Chögyam Trungpa's Profound Treasury of Dharma.

'Ananda' Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Last year Shambhala invited Tashi Mannox to contribute some of his calligraphic illustrations to a new three volume publication based on a collective of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's thirteen years of Vajradhatu seminars and lectures, called the Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma.

The compilation and editing of this material for general publication has taken more then thirty years, resulting in one volume for each Yana, or major stage of the Buddhist path.

"The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma represents Chögyam Trungpa's greatest contribution to Western Buddhism. This three-volume collection presents in lively, relevant language the comprehensive teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist path of the hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana."

- Available in hardback from Shambahla Media.

Four truths to consider.....

སྡོམ་བཞི། 

The Four Seals/hallmarks: 

ལྟ་བ་བཀའ་རྟགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཞི།

All that is conditioned is impermanent, 

All that is tainted is suffering, 

All phenomena are empty and devoid of self, 

Nirvana is peace.

Taking Refuge

For Buddhists and especially Tibetan Buddhists, the three fold refuge ‘Buddha, Dharma and Sangha’ is known as ‘The Three Precious Jewels” དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ། 
This is typically illustrated as above and at the top of the below calligraphy art piece; as three round precious jewels seated on a moon disk and multi-coloured lotus flower, the three jewels are decorated with a radiating golden leaf like pattern.


To take refuge is to simply put ones trust or confidence in those who have fully liberated them selves from 'samsara' such as a Buddha, by following the Dharma teachings with the guidance of the Sangha on the path to enlightenment. Until i am free from confusion and suffering, i take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

The Threefold Refuge:

"Homage to the Three Jewels" 57x84 cm ⓒ Tashi Mannox 2012.
Available as a limited edition print.

The above calligraphy art piece illustrates from top to bottom four classic calligraphy traditions of India, Tibet and Ireland:

~ Sanskrit Lantsa that reads namo buddha ya, namo dharma ya, namo sangha ya.
The Buddhas teachings were originally transcribed in Sanskrit belonging to India, that has evolved over the centuries into many different forms of script styles. Lantsa was a very early such style that many of the Buddhist manuscripts were created in. It was these Lantsa manuscripts that migrated into Tibet and formed the bases from which the Buddhist teachings where first translated into Tibetan.

~ Tibetan Uchen script this is a phonetic translation of the above Sanskrit that also reads as namo buddha ya, namo dharma ya, namo sangha ya.
It is said that the Uchen script style was evolved to accommodate the translation of Sanskrit manuscripts from India, indeed there are some similarities in construction and letter forms, though Tibetan is a totally different language to Sanskrit, many original Sanskrit terms and mantras where maintained phonetically in Tibetan, as to preserve the original sound and to up-hold what was considered a sacred language, such as Latin is to Christians. 

~ Petsug script that is a translation of the above in Tibetan that reads sange la chag-sal lo, chö la chag-sal lo, gendun la chag-sal lo, meaning to bow down with folded hands to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. 
Petsug is one of many handwriting styles of Tibetan calligraphy, quicker to form than the Uchen script, it was commonly used to scribe manuscripts. 

~ Celtic English script that is a translation and phonetics of the original Sanskrit.
Perhaps a sacred English script; historically the great Christian manuscripts were scribed in Celtic scripts, which did not belong only to Ireland as we know it today, but the Celtic Christian influence spanned over Scotland, Wales, England and into Europe. 

Created for an exhibition in December 2012 at the Contemporary Calligraphy museum in Moscow. Chinese ink and Japanese mineral paint, 23.6ct gold leaf on Bhutanese tsasho paper, ⓒ Tashi Mannox 2012.

"homage mudra" 48cm diameter, ⓒ Tashi Mannox 2012.  

Another new piece by Tashi Mannox is to illustrate the 'mudra' of folded hands at prayer, painted in the way of traditional Thanka draftsmanship, there is a modern twist of folded back Western shirt sleeves and wrist watch on the traditional depicted arms and hands. 
Mudra means 'gesture' above the gesture of prayer is the word 'namo' meaning homage, this is in the Sanskrit Wartu script painted in a Japanese mineral earth red, below which in Tibetan Tsugmakhyug script translates as "hands held together at the heart in the gesture of prayer".

The Fourfold Refuge:

"Homage the the Fourfold Refuge, 54x84 cm
ⓒ Tashi Mannox 2012. 
Available as a limited edition print.

