aro gTér Tradition in the USA, and is a 501(c)(3) organisation, which accepts donations online.  Unlike in Britain, donations are simply tax exempt - with the tax benefit returning entirely to the donor rather than to the charity directly - but nonetheless they have the same basic effect - making your money go further.

No matter where you are located, if you are in any doubt at all, contact your local charity for advice on how to register your donations (and any you collect from other people) and they'll give you the low down (possibly even using 101 pieces of advice on how to do it successfully).

Next up - fundraising 101 will touch on Little and Often (rather than Infrequently)

I can't get no. . .

. . . satisfaction.  Well, not when trying to engage in fundraising anyway.  Like a home sick polynesian, I'm always left longing for Somoa (some-moa donations, that is. . . and yes I will keep making puns like that until we reach our target).  Still, with 8 of the 50 calligraphies sold at the special display-rate on Friday and some kind gifts last night, we've already raised £1,000.  In addition to calligraphies themselves there was quite an interest in some calligraphy t-shirts which we had made up for the evening (£10 plus postage - e-mail sncd.treasurer@gmail.com with your postal address & shirt sizes for full details):

They carry the seed syllable Hung - symbol of Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel.  On Friday night Ngak'chang Rinpoche explained how the tulip bulb brushes are manipulated in order to create both very fine and very thick lines in a single brush stroke, as you can see in the sweeping curves of the Hung on the t-shirt:

Well, we had a select crowd at the talk.  As far as I am aware this is the first time Ngak'chang Rinpoche has ever given a public talk on Tibetan Calligraphy.  It was delightful to learn on the evening that one of the attendees who had come to Aro Ling via the online Membership programme was being accepted as an Apprentice.  Another had been coming to Aro Ling for a year and asking about calligraphy.  It did mean the evening was pretty Apprentice-heavy in terms of numbers, and I'm kicking myself a bit when looking back about the audience mix.  As Yanni pointed out, people who want to learn about calligraphy aren't necessarily the same people who might be inclined to buy them as part of a charity fund raiser - worth bearing in mind for the future - but nonetheless the talk was great and there were loads of questions.  

Also, Rinpoche has actually found a way to raise the funds for Drala Jong.

He explained that the last time he attempted to use calligraphies for fund raising was in about 1989, when Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche was visiting Britain, and had terrible toothache.  The dental work required was going to cost £400, but Ngak'chang Rinpoche didn't have the money to give him.  Instead he came up with the idea that he might draw calligraphy circles for Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche might write interesting things on, which could then be sold.  In the end they sold for £800 (£1,700 in today's money) - covering the expenses and also a donation to Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche.  At the end of it, Ngak'chang Rinpoche was able to keep just one of those calligraphies, for his toils.  Rinpoche would be loathe to lose that work, but has said that for a good cause (the best of Nyingma causes) he would part with it.  For £500,000.  So, if you would like to own the last surviving piece of cooperative calligraphic art by Ngak'chang Rinpoche and his root teacher Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche, bids start at half a million pounds. . .

. . . or if that isn't quite what you and your bank manager had in mind, why not buy a t-shirt (above).

Calligraphies - the Scorpion Seal

With the work of Ngak'chang Rinpoche, the calligraphy is not simply a brush-and-ink drawing.  Each piece carries seals and signatures, in unique combinations.  The most easily recognisable perhaps is the seal of scorpion is found in Tibetan calligraphy on the works of both Trungpa Rinpoche (see here) and some of the work of Ngak'chang Rinpoche.  Robert Beer describes the 'black Indian scorpion [as] a potent symbol of destructive malice' but of course within Buddhist Vajrayana the scorpion (Tib. sdig-pa) symbol is a transformative one, and Ngak'chang Rinpoche writes:

'The seal stamped in black is the scorpion which is used as the symbol of the Tantrika. The scorpion is symbolic of the power of transformation as the scorpion is known as the most dangerous and destructive creature. Because every aspect of duality—no matter how viciously deranged—remains undivided from the nondual state, even the most horrific states of mind can be transformed.'

