November 27, 2013

November 27, 2013

   Click on photos to bring up in full screen.

     A short special post -

    I have had several requests for images of the three sculptures in the Metropolitan Museun of Art in NYC that have special meaning for me. I wake up to the following photographs every morning thanks to the relaxed rules about taking pictures in the Museum. These are mine and to some degree they begin to come close to what I experience when they are directly in front of me in New York. 

   Here is my note from earlier this week on the sculptures that I dearly love:

     "There are several sculptures that have a particular spiritual significence for me, The Madona and Child by Claus deWerve -  c. 1439, one of the great reliefs in my opinion which is The Virgin and Child by Mino daFiesole - c. 1466, and The Bodhisattva Guan Yin from the late 10th. century. These are definate stops where I spend a good amount of time with each sculpture not just to refresh my memory but to stop and receive a sense of renewal from the prayers imbedded in these works as they are from monastaries where they were venerated for many hundreds of years before somehow winding up in this museum. They inspired countless numbers of people over the years and I sense their presence still palpable in these Sacred objects. Essentially I see them not as art objects but as symbols that have the power to evoke a closer relationship with God whose Creative desires have been placed in the hands of those who create for the rest of us something of Real Substance, a tangable connection to God's Very Self."

   I offer the images I have tea with every morning -

The Madona and Child by Claus deWerve -  c. 1439

 The Virgin and Child is by Mino daFiesole - c. 1466

The Bodhisattva Guan Yin from the late 10th. Century, China.

    Guan Yin or Avalokitesvara in Tibet and parts of China is one of the most highly regarded "Saints" in Buddhism. 'Saint' is a rather loose term to define Bodihisattva, as they are "Awakened" individuals, usually dead, who chose to be helpers to those who are still on the Path to Enlightenment by their available presence to those who seek them.

       (Japanese, Kannon, Kanzeon; Chinese –Guan Yin or Kuan Yin or Guanshiyin; Tibetan, Spyan-ras-gzigs; Vietnamese, Quan-am)

   Among the Bodhisattvas, it is Avalokitesvara who has the largest number of forms and is perhaps the most venerated and most popular Buddhist deity. His sex, originally masculine, is sometimes considered feminine in China and Japan, although this discrimination is unsupported by any canonical text. And was often considered in China and Japan as the 'mother of the human race' and, in this respect, worshipped in the form of a woman.

   

Peace until next week,

                    

                            Bill Lagerstrom