Hindu Art Images: Vishnu

Hindus worships God beyond form, Brahman. Yet Hindus love imagery and art to express the endless divine qualities of Brahman. This is precisely the opposite of Islam and Judaism, where it is considered sinful to picture God.

Hindu art pictures God in countless human forms, and God takes incarnation as a human avatar whenever the righteous yearn for him, or when unrighteousness prevails and a corrective is needed.

It is essential to understand that all these forms are symbols of the One who cannot be represented in actual form. And all the "gods" are aspects of the One Light of Brahman. In fact, the word translated as "god", Deva, means "shining one." The Hindu gods are the shining beans of Brahman, who is one. In the words of the Vedic scripture, "Ekam sat viprah, bahudha vedantahih." "Truth is One, but the wise have called Him by many names."

In this site, we will penetrate into the qualities of God, according to Hinduism, by examining the forms of the Devas in Hindu art.

I. VISHNU

1.Vishnu Reclining on Sesha, the cosmic serpent
"We are the stuff that dreams are made of," wrote Shakespeare. The universe is born from Pralaya, cosmic sleep, and the Creator, Brahma, awakens, sitting on a lotus growing from the navel of Maha-Vishnu. Brahma is dazzled, his head facing in all directions at once. Not even the Creator understands the mystery. He too is part of Vishnu's dream. When we dream, we are asleep. When Vishnu dreams the creation, he is awake, watching, enjoying the dream.


2. Vishnu's Dream (contemporary painting)
He dreams countless universes, like bubbles in the Milk Ocean. Each universe has its own Brahma, or Creator. Vishnu holds the mace, the conch shell, the discuss, and the lotus. What do they represent?


3. Brahma, the Creator
Brahma sits on a lotus that grows from the ocean of Vishnu's dream. It is said that "Bahma does not know Brahman." What does this mean?


4. Lakshmi: Goddess of Prosperity and Beauty
She is the feminine aspect of Vishnu. Her Festival of Lights, Divali, is a most popular Hindu holiday in November, when the rainy season comes. In Hindu thought, earthly sensual beauty and material abundance are simply the outward sign of inward spiritual radiance. Thus, Lakshmi is pictures on a celestial lotus, yet she pour forth money! She bestows 200% of life: fullness of the spiritual and the physical.

Om Shrim Hrim Klim Maha-Lakshmi Devyai Namaha!

5. Sarasvati
She is the feminine aspect of Brahma, and far more popular in Hindu devotion than Brahma himself. Hindus don't pray to God through Brahma, but they pray through Sarasvati, Goddess of creativity. She presides over the arts, poetry, music and learning. She is the Goddess of students and their discipline. As Saraswati plays a vina or sitar, her other hands hold a scroll of literature and a rosary. She sits on a white lotus with the swan, Hamsa. Hamsa also means 'soul'. Music and poetry soothe and inspire the soul.



Sanskrit Hymn to Saraswati by Agyastya (w. translation) 



6. Krishna and Arjuna (Bhagavad Gita)
In the great epic of the Mahabharata, the central chapter is the Bhagavad Gita, one of the world's most popular scriptures. Lord Vishnu descends as an avatar to guide the righteous on earth in times of trial. Hindu history records his descent as Lord Krishna around 14 thousand years ago. He taught the philosophy of Yoga to strengthen the noble warrior, Arjuna. Their conversation, which takes place on the battlefield just before the battle, is recorded in the Gita. In this picture, Krishna helps Arjuna call the troops, blowing the conch horn. He rides in the chariot next to the prince of warriors. Here they are summoning their troops by blowing conch shells, the instrument that is akin to the trumpet in Biblical symbolism. It is the sound that awakens the soul to duty.

Does a divine helper ride in your chariot to guide you through the battles of life? The image of God as charioteer is also used by Plato, at the source of Western philosophy, in his greatest work, The Republic. The chariot driver is the divine in us. The reins represent the mind, controlling the charging horses who are the senses. They pull the body, the chariot. Without a wise charioteer and strong reigns, the horses of sensuality will pull the body off course.


7. Krishna and Radha
After helping Arjuna defeat the unrighteous rebel army, Krishna removes his royal crown and goes to the garden of Vrindavan, where he acts the part of a young cowherd boy engaging in playful acts, called Lilas, with the herder boys and girls. Krishna calls his friends with his flute. The Gopi girls fall in love with him. But one of them is his special lover, Radha. She represents the heart of a devotee, yearning for the Lord. The love poetry about Radha and Krishna is sensual and sweet, much like the poetry in the Biblical Song of Songs.

Krishna in this role is also called Gopala and Govinda. 'Go' can mean 'cow' in Sanskrit. But it also means 'knowledge.' These names of Krishna can mean, 'Protector of the Cows', an image similar to that of Shepherd in Christian symbolism. But the names also mean, 'Protector of Knowledge.' To know Krishna's loving protection is to be at the source of knowledge. In Hindu devotion, all knowledge leads ultimately to that goal: being in devotional relationship to the grace of a loving personal Lord.

Sarva dharman parit-yajya,
Mam ekam sharanam vraja,
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksha-yishami, ma shucah.

"Give up all other religious duties and just surrender to Me. I will deliver you from all your sins: don't worry!"

8. Radha-Krishna
Some of India's most beautiful art consists of miniature paintings depicting the lilas of Radha and Krishna. In spiritual symbolism, Radha and Krishna are really one. They are two aspects of one divine love. She is the heart's yearning, while he the union of the heart with God. Bhakti, or devotion, is the endless rhythm and throb of longing and fulfillment. The secret of Hindu Bhakti is that our very longing for God is God in us. This theme is reflected in St. Paul's statement, "it is the Spirit of Jesus in us who cries, Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15)


9. By the River Jumna
With the following pictures, we will hear Krishna's words from the Bhagavad Gita on the mystery of devotion. How do these words affect you? Have you heard any words like these in other traditions?

