Connection Within Mandala

It goes without saying that I learned so much in Religious Studies 101. I was introduced to multiple world religions that were foreign to me prior to taking the class. I never felt the need to explore any other religion besides Christianity because I was content with my faith. However, after learning about different religions and interacting with people that are not Christian, and grew up with different beliefs and values, I now find myself questioning reconsidering my beliefs. By being exposed to the rituals and ideas of cultures and religions across the globe, I find myself wondering what it would be like to follow some of these principles or to try some of these practices for myself. I find myself trying to follow the moral guidelines and principles of the traditions I learn about all the time. It has helped me ask even more questions and broadened my horizons. It 's helping me shape my beliefs and find out who I want to become. I was especially fascinated with Buddhism and have grown a huge admiration for it. In my learning portfolio I will examine what I learned about Buddhism and what about it is so appealing to me. I will also briefly summarize that I learned that Buddhism – just like any other religions, is not flawless and cannot provide a perfect view of life that would be influential enough for me to devote my faith to it. However, there are certain

This work is a 33-foot-long, 10-panel painting which features an assortment of cartoon -like Buddhist figures. This piece is incredibly detailed and holds a lot of information within its imagery. Arhats are considered to be Buddha’s devotees, so this work relates more to religious themes. The theme of multi-coloured acrylic carries on into this work with rainbow eyes, tongues and more. The title “100 Arhats” states exactly how many arhats are present in this piece – one hundred – believe me, I counted. The Arhats vary in size and type, some being more humanoid than others which appear to be more akin to animalistic creatures, the piece is also accompanied by figures that may not be arhats, and instead are dragon or feline-like creatures. Each figure, however, relates to one another in that all have somewhat gruesome facial expressions, frowning and wrinkled, some even with an array of

Descent of Amida and the Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas is a hanging scroll from the Kamakura period in 13th century demonstrating Amida Buddha and 25 bodhisattvas swiftly descending over the mountains into a village. The artist used real gold paint and small slivers of gold to create patterns to add radiance to the people descending from the mountain. That usage of gold in art work is known as Kirikane and it is one of the great achievements of early Japanese Buddhist. The gold really stands out from the rest of the landscape because it is all dark colors. The symbolic meaning of this hanging scroll is that Amida would come down from the heavens to the home of a dying person in hopes of having their soul escorted into paradise. I like this painting

I chose a piece titled Camisa Bicicleta, which was created in Argentine by an artist named Mart. This artwork is an obvious choice for its distinctive sketch-like lines. With just an ink pen and paper, this piece was composed by a collage of lines detailed with many different sized objects that help form the drawing as a whole. The background of the drawing is very simple. The moon was drawn by two, thin curved lines, and the stars drawn by a diagonal line with short lines through the middle creating an ex representing the stars. The background is split between, what is assumed to be land and sky, by a long, thick rigid line. Below the thick rigid line, the representation of land is made by mark making. Mart used repetitive lines to build texture

The major Eastern religious traditions have had a shaping effect on their societies in how they look at the world and the “hope” they offer their followers. Their traditions and beliefs are different than in the west. The four major religious traditions in the East are all older than western religions. Each religious tradition can be examined for common concepts and differences. Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism have several common concepts and several differences in: their worldviews, their views on the nature of reality as a whole, the nature of persons, the perspectives on the “human dilemma,” human spiritual goals, the significance of moral values and the hope each offers its followers for their lives.

Mỹ Sơn is a temple complex located in central Vietnam consisting of over 70 Hindu temples constructed between the 4th to 14th century by the kings of Champa. The temples were built to worship the god Shiva that symbolizes the father/male realm. According to the Brhat Samhita scriptures of Hinduism, “The gods always play where groves are near, rivers, mountains and springs and in towns with pleasure gardens.” Hence, Mỹ Sơn was erected within several closed valleys that provide the watershed of the sacred Thu Bồn River. Only at Mỹ Sơn, the topography of the site’s narrow valley was used to symbolize a mandala. The spring of flowing sacred water symbolized the Goddess Ganga, wife of God Shiva, where rituals and sacrifices were performed. The river not only serves its religious