The main body of calligraphy of the above Four Refuges piece is painted in a historic 'high' form of Uchen, inspired by a 16th century manuscript from the seat monastery 'Tsurphu' of the Karmapa Lama's in central Tibet.

The Four Refuges: 'Lama, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha' are highlighted in rust red mineral paint. 

The first dark maroon characters 'na mo' in the Lantsa Sanskrit script translates as 'homage' at the end of the prayer is a 'full stop' character in the same Lantsa Sanskrit script.

The smaller lettering in red also at the end of the refuge prayer, translates as "the four fold refuge" 


In the Tibetan Buddhist system the Lama or Guru has become an equaled source of refuge, who a realized personal known as a 'root' teacher who has the ability to guide and point out the nature of ones mind, is called a Lama. 

Private collection. Chinese ink and Japanese mineral paint on Bhutanese Tsasho paper ⓒ Tashi Mannox 2022.

"namo guru benza dhara Ye"

The practice of the Bodhi

ⓒ Tashi Mannox 2012

སྡུག་བསྔལ་མ་ལུས་བདག་བདེ་འདོད་ལས་བྱུང་༎ 

རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་གཞན་ཕན་སེམས་ལས་འཁྲུངས༎ 

དེ་ཕྱིར་བདག་བདེ་གཞན་གི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག། 

ཡང་དག་བརྗེ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན༎ 

All suffering, without exception, comes from the desire for happiness for oneself
While perfect Buddha-hood is born from the desire to make others happy. This is why completely exchanging one's happiness for that of others is a practice of the bodhisattva.

This calligraphy is based on the above prayer to develop bodhicitta, written in full of the smaller བྲུ་ཚ་ཞབས་སྒོང་མ 'round tailed Drutsa' script, a style popular in Tibet from the 1200s. The Circle of larger Uchen script is a repeat of the first line of the decree, while in the very center is the Sanskrit word 'bodhi' in uchen phonetics.

Bodhicitta

A detail of the "Beautiful Bodhicitta"

A person who has Bodhicitta (awakened mind) aspires to become enlightened for the benefit all beings, for their ultimate happiness and liberation. When a person reaches that level of unconditional love, compassion and understanding, he or she can then be called a Bodhisattva.

"Beautiful Bodhicitta"  2009.
 © Tashi Mannox 

Calligraphy in Chinese ink, Japanese mineral paint, on a wash of pure saffron depicting a landscape of the sun and clouds over mountains and foot-hills, river and the sea.
The Tibetan Drutsa script translates.....

“As a river to the sea, 

as the sea to the clouds,

as clouds to the land,

So does Bodhicitta beautify this world.”

A praise of Bodhicitta from “This Jewel Lamp” composed by Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen in Varanasi, India.

"Bodhicitta" in the ancient Wartu Sanskrit.
 © Tashi Mannox 2011

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Bodhicitta prayer.

Bodhicitta prayer in drutsa script. Tashi Mannox 2011.

"For as long as space exists and living beings endure. May i too remain to dispel the misery of the world"

The Foundation of Spiritual Practice

༄། ཐུན་མོངས་ཀྱི་སྔོན་འགྲོ་བཞི།

  Four contemplations.

Detail of "Impermanence" a calligraphy by Tashi Mannox
shows small dancing skeletons in mockery of permanency.

Fundamental to Tibetan Buddhist practitioners are the Four Foundations, four topics that are meditated upon as a preliminary practice in order to overcome attachment and develop a firm spiritual foundation and generate keen motivation.

1. Precious human existence.

2. Impermanence.

3. Causality.

4. Samsara.

The first contemplation is on ‘precious human birth/existence’ is how rare and difficult it is to obtain and how easily it can be lost, such condition of fragility leads onto the next contemplation of ‘impermanence’ that how everything is in constant change and deterioration. The third is to reflect upon the law of ‘Karma’ cause and effect, being primarily the driving force of Samsara; is the fourth contemplation on the suffering of ‘cyclic existence’ the entrapment of the attachment to material possessions and the expectation and disappointment of loved ones, which continuously grips ones habitual attention.

Tashi Mannox illustrates the ‘four foundations’ as a set of four calligraphic masterpieces, intended to be thought provoking as a subject of meditation and reflection, that can be an aid to ones practice if not a pleasing iconographic art piece for the wall.

Precious human existence.