"He who offers to me with devotion only a leaf, or a flower, or even a little water, this I accept from that yearning soul, because it was offered with love from a pure heart." (Gita 9:26)


10. Under the Shade of a Banyan Tree
"Whatever you do - whether eating, working, serving, or offering adoration - let it be done as an offering to Me; and whatever you suffer, suffer it for Me. Thus you shall be freed from all sin, all karma, and come to Me." (Gita 9:27)


11. The Mystery of Divine Union
"Those who worship Me with devotion, they are in Me and I am in them." (Gita 9:29)


12. Swing Lila
"Even if the greatest sinner worships me with all his heart, he must be considered righteous, and he shall reach everlasting peace. This is my word of promise: he who loves Me shall not perish." (Gita 9:30)


13. Radha and Her Bridesmaids
"In the midst of his work, whatever his activity may be, my devotee takes refuge in Me, and by my Grace, reaches the imperishable abode of eternity." (Gita 18:56)

In Hindu Bhakti, one is not saved by acts of devotion or moral duty, but simply by prashad, the Grace of the Divine. After one has surrendered to Grace, then one's ordinary daily actions are an opportunity for self-offering (sharanam). In the state of Bhakti, everything we do, at work or at home, becomes a sacrament.

In the picture above, all the Gopis want to dance with Govinda. How can many souls have a personal intimate relationship with one and the same God? As in the Biblical 'Song of Songs', the Lover and his Beloved are surrounded by her bridesmaids. Does God only choose one special soul among us for union with Him?

14. Rasa Lila
The greatest mystery in the sacred garden of Vrindivan is the Rasa Lila (Playful Wedding Dance). Here Krishna replicates himself for the Gopis, becoming a personal dance partner for each girl. Just so, every human soul can dance with the supreme Godhead, enjoying an intimate personal relationship with universal Being. God does not lose transcendence or universality when He appears as a human form, a personal Beloved, in the yearning heart of each particular soul.



II. BRAHMAN

15. Brahman Is Beyond Form
Let us not forget that all the Devas are just rays of one divine Sun, sparkles of the formless light of Brahman. The Devas may be more powerful, but are no different in essence, from the human soul (Atman). Atman also a ray of Brahman. In the end, gods and souls are one light, one consciousness, one truth, one Self.

Confusion often arises about the words Brahman, Brahma, and Brahmin. The obviously come from the the same Sanskrit root, which means "beginning" or "first." Yet the student of Indian culture must understand their different meanings. Brahmin signifies the first caste in the ancient Hindu social system, the Brahmins. Brahma, as we have seen, is the creator god. But Brahma does not know Brahman. Brahman is the absolute unchanging Truth of unity, the Self in all sentient beings, the One behind the many.



Gayatri Mantra
The most sacred Hindu prayer, the 'Gayatri Mantra', goes directly beyond the Devas to Brahman:

Om bhur bhurva suvaha
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dhimahi
Dhiyo yonah prachodayat

We meditate on the effulgent light divine,
Who creates both heaven and earth,
Who is worthy of worship,
Who embodies wisdom,
Who removes all sin and ignorance:
May He enlighten us!

Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.... Peace, Peace, Peace.
___________________________

Link to Hindu art images of Shiva.

Hindu Art Images: Shiva

Hindus worships God beyond form, Brahman. Yet Hindus love imagery and art to express the endless divine qualities of Brahman. This is precisely the opposite of Islam and Judaism, where it is considered sinful to picture God.

Hindu art pictures God in countless human forms, and God takes incarnation as a human avatar whenever the righteous yearn for him, or when unrighteousness prevails and a corrective is needed.

It is essential to understand that all these forms are symbols of the One who cannot be represented in actual form. And all the "gods" are aspects of the One Light of Brahman. In fact, the word translated as "god", Deva, means "shining one." The Hindu gods are the shining beans of Brahman, who is one. In the words of the Vedic scripture, "Ekam sat viprah, bahudha vedantahih." "Truth is One, but the wise have called Him by many names."

In this site, we will penetrate into the qualities of God, according to Hinduism, by examining the forms of the Devas in Hindu art.

1. Shiva Nataraj: 'Lord of the Dance'
One of the enduring images of Indian art is the dancing Shiva. He dances on the body of an imp, or demon. This figure represents the ego, our petty selfish nature. Shiva comes from a Sanskrit root which means "pure" and "light." Shiva is misunderstood by many in the West to be a god of destruction and death. But this is not the real meaning of Shiva. Shiva destroys ignorance and egotism. Shiva burns up what binds us to our lower animal desires. So Shiva is the Liberator. In the final analysis, Shiva is the higher self within, the purity luminous nature of the soul, or Atman, when it is free of all lower qualities.


2. Shiva and Parvati
Shiva's feminine aspect is Parvati. She is the gentler personification of Shiva's energy, Shakti, from which comes the English word, "shock." Shakti is the electrical energy in our body, which gives us life, consciousness and movement. Her power is stored at the base of the spine. When we begin to grow spiritually, that creative force moves up the spine and awakens our innate powers of love, discrimination and wisdom. She dances upward until she freed through the crown of the head, to merge our soul with its divine source in Shiva. So our path of enlightenment is the winding, serpentine movement of Shakti reaching upward to dance with Shiva Nataraj. He carries a trident, representing Sat, Chit, Ananda: Truth, Awareness, and Bliss. The couple sits before a lingam, or sacred stone, which would be found in the central shrine of a Shivite temple.


3. Siva and Shakti are One



from Jñānadev's 'Amṛta Anubhāva' (13th C.)
The Union of Shiva and Shakti


I offer obeisance to the God and Goddess,
limitless primordial parents of the universe.

They are not entirely the same,
Nor are they not the same.
We cannot say exactly what they are.

How sweet is their union!
The whole world is too small to contain them,
Yet they live happily in the smallest particle.

These two are the only ones
Who dwell in this home called the universe.
When the Master of the house sleeps,
The Mistress stays awake,
And performs the functions of both.

When He awakes, the whole house disappears,
And nothing at all is left.

Two lutes: one note.
Two flowers: one fragrance.
Two lamps: one light.

Two lips: one word.
Two eyes: one sight.
These two: one universe.