When I thought more about it, I compared it to how we see our lives. Since we spend majority of our night time sleeping and not experiencing it, we seem to think it is much “smaller” than our time during the day. Hence why the cool “night” canvas was much smaller than the orange “daylight” canvas. The texture embedded in both canvases almost hypnotized me to actually reach out stroke the abrasions in the art piece. The layers and the gashes made me compare it to how a human is built both physically and internally. We all have layers that are both visible and hidden underneath other layers. Therefore I believe that this art piece has a narrative to tell, describing how individuals spend most of their lives and who they really

When following the instructions to make a Mandala, it was fascinating because you must start with a middle point from nothing to create something that is beautiful in the circular in a pattern of the sequence. From the source to finished I found myself in what I use to do years ago in the imagination of creating. I could see the images of patterns as I move forward in designing. Creating this Mandala gave me the opportunity and the time to myself to visualize the beautiful details that came by being creative. Imagination is what I was able to do when I use to do banners, floral arrangements and other things that I loved to do. A chance to capture the gift that God has given me was awesome and essential for me to

The throat chakra is arguably the most vulnerable of the chakras. It is easily susceptible to damage from external influences. This chakra is positioned at the cusp of the physical body, and channels enormous amounts of mental energy. The throat chakra is responsible for providing a voice to our experiences, thoughts, and emotions. I attempted to demonstrate the chakra’s emphasis on communication and creativity in this collage. Instead of implementing a full-bodied silhouette, I constrained the imagery to a figure of a head. Within this figure is the representation of a light-bulb exploding into color. The light-bulb is a universal symbol for ideas and innovation. I attempted to connect the bottom of the light-bulb to the location of the throat

A mandala is a thing that represents a cultural symbols. “Depending on the tradition it belongs to, inside the palace the mandala has symbols associated with different deities or cultural symbols such as a thunderbolt.” The mandala symbols depends on the tradition it depends on. The mandala represents different thing but one thing that it can represent is wholeness. “It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself” The mandala represents many different things.

The particular design I chose to color stood our from the rest of the mandalas to chose from because of its simplicity. The design of the mandala itself is plain and simple just like myself. I didn't chose it because it represented something spirtually or religious, I chose it because it signified myself in wholeness. In ancient Tibet, as part of a spiritual practice, monks created intricate mandalas with colored sand made of crushed semiprecious stones. ("What is a Mandala?" 2). Instead of it representing complexity, I wanted a easy design. The design of the jagged edges represents the toughness in myself. It shows that I'm a little rough on the edges and can stand up for myself. Within the middle the flower like middle shows that I am sweet and caring. The bubble looking circles reminds me of my personailty, bubbly but could also burst

A world-weary male character alienated from society and involves in crime. Deeply hurt once and desperately hope to have a change in life and a brighter future; letting go of the past. However, no one is providing a chance for him, and he could be any of us that have made a mistake once. Mandala symbolizes the view of society. Often we pretend to accept people that have a past and turned over a new leaf, but we never truly trusted they are a good person now from the bottom of our heart.

The first symbol illustrated on my mandala is a cross. My faith is the most important part of my daily life. I

I have never had much knowledge on any other religions or ideals other than Christianity because that is how I was raised. The extent of my knowledge of Buddhism was that of the “figurines” that they seemed to worship. Even that knowledge is not completely accurate. Being exposed to an Eastern Psychology class has and will be beneficial to develop my view of the world and the people in it. From the knowledge I have obtained so far from this class and article, I will discuss some of the more major ideas presented.

When I took this course I never imagined how involve I would actually get. As a non-religious individual I have a different perspective when learning the beautiful religious traditions of other communities and cultures worldwide. After touching upon Hinduism in class, I decided I wanted educate myself more on the community, traditions, and believes. From the beginning I knew I wanted to research and attend a Hindu Temple for my site visit. I had plenty of questions and much more to learn. I was fascinated by the Hindu believe system: How there is hundreds of deities, yet god is only one, how Hinduism has no founder it just became, how god is transcendent, yet ultimate. It can become very difficult to wrap your head around most Hindu