Thich Nhat Hanh, Deer Park Monastery and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: Present-moment mindfulness, sitting meditations and walking meditations of Deer Park Monastery founder Thich Nhat Hanh actuate Ajanta cave wall paintings.

Deer Park Monastery's main meditation hall (center) and dining hall (center right); Escondido, San Diego County's North County region, southwestern California; Thursday, Sep. 21, 2006, 12:01:56: miheco (michael), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

The present-moment mindfulness, sitting meditations and walking meditations of Deer Park Monastery founder Thich Nhat Hanh approximate the aims of ancient adherents around Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in central-west India.

Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures of central-north Maharashtra state beautify the 30-cavern, 1,968.5-foot- (600-meter-) long, 1,300- to 2,300-year-old Ajanta (from Sanskrit अजित, "invincible") Caves. The two-hamlet, 400-acre (1.62-square-kilometer), 19-year-old Deer Park Monastery of Escondido (from same-spelled Spanish for "hidden"), southwestern California, clusters giant Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened") statues outdoors. The Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures and the Ajanta designation respectively describe Gautama (from Sanskrit गौतम, "brightness [dispels] darkness") and Maitreya (from Sanskrit मैत्रेय, "benevolent") Buddha.

Deer Park Monastery evokes Isipatana (from Sanskrit इसिपतन, "where holy men landed") deer park where Siddhartha (from Sanskrit गौतम, "successful") Gautama (624?-544 C.E.?) endured extreme asceticism.

Some Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures feature jataka (from Sanskrit जातक, "born under") tales about Gautama Buddha's 550 bodhisattva (from Sanskrit बोधिसत्त्व, "enlightened existences") reincarnations.

The Deer Park Monastery (Tu Viện Lộc Uyển) of Vietnamese peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh groups Gautama Buddha statues in enlightened, instructive, meditative seated positions outdoors. Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures have the 35- to 80-year-old Gautama Buddha instructing and meditating seated, standing or supine much more than his successor Maitreya. They and Deer Park Monastery founder Thich Nhat Hanh integrate earlier Hinayana (from Sanskrit हीनयान, "lesser vehicle") and later Mahayana (from Sanskrit महायान, "greater vehicle") Buddhism.

Deer Park Monastery laymen and laywomen practitioners, monks and nuns, like Buddhist laity and monastics around Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures, juggle mass- and self-enlightenment.

Hinayana Buddhism, known as Theravada (from Sanskrit स्थविरवाद, "the elders' doctrines") Buddhism, kindles self-enlightenment, such as that of 29- to 25-year-old Sakyan Crown Prince Siddhartha Gautama.

Deer Park Monastery founder Thich Nhat Hanh, his Clarity hamlet nuns and laywomen and Solidity hamlet monks and laymen look to Mahayana mass- and Theravada self-enlightenment. Ajanta cave 22 inscriptions that "the merit of this be for excellent knowledge to all sentient beings, beginning with father and mother," modeled that merger anciently. Deer Park Monastery founder Thich Nhat hanh notes the mass- and self-enlightening necessity of nestling into four-fold Sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") lay and monastic communities.

Chaitya (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "funeral mound, pedestal, pile") prayer halls and vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") monasteries offered Sangha-enlightening Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures.

Resident monks and seasonal artisans, merchants and monks, while peregrinating pradakshina (from Sanskrit प्रदक्षिण, "to the right turning") aisles, pondered Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures.

Resident and seasonal laymen and monks, and perhaps laywomen and nuns in feminine-influenced Ajanta cave 2, queued up on stone-carved vihara monastery beds for sitting meditations. Nothing apart feminine-figured Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures reveals whether Sangha nuns and laywomen realized present-moment mindfulness, sitting meditations and walking meditations with male residents. Deer Park Monastery Mindfulness Sundays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time) serve Buddha's all-gender, four-fold Sangha.

Deer Park Monastery founder Thich Nhat Hanh tenders present-moment mindfulness, sitting meditations and walking meditations true to Buddhist tenets behind Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures.

coast horned lizard (Phrynosoma coronatum), also known as coast horny toad or coast horntoad, at Deer Park Monastery, Escondido, California: Deer Park Monastery @deerparkmonastery, via Facebook April 15, 2014

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Deer Park Monastery's main meditation hall (center) and dining hall (center right); Escondido, San Diego County's North County region, southwestern California; Thursday, Sep. 21, 2006, 12:01:56: miheco (michael), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deer_Park_Monastery_6.jpg; miheco, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/miheco/250195165/

coast horned lizard (Phrynosoma coronatum), also known as coast horny toad or coast horntoad, at Deer Park Monastery, Escondido, San Diego County's North County region, southwestern California: Deer Park Monastery @deerparkmonastery, via Facebook April 15, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/deerparkmonastery/photos/a.10151994509156689/10151994509691689/

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