In unity there is little to behold;
So She, the mother of abundance,
Brought forth the world as play.

He takes the role of Witness
Out of love of watching Her.
But when Her appearance is withdrawn,
The role of Witness is abandoned as well.

Through Her,
He assumes the form of the universe;
Without Her,
He is left naked.

If night and day were to approach the Sun,
Both would disappear.
In the same way, their duality would vanish
If their essential Unity were seen.

In fact, the duality of Shiva and Shakti
Cannot exist in that primal unitive state
From which AUM emanates.

They are like a stream of knowledge
From which a knower cannot drink
Unless he gives up himself.

Is the sound of AUM divided into three
Simply because it contains three letters?
Or is the letter 'N' divided into three
because of the three lines by which it is formed?

So long as Unity is undisturbed,
And a graceful pleasure is thereby derived,
Why should not the water find delight
In the floral fragrance of its own rippled surface?

It is in this manner I bow
To the inseparable Shiva and Shakti.

A man returns to himself
When he awakens from sleep;
Likewise, I have perceived the God and Goddess
By waking from my ego.

When salt dissolves,
It becomes one with the ocean;
When my ego dissolved,
I became one with Shiva and Shakti.



4. Traditional Medieval Icon of Shiva Shakti

5.  Shiva-Shaki: A Modern Rendition
 




















6. Prambhanam Shiva Temple, South India


7. Dance of Parvati Shakti
In India, the body is sacred, and sexuality is sacred when used for procreation, in marriage. The sensual images in a Hindu temple are expressions of Shiva as life-energy and creative power.


8. Dance of Kali Shakti
Kali is Shakti in her wild and purifying personification. She is difficult for many Westerners to comprehend. Yet the Bible also has its terrible and wrathful images of God. "Our God is a consuming fire... It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God!"

Kali is nature's destructive force. Creation cannot occur without destruction. The old must be cleansed for the new to be born. There is pain in birth. In every religious tradition, God must at some point resort to violence in order to slay the wicked, defend the innocent, and restore order in the world. The terriflying image of Kali is beloved by many Hindus, because she protects the righteous by destroying sin. She holds the sword of Shiva, a mace, a bow, a trident, a discuss and other weapons. She wears a belt of severed skulls (representing demonic powers, not human victims) and she treads on a conquered demon who represents the ego, the 'demonic.' selfish side of every human personality.



9. Ganesh: Son of Parvati and Shiva
Ganesh is a chubby mischievous boy who played with his father's sword and accidentally cut his head off. One should not play with knowledge one is not ready to handle! So Shiva took the head of the wisest and most elderly animal, put it on the body of the boy, and created a delightful form, combining the elder's wisdom with the boy's innocence. As each Hindu God has an animal symbol, Ganesh's companion is a mouse. Sometime's he rides the mouse!



10. Household Doorway: Statue of Ganesh
Ganesh protects the household. Every traditional Indian home has an image of Ganesh guarding its door, like the statue below. And the household usually has a mouse or two guarding its pantry! The mouse is humble and quiet, but gets its work done efficiently. Like a good householder, the mouse is inventive, industrious, and always busy. These are some qualities of Ganesh.


11. Interpretation of Ganesh by Shri Shri Ravi Shankar
"An elephant's trunk has the strength to uproot a tree as well as the finesse to pick up a needle. Ganesha's trunk symbolises the fact that the wise person has both immense strength and fine discrimination. Ganesha has large ears. The wise person hears all. He has four hands. In one and he holds a lotus, the symbol of enlightenment. In the other hand he holds a hatchet. That means, the old karma, the accumulated good and bad of past deeds, gets cut when enlightenment comes.

"The third hand holds laddus, the round sweet-meats. They are the rewards of a wise life. Ganesha is never shown eating the laddus. The wise man never partakes of the rewards of his deeds. He is not attached to them. The fourth hand is shown blessing the people. The wise man wishes the best for everyone.

"Ganesh has only one tusk; the other is shown broken. The symbolism of the broken tusk is that the wise person is beyond duality. We tend to think that we end when our bodies end in the material world. We are the first person. All else is different. This duality is created by the mind which creates the ego to help us survive in this world. This 'me-other' duality is the screen keeping us from realising our real Self, which is beyond body and mind. Once we transcend this duality, we see the entire universe as a single whole and we become aware of our true Selves. The single tusk of Ganesh symbolises this non-duality. Wisdom allows us to see all as one and ourselves an integral part of the whole.

"Ganesh is shown sitting with one foot on the ground and the other resting on his knee, above the ground. The wise person is of this earth, yet not entirely of this earth.

"Ganesha is shown seated on a rat. The reason for saying that Ganesh 'rides' on the rat is that the rat is among the greediest of all animals. It will keep nibbling at whatever is available, eating everything it can. Scientifically, too, the rat's teeth keep growing and it has to keep chewing on something to keep these within limits. The rat is a symbol of our senses, which are never satisfied. They crave new experiences, new tastes. Left uncontrolled, they keep growing forever. The wise person rides on his senses. He keeps them under control.

"Ganesha is often shown seated in front of a tray of sweets. In these images the rat is shown sitting in front of Ganesha, perhaps a bit to one side, looking up at him. The senses of the wise person are under his control and the rat dare not eat the sweets without the permission of Ganesha.

"Ganesha is the son of Shiva and Parvati, the God governing the life-force and the earth-mother. This symbolizes the spirit and body of the wise person. Finally, the wise person has the dignity of an elephant.

"When we say Aum Ganeshaya Namah before starting anything, what we are saying is, in what we are about to do, let wisdom be our guide. In a sense, Ganesh is our most powerful god, and he is usually remembered before starting any rituals for other Devas."

_________

12. Interpretation of Ganesh by Amma Sri Karunamayi

"Anything and everything is possible with the grace of Sri Ganesha. Here one may ask, who is Sri Ganesha? He is none other than Adi Para Shakti, Divine Mother in the form of the original supreme cosmic energy. In the Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad, Sri Ganesha is praised by the Vedic rishi as "Shakti Trayatmaka," the very soul or essence of the three forms of divine shakti.  

