I am a practicing Buddhist, for over 30 years now. I took refuge from a Tibetan Kagyupa Lama, Lama Navang, but I am open to all other authentic Buddhist teachings, whether it's Theravada or Mahayana school of thought.

 

I adore art, and I love to paint, perhaps that's why I've been in the gallery business for over 30 years. Years ago, I began a unique project of building a prayer wheel on Ság Mountain, one of the last witness mountains, in collaboration with the Four Noble Truths Foundation. The idea of the 108 Buddhas originally emerged to support this massive project.

 

I envisioned the buddhas on 40x30 cm canvases. After creating abstract, intuitive gestures and exciting surfaces, much like how silver or silver-plated oklads in icons cover the insignificant parts, I used monochromatic gray to conceal the irrelevant and bring forth the buddha forms on the canvas.

 

"Every atom holds as many buddhas as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River bed, and all buddhas are surrounded by buddha sons." - a quote from a Tibetan meditation practice text. The existence of a multitude of buddhas is not realized in the real world. Buddhas exist only in our consciousness and generally represent various qualities of consciousness. During meditation, practitioners "visualize" them, giving them color and form to aid their practice. These visualizations are depicted in thangkas - meditation paintings - to assist the imagination.

 

During concentrated work, almost in a meditative state, the various qualities of consciousness, the mental energies, can emanate and take shape in the real world in various, unique, and unrepeatable ways, manifesting as colors, forms, and rhythms. I love this boundless energy vibrating within the material, the diversity as it becomes perceptible in the images, and how the viewer's consciousness can read, decode - naturally, only if there is intention, freedom, openness, curiosity, and sensitivity. I believe I am a part of the universe, and my consciousness can perceive every ripple of the infinite.

 

This series has been an interesting experience; perhaps the medieval masters felt something similar, the sense of being guided. It's as if intuition never runs out, as if the fire of inspiration ignites each time. Why shouldn't it be so, since I believe sacred works have been created?

 

I've connected the image of the buddhas with poems from my earlier, small haiku booklet and their English translations. 2 X 54 for the 108. The number 108 is sacred in India and other Eastern countries. According to Vedic literature, the universe is composed of 108 elements. (I recently learned from a friend that the 108th element is the "unmanifested." What a beautiful idea!) The Tibetan mala or rosary (the Christian equivalent being the rosary) also contains 108 beads. This is one round of meditation. My feeling with the buddhas is that I've just completed the first round. And yes, I think I'll continue because the number of buddhas is infinite, their forms of appearance unimaginably rich and diverse. They will provide inspiration for summoning more buddhas for a long time, and then, like everything else, they will sink back into the great melting pot of the universe.