I originally painted the Buddha Mandala by the kitchen for a Centre fundraiser. In the end, they weren’t sold and got tucked away. I was asking what was going to happen to them, and then one day I came down to the Centre, and they were on the wall! But, there were originally only four, intended to be sold off individually. So, seeing them up on the wall together inspired me to paint the middle one so that it was complete.
When I was attending the old Centre at the very beginning of becoming involved with Triratna
I came across some very old tapes in a box. They were recordings of Bante’s talks. I used to walk to work. It would take me 3/4 of an hour and usually I would listen to music. I started taking these tapes to listen to on my walk to work.
One particular talk he’d given blew my head away, so much so that I listen to it time and time again and it cleared up a niggling thing about Buddhism I wasn’t comfortable with. Coming from a catholic background I wasn’t comfortable with all these various daieties, all these various Buddhas I was being told about. it felt like I was replacing one God with a whole pile of other little gods . After Listening to Bante so beautifully explain what the various Buddhas of the mandala represented i.e. – different aspects of Enlightenment a lightbulb went on in my head. The talk gave me understanding. I listened to it so much that I could almost join in the dialogue. Some time later I gave a talk at the Centre on the mandala and its meaning to a group of people I was supporting at the time. Bante’s talk was about the mandala of the 5 Buddhas. It’s on Free B Audio from 1967 ‘The mandala: tantric symbol of integration part of aspects of Buddhist psychology.
Next month – ‘The Wheel of Life’