"In the Vedic worldview, male deities are worshipped as forms of prajnanam, or consciousness, and female deities are worshipped as forms of shakti, or divine energy and power. Truly speaking, this shakti has no form, but we give it forms so that we may approach Divinity. 

"The shakti of Rudra is Mother Rudrani. The shakti, or power, of Narayana is Mother Narayani. And the shakti of Brahma is Brahmi. These three powers of Rudrani, Narayani and Brahmi are all contained within the power of Sri Ganesha. In fact, the powers of all the forms of Divine Mother are within Sri Ganesha. Thus, worshipping Ganesha brings the blessings of all deities. 

"This is especially true when he is worshipped on one particular day of the year - Sri Ganesh Chaturthi. This day is known as the most important and auspicious day for obtaining Sri Ganesha's blessings. Ganesh Chaturthi, which is also known as Ganesh Chavithi or Vinayaka Chavithi, occurs on the fourth day of the waxing moon in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada (Aug-Sep).

"When Ganesha is worshipped on Ganesh Chaturthi, he removes all obstacles and gives auspicious positive results for all our endeavors. Worshipping him on this day grants the complete grace of the three Divine Mothers - Sri Lakshmi, Sri Saraswati, and Sri Rudrani (Parvati). The compassionate grace of Divine Mother confers inconceivable spiritual effulgence and divine energy."

 13. Interpretation of Shiva Symbols from the Upanishads 

 

Lord Shiva represents the destructive aspect of Brahman. 'Destructive' here means, 'destructive of ignorance, of that which binds the soul.'

That portion of Brahman that is enveloped by Tamo-Guna is Lord Shiva who is the all-pervading Isvara (Person of God) and who also dwells in Mount Kailas. He is the Bhandara or store-house for wisdom. Siva minus the Goddess (Parvati or Kali or Durga) is Nirguna Brahman Himself: the Absolute without form. With Maya-Parvati, He becomes the Saguna Brahman (God with form) for the purpose of devotion. Devotees of Vishnu must worship Lord Shiva for 3 or 6 months before they take to worship of Rama or other Vishnu forms. Rama Himself worshipped Lord Siva at the famous Ramesvaram. Lord Siva is the Lord of Ascetics and Lord of Yogis, robed in space (Digambara). 

His Trisul (trident), held in His right hand, represents the three Gunas—Sattva, Rajas and Tamas (creativity, energy, and destruction). These are the impulses that sustain the universe and combine to form the elements. The Trisul, containing all three, is the emblem of Shiva's sovereignty. He wields the world through these three Gunas.

 The Damaru (drum) in His left hand represents Sabda Brahman, the sound-current that creates the universe, pulsating in waves of rhythm. That cosmic drum-beat arises from OM, out of which all languages are formed. It is Shiva who formed the Sanskrit language out of the Damaru vibration.

 In the view of the Yogins, the Sanskrit language was never invented by man (though it was finally written down at a much later time). Sanskrit was cognized by the rishis as inner sound vibration in subtle layers of consciousness. This occurred during Sat Yuga, when the earth's atmosphere was pure enough to sustain such cognition, innumerable aeons ago.

Shiva is Trilochana, the three-Eyed: in the center of His forehead is the third eye, the eye of wisdom. The crescent moon indicates that Shiva has controlled the mind perfectly, for moon symbolizes mind. The flow of the Ganges emanating from Shiva's seat represents the nectar of Immortality. Shiva is portrayed with certain animals: Elephant represents pride: His wearing elephant skin denotes that He has controlled pride. Tiger represents lust: His sitting on tiger skin indicates that He has conquered lust. His touching a deer with one hand indicates that He has removed the Chanchalata (tossing) of the mind, for the deer is nervous and jumps from one place to another. His wearing of serpents denotes wisdom and eternity. Serpents shed their old skin and live on.

He is Shivam (the good, the pure), Sundaram (the beautiful), Kantam (the effulgent). “Shantam Shivam Advaitam,” declares the Mandukya Upanishada: 'Oneness is the peace of Shiva.' 

'I bow with folded hands again and again at the lotus-feet of Lord Shiva, who is One without a taint of duality; who is the Adhishthana, or ground of creation and all minds; who is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Truth, Awareness, Bliss); who is the Antaryamin (Supreme Ruler); the Sakshi (silent witness of every thought); who is self-effulgent, self-existent and self-contained as Pari-purna (Supreme Fullness); who is the remover of the primitive Avidya (ignorance); and who is the Adi-Guru (first teacher). That Lord Shiva is my very essence. That Lord Shiva I am. Shivoham, Shivoham, Shivoham!" 

Link to Hindu art images of Vishnu.

Heart Space

The Heart Center is a very real neurological matrix in the body, which is also a focus of electromagnetic and spiritual energy, as significant in our intelligence as the brain. The following quotes and videos touch on the practice of shifting awareness from the brain to the heart, opening deeper levels of human creativity and communion. These statements come from spiritual masters, philosophers, artists, poets, physicists, and medical researchers, both ancient and modern.

"The heart’s electromagnetic field, by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the body, not only envelopes each cell of the body but extends in all directions into the space around us. IHM Research suggests that the heart's field is an important carrier of information." (Dr. Rollin McCraty, Institute of Heart Math)

"In the mid-1970s, the benchmark Framingham Heart Study found that suppressed anger could help predict the incidence of heart disease." LINK

"The souls ability to nourish itself lies in the heart." (Aristotle, one of the founders of Western philosophy)


"Let the mind descend in  to the heart." (Philocalia, Eastern Orthodox classic on Prayer of the Heart)

"After sunset, having asked the help of the all-merciful and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ, sit you down on a low stool in your quiet and dimly lit cell; collect your mind from its customary circling and wandering outside, and quietly lead it into the heart by way of breathing, keeping the prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,' connected with the breath." (The Monks Callistus & Ignatius, Directions to Hesychasts, 14th C. Orthodox)

"Prayer is constant remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, quietly led into the heart by way of breathing and again led out, without any extraneous thought or imagining."(ibid.)

