Friday, June 14, 2019

Indra's Net Affects Thich Nhat Hanh, Phap Van and Ajanta Cave 2


Summary: Indra's net of Interbeing allies Phap Van of founder Thich Nhat Hanh in Vietnam and Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in Ajanta cave 2 in India.


Sister Chan Khong was one of the members of Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh's School of Youth for Social Services and one of the first six members of his Order of Interbeing: Plum Village @plumvillage, via Facebook April 11, 2017

Indra's net of Interbeing aligns feminine aspects in Phap Van Temple of founder Thich Nhat Hanh in Vietnam and in Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures in Ajanta cave 2 in India.
Indra, Hindu mythological king of the celestials and storm god, built our world like a house with four corner-posts and walls, two doors and one roof. The guardian of the East and regulator of the atmosphere confined his constructed world within a net of infinite connections to infinite jewels with infinite facets. One and all connections draw to, through and from one and all jewels where one facet displays all that jewel's and all jewels' facets and vice-versa.
Thich Nhat Hanh, founder of nine Plum Village Tradition mindfulness meditation practice and training centers, explains Indra's net as interactive, interconnected Interbeing in the journal Resurgence.

The article in Resurgence's Exposing Consciousness issue finds, "In Indra's net, the one is present in the all, and the all is present in the one."
Ajanta cave 2, as second enshrined Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures from the east, upper-end entrance, gets as jeweled connections Buddhist devotional, instructional, meditational images. Chua Phap Van (Cloud Dharma Temple) in the former Vietnamese city of Saigon at present-day Ho Chi Minh City had jeweled connections  in Buddhist social services. Ajanta cave 2 illustrates 549 bodhisattva (from Sanskrit बोधिसत्त्व, "enlightened existence") reincarnations whose 550th introduces Siddhartha Gautama (from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful" and गोतम, "brightness [dispels] darkness").
Vietnamese Buddhists from central highlands Vietnam once journeyed to Indra's net at Phap Van Temple's School of Youth for Social Service of founder Thich Nhat Hanh.

"verandah of vihara no. 2"; drawn on stone by English watercolorist T.C. (Thomas Colman) Dibdin (Oct. 22, 1810-Dec. 26, 1893), from sketch by Scottish architectural historian James Fergusson (Jan. 22, 1808-Jan. 9, 1886); J. Fergusson’s Illustrations of the Rock-Cut Temples of India (1845): Not in copyright, via Internet Archive

Ajanta cave 2 keeps Sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") laity and monastics knowledgeable through Gautama Buddha jataka (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened" and जातक, "born under") tales.
Phap Van School trainees and trainers learned Siddhartha Gautama Buddha's (624?-544 BCE?) legacy of logging interactive, interconnected understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. Indra's net of interactive, interconnected Interbeing at Ajanta cave 2 manifests chaitya pradakshina (from Sanskrit चैत्य, "memorial monument" and प्रदक्षिण, "to the right turning") prayer-hall aisles. The 117.13- by 70.87-foot (35.7- by 21.6-meter) vihara (from Sanskrit विहार, "walking [hall]") nets a chaitya-like sanctum sanctōrum (Latin, from Hebrew קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים, "holy of holies").
Ajanta cave 2 wall paintings and sculptures offer stone-sculpted Gautama Buddha, compassionate Padmapani (from Sanskrit पद्मपाणि, "lotus holder") and powerful Vajrapani (from Sanskrit वज्रपाणि, "lightning holder").

Ajanta cave 2 presents Koliyan Queen Mahamaya dreaming of the six-tusked elephant that predicted her son Siddhartha Gautama's birth under Lumbini Park's sala (Shorea robusta) tree.
Hariti, goddess of easy childbirths and safe child-raising, queues up with Panchika and one of their 500 children among Ajanta cave 2 wall paintings and sculptures. Perhaps a woman respected by Vakataka Emperor Harishena (died 477) rendered financial backing for female-friendly, painted, sculpted Ajanta cave 2 during the latter's last two years. Indra's net of interactive, interconnected Interbeing suggests similar sympathies at Vietnamese Buddhist cloud goddess's namesake temple-school of founder Thich Nhat Hanh, supporter of Sangha female members.
Indra's net of interactive, interconnected Interbeing transmitted 1,525-plus-year-old lay-, monk-, nun-friendly concerns to Chua Phap Van School of Youth for Social Service in 1964 and vice-versa.

(left) Hariti, mother goddess and protector of children, with child on her left knee, and (right) Hariti's consort, Buddhist god of wealth and yaksha (nature spirit) Panchika, also known as Atavaka; right side chapel, rear of hall, Cave 2; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India: Michael Gunther, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

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

Image credits:
Sister Chan Khong was one of the members of Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh's School of Youth for Social Services and one of the first six members of his Order of Interbeing: Plum Village @plumvillage, via Facebook April 11, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/plumvillage/photos/a.1311916868896299/1311963368891649/
"verandah of vihara no. 2"; drawn on stone by English watercolorist T.C. (Thomas Colman) Dibdin (Oct. 22, 1810-Dec. 26, 1893), from sketch by Scottish architectural historian James Fergusson (Jan. 22, 1808-Jan. 9, 1886); J. Fergusson’s Illustrations of the Rock-Cut Temples of India (1845): Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008543106/page/n28
(left) Hariti, mother goddess and protector of children, with child on her left knee, and (right) Hariti's consort, Buddhist god of wealth and yaksha (nature spirit) Panchika, also known as Atavaka; right side chapel, rear of hall, Cave 2; Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, central-west India: Michael Gunther, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_si01-0365.jpg

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