མི་ལུས་རིན་ཆེན།

Appreciate precious life, as it is difficult to obtain and easily lost.

As a seed, the essence of life, uncoils in growth, delicate, precious and whole.
This curling Bindu shape, Sanskrit, Tigli in Tibetan, holds the words ‘precious human birth’ in a Tibetan Drutsa script.

Chinese ink on heavy water colour paper, 57x76 cm, 

© Tashi Mannox, created 2007

Impermanence.

མི་རྟག་པ།

Nothing ever stays the same!

The words ‘mi rtag pa’ impermanence in the toppling Tibetan Tsugring script, are made up small dancing skeletons, which fade into decay at the base of the letters.
The personal seal of the artist is also broken into two.

Chinese ink on heavy water colour paper, 57x76 cm, 

© Tashi Mannox, created 2007

Cause and Effect.

ལས་རྒྱུ་འབྲས།


The heavy dept of past negative actions are always collected by the law of Karma.
Equally any positive actions accumulated will result in the fruition of good Karma.
There is no rule in time to say when good and bad Karma will ripen, other than all the relevant causes and conditions come together for that particular ‘karma’ to manifest.

Chinese ink on heavy water colour paper, 57x76 cm, © Tashi Mannox, created 2002

Samsara, Cyclic Existence.

ཁོར་བ།


Freedom is in non-attachment.
The circle of Tibetan ‘Tsugthung’ script reads “cyclic existence” this repeats relentless with no beginning and no end. Such is the nature of Samsara.

Chinese ink on heavy water colour paper, 57x76 cm, © Tashi Mannox, created 2007

The four Preliminaries are a classical topic for practitioners, which have provided a strong backbone for the historically famous lineage holders and Saints of Tibet, notably in they're teaching and songs, such as Milarepa and his spiritual son Gampopa.

༄། རྒྱུ་ནི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་སྟེ། རྟེན་ནི་མི་ལུས་རིན་ཆེན་མཆོག། རྐྱེན་ནི་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཡིན། ཐབས་ནི་དེ་ཡི་གདམས་ངག་སྟེ། འབྲས་བུ་རྫོགས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྐུ། འཕྲིན་ལས་རྟོག་མེད་འགྲོ་དོན་མཛད། །

“The cause is the Buddha nature. The support is the most precious human body. The circumstance is the spiritual friend. The method consists of his instructions. The result consists of the kayas of perfect Buddhahood. The activity is the spontaneous accomplishment of beings’ benefit.”                              From the ‘Jewel Ornament of Liberation’ Jé Gampopa.

The above images of the four Contemplations are available as a set or individually as limited edition prints, these are personally hand signed and sealed by the artist.

Prints can be ordered in two sizes. The larger size being near to the actual size of the original artworks of approximately 67x50 cm. The smaller size prints are approximately half the shown size.

For more information such as prices and how to order, please visit the link here. 

Obstacle Clearance

'Homage to Mahakala' the face of the Great Black one, Tashi Mannox 2007

On the last day of the Tibetan year prayers are offered to the wrathful Dharma protector called Mahakala 'the Great Black One'. This is traditionally an all day sadhana སྒྲུབ་ཐབས practice to clear away obstacles of the old year to clear the way for a peace and progress in the Dharma. It is a cathartic and effective way to let go of negativity and purify body speech and mind of the new year ahead.

The yearly Mahakala practice culminates with a ceremonial 'cham' dance to symbolically chase out and repel the demons of the old year, called the black hat dance. The main character of the dance is usually performed by a high Lama who is particularly attained in  the visualization of the sadhana, who's role is given the title dorje lopon. 

The Mahakala dance has its origins from a time in historical Tibet when an anti-Dharma King was shot with an arrow from a bow concealed in the long pointed sleeves of the gown worn by the dancers of his court. This has since become symbolic of the victory over the inner and outer obstacles one may encounter on a spiritual path.  A similar costume is worn today together with an apron depicting the face of Mahakala, the protector of the Dharma.

A young Gyaltsab Rinpoche wearing the black hat dance costume at Rumtek
monastery in Sikkim. Photography by Peter Mannox.

With the dust of the old year symbolically clean away, it is traditional for a more practical spring clean of the household in Tibet, which with the celebrations of the new year 'losar' and on this day only, the servants of the house would be allowed to swop cloths and roles with the masters, in a party atmosphere of joy and a refreshing shake-up of conformity.