“Breathing out and breathing in, relinquish your mind and enter your heart, the lotus where the energy that creates the universe flows”. (Vijnana Bhairava, Medieval Yoga scripture of India)

Hridayeh chitta-sanghattad drishya-svapa-darshanam: "When the mind merges into the heart, one perceives the true nature of the external world as the dreamlike projection of consciousness." (Shiva Sutras, Kashmir)

"If the mind remains in the Heart, the I or ego which is the source of all thoughts will go. Then the Self, the Real Eternal I, alone will shine. Where there is not the slightest trace of the ego, there is the Self." (Ramana Maharshi, Vedanta Master)

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am. I am. I am." (Sylvia Plath, poet)

"The heart has reasons that reason cannot know." (Pascal, Enlightenment mathematician)

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." (Marc Chagall, 20th C. Russian painter)

"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." (Thomas Carlyle, 19th C. English humanist)

"Don't dismiss the heart, even if it's filled with sorrow. God's treasures are buried in broken hearts." (Rumi, Islamic Sufi poet)

"When the bud breaks, it becomes a flower. When the heart breaks, it becomes divine." (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, contemporary master of yoga & breath)

Prayer of the Heart

Eastern Orthodox Icon of the Heart Center: Hear the beautiful chant at the end of this post!

I. Three Jewels
There are three precious jewels which you were given in your mother's womb. I am only going to remind you of their value, for you have let them get tarnished. Once you understand the value of what you already have, you will experience the deepest meditation and the highest form of prayer just by breathing. Before you set out on this life, your Inward Teacher gave you these three talismans to take on your journey: Breath, Heart, and The Present Moment.

The human body itself is a holy sacrament. When you are fully embodied, no further sacrament is needed. If we would but attend to this body with as much devotion as we attend to church buildings, we would enter the temple right where we are.

As the center of the temple is the Holy of Holies, the center of the body is the Heart. The Heart is not merely a physical organ, but the matrix of our consciousness. Aristotle wrote: "The heart is the perfection of the whole organism. The soul's ability to nourish itself lies in the heart." (Aristotle) The ancient Shiva Sutras of North India declare: "The true yogi establishes the mind in the heart." Likewise, the early manual of prayer from Orthodox Christianity begins its instruction: "Let the mind descend into the heart." We often take the heart as a symbol, but these instructions point to the heart itself, that beating organ at the center of the body which is so much more than just a muscle or a pump. In fact, recent medical research has classified the heart as an endocrine gland, and even as a "heart brain," with a radiant electromagnetic field far more powerful than that produced by the brain.

The heart is like a radio, constructed out of physical matter, but in such a way as to receive invisible energies, turning them into information. We can attune our hearts to God just as surely as we can set our radio to our favorite channel. In this form of meditation, the Prayer of the Heart, we quite literally rest our awareness in the heart. Prayer is a sacrament: spiritual presence apprehended through a physical sign. When your attention rests in the Heart, you pass through a tiny golden portal to the Kingdom of God. Eternity dwells as a tiny spark at the center of your Heart. Entering that infinitesimal door, you discover yourself in the vast expanse of divine consciousness. This what Jesus meant when he said, "I am the door." The I Am at the center of your Heart is the portal to God-Consciousness.

*
Down through the door of the Heart flows the Breath, the carrier of all that nourishes and heals. Breath is the unacknowledged physician in every human body. It cleanses each cell, enlivens each atom. If we would employ the power of our breath, we would worry much less about the growing costs of health care. As our Heart is the physical sign of the soul, so our Breath is the physical sign of the Spirit. The Biblical authors knew this. In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures they used the same word to express both spirit and breath. The double meaning of the Hebrew ruach and the Greek pneuma corresponds to the double reality of our own breath. Breath is both the vehicle for oxygen and the host for spiritual energy. Each great religious tradition acknowledges this subtle energy in the breath: it is called chi in China, prana in India, spiritus in the West.

When we do it with awareness, simply to breathe is the purest form of prayer. What turns ordinary respiration into worship is our mindfulness of it. I discover that each breath is a gift. I am not breathing: I am breathed by the Almighty. Inhalation is grace. Then, when I exhale, I have an opportunity to surrender. I need to alter, no sanctuary for this sacrament. Breathing in, breathing out: grace and surrender. Merely to observe this graceful process transforms mechanism into sacrament.

*

Our third birthright is the jewel of Presence. We can also call it the jewel of Silence, for when we are fully in the present moment, observing what is, just as it is, the mind is silent. Silence is always here, now, beneath the static chatter of our thoughts. To enter this healing, peace-giving Silence is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven on earth: the Kingdom of the Present Moment. Silence is the space where God dwells as eternal presence. God is never in the future, never in the past. Only when we enter the spacious silence of the present moment can we encounter the divine Being.

"Take no thought for tomorrow," Jesus declared. He always brought his listeners into the Kingdom of Now. They asked when the kingdom would come and he replied, "The kingdom of heaven is right here, in the midst of you!" He declared, "Before Abraham was, I Am." The whole spiritual journey is from here to now. Those who aren't ready for this journey study old maps.

*

Then how do we dwell in silent presence without being swept into the past and future by a flood of thoughts?

First, we acknowledge the fact that thinking creates time. The past and future only exist as thoughts. We carry past and future in our heads, but our hearts always beat now. Our hearts are always in the Kingdom.

Failure to acknowledge presence is the seed of suffering. Regrets of the past and anxieties of the future are actually physiological stresses carried in the neurons of our brain. Time is a neurological phenomena, a chemical-electric activity in the cortex. Time is anxiety, and anxiety is time.

The solution to the problem of time is simply to become aware of time as a sensation in the brain. Watch time forming inside you as a knot of thoughts, fears, desires. See how you label this knot past and future. Instead of being mesmerized and absorbed by mental images, inner movies about what happened or what might happen, become aware of these thoughts as minute physical impulses. The moment I become aware, "Ah, this passing thought is just a chemical activity in my brain," the thought loses its binding power. I can observe the sensation that underlies the thought, without converting it into a mental picture. Then, penetrating that sensation without resistance, I can rest in the silence that is always here, behind every thought. This silence is the pure awareness that observes thoughts, but is never a thought itself. Pure awareness is the still space where thoughts arise and dissolve. This still space is the real me. I am the watcher. Thus Jesus taught, "Watch and pray." The watcher, not the thinker, finds God.