In fact, the Tantric community of ngakpas and ngakmas, naljorpas and naljormas (collectively called the go-kar-chang-lo'i-de), owe the continuity of their tradition to the power of the scorpion, as this famous tale reveals:

'When in the ninth century, King Langdarma and his hostile ministers set about to suppress the Indian Buddhist teachings and to close the Buddhist monasteries such as Samye, he summoned the Tantric master Nubchen Sangye Yeshe and his disciples into his presence, although all of them were not Buddhist monks but rather Tantrikas (sngags-pa). The arrogant king challenged Nubchen, inquiring, "And what power do you have?"  "Just observe the power I can manifest merely from the reciting of mantras!" Nubchen replied and raised his right hand in the threatening gesture of tarjini-mudra.

Instantly, in the sky above the Tantric sorcerer, the king saw nine giant scorpions appear, each the size of a wild yak. The king was terrified at this vision. So he promptly promised not to harm the white-robbed Buddhist Tantrikas and to refrain from disrobing and exiling them as he had done with the maroon-robbed Buddhist monks. Then Nubchen pointed again into the sky with a threatening gesture, and lightning flashed from heaven, shattering into pieces a nearby boulder.

Doubly terrified, the king vowed, "I will not in any way harm you or your white-robed followers!" and he ordered that his prisoners be released. because of the mighty magical powers of this Tantrika Nubchen, the anti-Buddhist king could not destroy the esoteric teachings of the Mahayoga Tantras nor their white-robbed practitioners, the Ngakpas (sngags-pa, one who uses mantras.) Subsequently, this Tantric Order of Nyingmapa Buddhists has flourished among the Tibetans until this day.'


(From The Golden Letters - John Myrddin Reynolds)


In fact Padmasambhava himself is described as receiving the transmission of phurba practice - a practice almost synonymous with the go-kar-chang-lo'i-de - via the medium of 'a gigantic scorpion with nine heads, eighteen pincers and twenty seven eyes' which unearthed the phurba gterma - the heads of the scorpion being symbolic of the nine vehicles of the Nyingma Buddhist tradition, and the scorpion's sting equated with the tip of the phurba itself.

Ngak'chang Rinpoche reserves the scorpion stamp for the most dramatic and dynamic calligraphies he creates.  There will be an opportunity to ask about this and the other seals used in the creation of calligraphies at the talk on Friday 25th November, at Aro Ling in Bristol.

Tibetan Calligraphy

As next Friday's charity calligraphy sale at Aro Ling approaches, our thoughts are turning to focus fully on this modern art form (and of course to the sale itself).  Written words are sacred in Tibet because they carry the knowledge of liberation.  The scripts Ngak'chang Rinpoche uses are u'med and u-chen, and originate in part from the ancient script Lha-bab-yig-ge - meaning 'script symbols from the sky expanse'.

Trungpa Rinpoche is credited with being the first Tibetan Lama to work with calligraphy in this spontaneous style.  Examples of his work are relatively hard to come by but some examples can be found on the internet. 

Trungpa Rinpoche worked with both Tibetan and English script, as you can see here:

The second is from the weblink above, and is from Trungpa Rinpoche's Elegance series - titled 'Elegance overcomes aggression'.  His works are in the stewardship of the Shambhala organisation, but alas he passed away in 1987. His direct line of work did not end however, and is continued through the Sakyong.

Tai Situ Rinpoche also known to work with calligraphy and can be seen in the above clip, but the pool of artists working in this way within Buddhist Vajrayana is limited at present, and the art form in this context is in its infancy.. 

I myself have never even attempted to create a calligraphy. However it is still possible even for an ignoramus like me to be  appreciate the variety of approaches that can be seen in this clip. Even in the brief video here one can see themes reflected in the work of Ngak'chang Rinpoche and his students. I am particularly fascinated by the different effects that can be created, the different brushes, and even something so simple as seeing the different ways of holding the brush.  Next Friday Ngak'chang Rinpoche will be talking about some of these different approaches, stylistics, and in particular his own approach.  There will be ample opportunity to ask about the how- and why- of brush type, choice of ink, brush loading, the choice of paper, as well as the meaning of the calligraphies themselves, the ink spots and the seals and signatures that each work bears.

I look forward to seeing you there!