The Tibetan New Year of 2011 bounds in with the Female Iron Hare or Rabbit, which is said to be a particularly joyful and prosperous year ahead.

May goodness increase.

Karmapa

ཀ་

The badge of Tsurphu monastery,
the original seat of the Karmapas
in Tibet, founded in 1189 by the
Fist Karmapa Dusum Chenpa.

ཀརྨ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད།

Ka ཀ་ is the first letter of the Tibetan alphabet and the first letter of the name Karmapa ཀརྨ་པ།

But more notably; the latter ka also refers to speech, that is of the aural transmission of the Dharma though the Kagyu lineage known as the 'Golden Rosary' as one bead in a string leads to another, so are the teachings and practices passed on down through  an unbroken lineage to the present day.

The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje is the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage and the 17th in the line of Karmapa's 

The 16th and 17th Karmapas.

The above photo shows an astonishing resemblance between the 16th and 17th Karmapa of a similar age, not only in photo composition but also in location on grass next to a tent in the grounds of his seat monastery called Tsurphu in central Tibet. 

It was quite by accident that these two photographs found there way together after a life-time had passed between one incarnation to another.  

The 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje '1924 - 1981'

A a seldom seen and delightful photography of the 16th Karmapa, was taken by Tashi's father Peter Mannox, who documented many other of the Kagyu lineage holders during the 1970's at Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, India.

The 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, born '1985 -

The present Karmapa now resides in Northern India at his temporary camp at the Gyuto monastery in Dharamsala.

Karmapa-chenno mantra, Dru-tsa script, Tashi Mannox 2022

As the central figure to the Kagyu linage, the mantra to ask for blessing of the Karmapa is pronounced karmapa chénno which translates as 'Karmapa here me/take heed'.

To the left is an impression of one of the Karmapa's seals, signed by the 16th Karmapa, 

the hand-writing above the seal translates as

'Karma Kagyu Dharma institution'

༄། ཀརྨ་བཀའ་མརྒྱུདཆོས་སྡེ།

At the center of the seal design is the letters 'karmapa'.

A similar seal design to the above, perhaps a copy, clearly shows the letters 'karmapa' carved into the stone seal.

The script style is the father to the Horyig seal script called Phags-pa.

In both seal designs, the Phags-pa letters sit on an open lotus, radiating aura lines, above the letters are three 'jewels' representing the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, either side of which are the sun and moon.  

At The top of this post is a badge of Tolung Tsuphu Monastery, there is an interesting little story to the creation of this badge of an international collaboration. 

Once upon a time... In June 1996 Tashi visited Tsurphu monastery along with Akong Rinpoche and his brother Lama Yeshe Losal, to meet the young 17th Karmapa. This was a particularly special occasion,  as for Lama Yeshe and Tashi, it was the first time they had seen the Karmapa since his previous incarnation.

Akong Rinpoche, Karmapa and Tsering Tashi.

One particular day Akong Rinpoche together with Tashi organized an audience with the Karmapa. The main purpose of this meeting was to take measurements so that Tashi could make robes for the Karmapa at a later date. 

Much of the day was spent in the Karmapa's private quarters where games where played with much enjoyment and laughter.

It was decided to offer Karmapa an embroidered badge, which He liked as something to give to every one of the monks in the monastery representing Tsurphu.

Drawing by Karmapa and Tashi.

As in the Photo, all three huddled around Karmapa's seat table to plot out how the badge should look. Above is a rough sketch that was made by Tashi at the time under the instructions from both Karmapa and Akong, additional marks were added by Karmapa, such as the curls at the top as he explained the decorated surround of the Dharma wheel and swirls to the scroll. Below He added the moon and the sun and even wrote moon and sun next to them. The design session ended with how to draw a star.

Fresh in mind and sketch in hand, Tashi returned to Scotland where he requested Sherab Palden Beru a master of Tibetan art, to create a design based on Karmapa's instruction. The design at the top of this post was created by one of Sherabs students under his direction.

Tashi then contacted some Buddhist friends, Tony and Rose, he had met earlier in that year, who happened to run a badge making business in Australia called 'Badger Makes Badges'. The artwork was sent to them around the globe and being devoted to Karmapa, hundreds of beautifully embroider badges where returned to Scotland and offered to Karmapa by Akong Rinpoche on his next returning visit to Tibet.

THE END

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Another Karmapa related post on the Karmapa's dream flag can be followed here.