The silence that watches thoughts come and go is always in the present. Silence is the end of time.

Let each breath be an anchor that moors you to the silence of the heart. Follow your exhalation from the mind into the heart. At the very end of the exhalation, you will discover a moment of complete emptiness, just before inhalation begins. In that emptiness, there is no thought, no mind, no time: just silent emptiness. This is Christ's kinosis, or self-emptiness. "He emptied himself" (Philippians 2). Rest in that measureless empty stillness at the end of the exhalation, where this little stream of soul returns to the ocean of Spirit.

From that depth will rise the inhalation, your next breath, a gift. Yes, you will discover that this breath is not really yours. It is the gift of the infinite.

II. Practice
These meditation instructions should be practiced, not analyzed. With eyes closed, practice each step for awhile until it becomes natural and easy. Then move to the next step. Don't try to force your way through the whole sequence at one time. Use the instructions that work. Own them. In the end, they flow together as one simple process carried out, not by your effort, but by Grace: the Grace of your Inner Teacher. There is no major religious tradition in the world that does not contain this practice.

• Close your eyes and observe the breath. Observe with gentle attention, not forced concentration. Let the breath flow naturally from the nostrils down to the abdomen. Be aware of it all the way.

• As you breathe out, let go of tension. Let go of any subtle holding in the muscles of the shoulders, chest, or belly. As you release tension through the exhalation, let go of grasping thoughts in the mind. What unconscious holding are you doing in the region of the solar plexus? Breathe out this tension. Along with it, drop the mind! Breathing out tension of your body, you can breathe out the tension of time past.

• Allow awareness to sink from the head to the heart, quite literally. Gaze down into your heart and feel it beating. Give it room to beat. Feel its warmth. With awareness in the heart, observe whatever sensations come, without analyzing or labeling the sensation "good" or "bad," "pain" or "pleasure." You may have denied your heart for a long time. Attention here can release strange feelings: heat, cold, fluttering, anger, fear, sadness. These words are just labels. Feel the sensations as energy without words. After regular practice, eventually you will experience a causeless glow of happiness in the heart.

Don't let this quiet joy confuse you, asking, "What right have I to be joyful?" The innate joy of the heart has no cause. In Sanskrit it is called anahatta, meaning unstruck causeless sound. The heart is called the anahatta chakra. The gracious gift of undeserved happiness is your birthright. You don't have to accomplish anything in order to deserve a song in your heart! As Jnaneshwar sang:

"The moment the energy of Spirit (kundalini shakti) enters the heart region, the self-begotten divine unstruck music begins to play."

• Now you are simply breathing in the heart. At the end of your exhalation, notice the stillness, the silent emptiness, the still point. This is the door. Here, surrender. This is the boundless space from which creation arises, the formless void mentioned in the first verse of the Bible. It is here already, even before God says, Let there be light.

• After spending some time observing the exhalation and resting in silence, become aware of the inhalation. Observe each in-breath as a stream of living energy, flowing into your heart.

• Receive the inhalation with gratitude. Note its effortlessness. The breath is given. It is not something you work for. With this awareness, you will feel a soft thrill, a warmth deep in the heart. This is the outward and physical sign of Grace. Life is a gift.

• Continue for as long as you wish, just resting and breathing through the heart. Nothing could be simpler. Nothing could be more profound. With every inhalation, receive. With every exhalation, offer. Breathing is the whole story of salvation: the gift of God and the soul's response. Your breath is Holy Communion on the heart's alter.

The Holy Breath is the Holy Spirit, consecrating and trans-substantiating your body into the Host of God. Adam was created out of dust (adamah) by the breath of God (ruach Elohim) to become a living soul (nephesh). Nephesh also means breath in Hebrew, an individual breath descended from the divine breath of the Spirit. So in the prayer of the heart, you become the new Adam: humanity reborn with every breath.

Of course, this is just the description in Western and Biblical terms. Exactly the same experience is described in the sacred literature of the Sufi mystics, the Buddhist masters, and the devotional saints of India. The Upanishads teach:

"The breath goes out with aham (I am) and comes in with Sah (God). Within everyone this natural meditation of ham-sah is happening."

III. Divine Name: The Jesus Prayer
When I find myself gazing into the radiance of my Heart, which is the radiance of every Heart, I have become a silent Mary brooding over the manger. I give birth to the Christ Light in the very center of my heart. The 17th Century Lutheran mystic Angelus Silesius wrote: "I must be Mary to give birth to God." 14th Century mystic Meister Eckhart often pointed out in his very popular sermons that the birth of God in Bethlehem is not of much use to us if it doesn't take place at the center of our souls! In this prayer, a strange and wonderful sensation is born in our heart's core, a sensation both physical and spiritual. It is truly the innocent child of God in us, and it is the one we have been seeking. All other desires are but shadows of this yearning for the birth of Christ-Consciousness within. As Augustine wrote, "Our hearts are ever restless till they find their rest in Thee."

Christ is born in the womb of the Heart as an Inward Light. The Spirit who begets this offspring of God is the Breath. The Heart is the manger, for there is no room in the busy inn of the mind.

It sometimes happens that, even when we plunge into the ocean of silence, the Heart is so filled with gratitude that it needs to cry out, to express the beauty it bears. This requires no more than a single word of prayer, what the Orthodox masters called eucharistos monologistos: "one-word prayer." Please remember that this word is the effect, not the cause, of prayer. The word is not a technique but an effulgence. Your prayer word is the gift of silence.

A prayer-word is felt, not spoken. As a bird, soaring in a current of wind, only beats its wings with an occasional pulse to sustain its air-born flight, so we invoke our prayer word softly, gently, effortlessly. (This image is from the autobiography of St. Theresa of Avila.)

* At the point of complete surrender, on breathing out all the way, or at the point of fullness, on breathing in all the way, gently and without effort hear the Name, the Mantra. For the Christian, this is the name of Jesus. Let Jesus arise on the breath of silence as foam arises on the crest of a wave. Jesus's name be a tiny jewel sparkling on the silent shore the outgoing wave of exhalation leaves a silent space before the next breath arises. In this boundless point of silence, touch the Name with your awareness as gently as a feather touching a bubble.

As the Divine Name dissolves into the breath, its subtle but powerful vibration infuses every cell of the body, thrilling each electron. This is how the word of prayer becomes the Word of creation, which God speaks in the genesis of heaven and earth. "In the beginning was the Word.... all things were created through Him." (John 1) So the Indian Mandukya Upanishad declares, "The syllable Om is the eternal Godhead, and is the universe. Whatever was, whatever is, whatever shall be, is Om." When the Divine Name vibrates in the Heart, we are attuning our individuality to the universal Logos, the conscious power of creation.

The ancient masters of Christian prayer experienced this epiphany through the name of Jesus. By means of the breath, Orthodox masters carried Jesus into their hearts. The believed that the creative power of God was alive in that very name. St. Hesychius of Jerusalem (4th Century) spoke of "breathing Jesus Christ." In the 6th Century, St. John Climacus wrote, "Let the Name of Jesus be joined to your breath: then you shall know the use of silence." A later saint, Nichodimus of the Holy Mountain, wrote, "Let Jesus be your breath."

The early Christian practitioners also used such mantras as Kyrios (Lord), Christos (Christ or Anointed One). You may follow the tradition of India and use a word of prayer such as Ram, which was Gandhi's prayer word. Perhaps an authentic Guru has initiated you and given you a mantra. I invite you to listen to God's Breath in your heart. The Spirit will reveal the prayer-word appropriate for you.

Prayer is not your work. It is God's work in you. When your breath centers to a single fiery seed of love in your heart, the silence vibrates with the thunder of God's Name. The Word incarnates in your body. Though you are not aware of its true amplitude, the Word sends forth a wave of healing that ripples through every photon of light, every atom of creation, regenerating not your flesh alone, but all humanity. Every particle of your body is inter-woven in one quantum field with each child in Darfur, every mother in Haiti. This principle is known as Bell's Theorum in physics, and has been verified experimentally. In the words of founding quantum physicist, Sir Arthur Eddington, "When the electron vibrates, the whole universe shakes." You are truly part of the "universal body of Christ." Every breath you breathe through the Heart is a healing for the world.


III. The Culture of Prayer
We need to confess that there is a spiritual void in our hearts. Most of today's social and economic problems arise from our denial of that void. We deny the void by stuffing it: filling it with alcohol, stimulants, fast food, nerve-pounding music, instant sex, even violence. The busy-ness of work is also a way to stuff our inner void. So is shopping! Strolling through the mall, we buy not out of necessity, but despair. Our national economy of consumerism thrives on spiritual emptiness.

Ironically, the solution is right where the problem is: the empty space in the heart. Nowhere but here will we find the antidote to our angst and the dryness of our workdays. If we would only take a little time each morning and evening to enter the Heart through prayer, it might be "the little leaven that raises the whole loaf." Renew your world by renewing your Heart!

This prayer is not a flight from darkness: it embraces darkness. Not a flight from emptiness: it embraces emptiness. Prayer of the Heart accepts our inner emptiness as sacred ground. When we embrace emptiness, we become the vast space of compassion. When we embrace darkness, we hear the silence say, "Let there be light!"

Buddhist Literature

Japanese Buddhist Haiku Poems

Issa (1763-1827)

Ah, sacred swallow -
twittering out from your nest
in great Buddha's nostril!

My old father also
looked long on these white mountains
through lonely winters....

This dewdrop world:
it may be a dewdrop.
and yet, and yet...


Buson (1716 - 1783)

Lighting one candle
with another candle -
Spring evening.

Around the small house
struck by lightning,
melon flowers.

They end their flight
one by one -
crows at dusk.

Butterfly
sleeping
on the temple bell.

The camelia -
it fell into the darkness
of the old well.


Basho (1644 - 1694)

Still old pond,
frog jumps in,
Plop!

The dragonfly
can't quite land
on that blade of grass.

The sadness of it....
Under the hero's helmet,
tarnished now, a cricket.

Cicada shell:
it sang itself
utterly away.

A bee
staggers out
of a peony.

A crow
settles on a bare branch -
Autumn evening.
_________________

Basho's Notes On Poetry Writing

Learn about pines from the pine, and about bamboo from the bamboo...

The secret of poetry lies in treading the middle way between the reality of the world and the emptiness of the world....

First, one must concentrate the mind fully on an object. Once your mind attains unbroken concentration on the object, the space between yourself and the object disappears. Then the essential nature of the object is perceived. But you must express it immediately. If you begin to think about it, it will vanish from the mind.

Composition must occur in an instant, like a swordsman leaping at his enemy, or like slicing a ripe watermelon with a sharp knife.
_______________________________

Chinese Buddhist Poetry

As for me, I delight in the everyday Way,
Among mist-wrapped vines and rocky caves.
Here in the wilderness I am completely free,
With my friends, the white clouds, idling forever.
There are roads, but they do not reach the world;
Since I am mindless, who can rouse my thoughts?
On a bed of stone I sit, alone in the night,
While the round moon climbs up Cold Mountain.

Han Shan, 'Cold Mountain Poems' (showing the profound influence of Laotsu and Taoism on the Chinese Buddhists)
_____________________

BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES



Metta Sutta (Sutta Nipata I.8)
The Buddha's Meditation on Loving-Kindness

What should be done by one who's skilled in wholesomeness
To gain the state of peacefulness is this:

One must be able, upright, straight and not proud,
Easy to speak to, mild and well content,
Easily satisfied
And not caught up in too much bustle,
And frugal in one's ways,
With senses calmed, intelligent, not bold,
Not being covetous when with other folk,
Abstaining from the ways that wise ones blame,

This mindfulness one should always hold:
"May beings be happy and safe.
May their hearts rejoice within themselves.
Whatever may breathe the breath of life,
Whether they be frail or strong, visible, or invisible,
Whether they dwell far or near,
Those who are here, those who have departed,
Or those seeking to be born in this world,
May all beings rejoice within themselves.
Let no one bring ruin to another.
Let none despise another in any way or place.
Let them not wish each other any ill."

Just as a mother would risk her life
To love and protect her child, her only child,
So one should cultivate this boundless love (Metta)
For all who live in the universe,
Extending sublime consciousness of compassion
Upward, downward, and across the world,
Untroubled, free from hatred and from craving.
Peace, Peace, Peace.

And while one stands and while one walks and sits
Or one lies down still free from drowsiness
One should be intent on this mindfulness
This is divine abiding here they say.
And when one lives quite free from any view,
In virtue, with perfect insight won,
And greed for sensual desires expelled,
One surely comes no more to any womb.
______________________________

Heart Sutra (Prajna Paramitta Sutra)

When the Bodhisattva
Was practicing Deep Prajnaparamita of Wisdom
Perceived the five skandhas
He saw them to be, in their own self-nature,
Utterly empty;
And He Was delivered from all suffering and misery.
He said:

"Oh Sariputra, Form is emptiness, Emptiness is form.
Form is the same as emptiness, Emptiness is the same as form.
That which is formed is empty, that which is empty has form
So it is also with sensation and thought and activity and consciousness.

Oh Sariputra! All things are empty:
They are not born, They are not annihilated.
They are not impure, They are not pure.
They do not increase, They do not decrease.

Therefore, Oh Sariputra:
In emptiness there is no form, no sensation, no thought, No activity, No consciousness.
No eye, nor nose, nor tongue, Nor body, nor mind.
No form, nor sound, nor color, nor taste, nor touch, nor objects.
No element of hearing. No element of vision, no element of smelling,
No element of tasting, no element of touching, No element of consciousness.
There is no knowledge and no ignorance.... No old age and No death,
And no extinction of old age and death.

There is no suffering, No accumulation, no annihilation,
No Path!

There is no Knowledge, no attainment and no realization!

Because there is no Attainment in the mind of the Bodhisattva,
There are no obstacles.
Going beyond all views, beliefs and opinion, He is Nirvana!

All Buddhas of the Past, Present and Future depend on this Prajna Paramita
To attain the Highest Perfect Enlightenment.
Therefore know that Prajna Paramita is a Great Spiritual Mantra,
Great Bright Mantra, Supreme Mantra, aUnequaled Mantra.
It removes all suffering; it is genuine and not false.
That is why the Prajna Paramita Mantra was spoken. Recite it like this:

Gaté Gaté Paragaté Parasamgaté: Bodhi Svaha!

("Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond, Gone Beyond Beyond: Hail the Goer!")

__________________________

Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels

(This fundamental practice is chanted every morning).

I take refuge in the Buddha. May I absorb myself in the living source of understanding, faith and compassion, awaken to the boundless Pure Land here and now. (bell & bow)

I take refuge in the Dharma. May I be submerged in the depths of the Teachings, in the revelation of the Present Moment, gaining wisdom as deep as the ocean. (bell & bow)

I take refuge in the Sangha. May I live in harmony with this community, and in harmony with all beings,

in the spirit of universal compassion, the spirit of unity, freed from the bondage of selfishness. (bell & bow)

____________________________________________

The Precepts

Every Buddhist lay-person must follow the Five Precepts. Buddhist monks and monks must add to these another five, making the '10 Commandments' of Buddhism.

Five Precepts

* No sexual impurity (sexual intimacy only in marriage)

* No lying

* No stealing

* No killing (violence can be used only in self-defense)

* No intoxicants

Five Additional Precepts for Monks and Nuns
* No gossip or malicious speech
* No self-display (jewelry, luxurious clothes or sensual behavior)
* No eating after noon (fasting)
* No defaming of the Three Jewels**
* No accepting of money

from Hakuin's 'SONG OF ZAZEN'
Hakuin was the Medieval Japanese founder of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism in Japan. He was also a great poet and artist of Sumi-e ink paintings.
 
"All sentient beings are essentially Buddhas. 
There is no ice without water: 
Apart from sentient beings, there are no Buddhas. 
Not knowing how close the truth is, we seek it - what a pity! 
We are like one who, bathing in a fresh mountain stream, cries out in thirst. 
All moral duties come down to just being here.
How vast and wide the unobstructed sky of the heart! 
How bright and clear the perfect moonlight of wisdom! 
In this moment, what more need we seek?
Here, in the eternal tranquility of Truth, 
this very place is the Land of Lotuses;
This very body is the body of the Buddha.

____________________

-->
Tibetan Buddhism, from the Hymn to 21 Forms of Tara
 Tara is the "Mother of Buddha," said to be the feminine form of Avalokit-Ishwara, whose worship also inspired the worship of Kwan Yin in China, Kannon in Japan.

Homage to you, Tara, whose radiant crown ornament,
Joyful and magnificent, extends a garland of light,
And who, by your laughter of TUTTARA,
Conquer the dark forces of all worlds.

Homage to you, Tara, who are able to invoke
The entire assembly of local devas and protectors,
Whose awe-full countenance fiercely shakes,
Rescuing the impoverished through the letter HUM.

Homage to you, Tara, whose crown is adorned
With the crescent moon and ornaments exceeding bright;
From your hair knot the Buddha Amitabha
Radiates eternally with great beams of light.

Homage to you, Tara, who dwell within a blazing garland
That resembles the fire at the end of this world age;
Surrounded by joy, you sit with right leg extended
And left withdrawn, uncreating all enemies and delusions.

Homage to you, Tara, with hand on the ground by your side,
Pressing your heel and stamping your foot on the earth;
With a penetrating glance from your eyes you awaken
All seven worlds within us through the syllable HUM.

Homage to you, Tara, O happy virtuous peaceful one,
The very object of meditation, transcending sorrow.
You are endowed with the mantra SOHAM,
Overcoming completely all obstacles to our perfect joy.