Topic: Holy Men & Women, and the Beings Who Visit Them

[Jahn]

ok

i thought maybe they have common purposes it seems enlightenment is a varied and wide term

Answer 1:

A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master: `Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?'
Joshu answered: `Mu.' [Mu is the negative symbol in Chinese, meaning `No-thing' or `Nay'.]

Mumon's comment:s To realize Zen one has to pass through the barrier of the patriachs. Enlightenment always comes after the road of thinking is blocked. If you do not pass the barrier of the patriachs or if your thinking road is not blocked, whatever you think, whatever you do, is like a tangling ghost. You may ask: What is a barrier of a patriach? This one word, Mu, is it.

This is the barrier of Zen. If you pass through it you will see Joshu face to face. Then you can work hand in hand with the whole line of patriachs. Is this not a pleasant thing to do?

If you want to pass this barrier, you must work through every bone in your body, through ever pore in your skin, filled with this question: What is Mu? and carry it day and night. Do not believe it is the common negative symbol meaning nothing. It is not nothingness, the opposite of existence. If you really want to pass this barrier, you should feel like drinking a hot iron ball that you can neither swallor nor spit out.

Then your previous lesser knowledge disappears. As a fruit ripening in season, your subjectivity and objectivity naturally become one. It is like a dumb man who has had a dream. He knows about it but cannot tell it.

When he enters this condition his ego-shell is crushed and he can shake the heaven and move the earth. He is like a great warrior with a sharp sword. If a Buddha stands in his way, he will cut him down; if a patriach offers him any obstacle, he will kill him; and he will be free in this way of birth and death. He can enter any world as if it were his own playground. I will tell you how to do this with this koan:

Just concentrate your whole energy into this Mu, and do not allow any discontinuation. When you enter this Mu and there is no discontinuation, your attainment will be as a candle burning and illuminating the whole universe.



 Has a dog Buddha-nature?
 This is the most serious question of all.
 If you say yes or no,
 You lose your own Buddha-nature.


Answer 2:

31.  Everything is Best 
  When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer.   
 'Give me the best piece of meat you have,' said the customer.   
'Everything in my shop is the best,' replied me butcher. "You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best.'   
 At these words Banzan became enlightened.   

[runningstream]

  thanks Jahn

[Jahn]

thanks Jahn

Your welcome,
the answers says something about enlightment, and how it can come in different forms - but the answers (quotes) are not my own feathers, though I have chosen them because they are in line with my own energy. I am a raven, a blue raven.

[Nichi]

A dervish of the Qalandari order with a pet sheep, by Mukund, Mughal, circa 1585-95,
on paper, inscribed with a Persian couplet in nasta’liq script in a very fine hand on border above; and below: 'in raqm az Mukund naqqash ast' ['This drawing is by Mukund Naqqash' (the painter)]. 

Per Sotheby's: This is an exquisitely delicate drawing of a Sufi of the Qalandari order by Mukund. The drawing itself, dating to circa 1585-95, would no doubt have been made under the patronage of Emperor Akbar, who showed a keen interest in spiritual concerns throughout his life, hence his instructions to artists that they should record the appearance of the Hindu wandering ascetics, of which many depictions exist from this period. But the distinctive borders indicate that it was included in an important album known as the Salim Album assembled by Prince Salim (the future emperor Jahangir) during the years 1600-04, when he set up his own court at Allahabad. From the surviving pages it is clear that the album (almost certainly dispersed by the French dealer Demotte in the early twentieth century) contained a strong theme of religious figures - among the subjects of the portraits were Sufis, such as the present example, Muslim scholars and mullahs, Kanphata yogis, a Jain monk, Christian saints and the Madonna and Child, as well as more standard images of noblemen and courtiers. For a full discussion of the album and listing of the pages (which, however, does not include the present example), see Wright 2008, pp.55-67, 456-458; see also Leach 1995, vol.1, pp.300-307, where the present work is twice referred to. Wright has pointed out that the Salim Album is unusual for the frequent relation between the images and the panels of text (Wright 2008, p.61). In this case the lower panel of nasta'liq text is the signature by the artist Mukund (in raqm az Mukund naqqash ast). The upper panel contains a couplet, in the same hand as the lower one (i.e. possibly that of Mukund himself), that translates roughly as follows:

"Thousands of points can be much finer than a strand of hair
A shaven head does not signify knowledge of Qalandar spirituality".

The sense of the couplet, that becoming a Sufi of the Qalandar order is no easy thing, is clearly pertinent to the image, which depicts a devotee of that Sufi order.

Mukund was one of the few artists chosen by Abu'l Fazl for special mention in the A'in-i Akbari as having "attained fame" (translated by Blochmann 1873 (reprint 1989), vol.I, p.114). Among other manuscripts, he worked on the Jaipur Razmnama, the Jaipur Ramayana and the Victoria and Albert Museum Akbarnama. It is likely that he also worked on the Hamzanama. Leach writes of the present miniature: "The painter apparently thought well of himself since he justifiably signed a small drawing of a yogi as 'Mukund, the Master'. This drawing, his poetry pages and others indicate that Mukund was a sensitive painter interested in precision and minute detail rather than bold effects."

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/sven-gahlin-collection-l15224/lot.8.html

[Nichi]

A Nath Yogi with Two White Dogs. Album folio. Date c. 1600. South Asia, India, Mughal period.

Per Harvard Art Museum: The man represented here has attributes of a Nath yogi. As is customary for members of this group, he wears large, round earrings, a black sacred thread (janeo) with a small horn pendant, and a coral-or salmon-colored robe. His face and hands are covered with ashes, and he possesses a begging bowl and a crutch (acal) for supporting his chin or arm during meditation. Accompanied by two white dogs, he is shown sitting in an outdoor landscape, hugging his legs and looking at one of the animals. The dogs frolic around him, their playfulness enlivening the otherwise meditative composition.
The painting is executed with extremely delicate brushwork (best seen under magnification) that conveys the artist’s visualsensitivity: textures and facial features are rendered with fine lines and subtle hues, and minute details are articulated with great precision.

This page was part of a now-dispersed album of painting and calligraphy. Known as the Salim Album, it was made for Prince Salim, the future Mughal emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27), at a time when he was in rebellion against his father, Akbar (r. 1556–1605). Several paintings from the album illustrate non-Islamic religious subjects that were of interest to both Akbar and Jahangir; some also represent known figures at the Mughal court. The particular features of this yogi—his round face, full cheeks, small nose, thin lips, and slanted eyes—may be seen as an attempt to render him in a personalized manner even if the artist was not intending to portray a specific individual.

The painting is bordered above and below by couplets of Persian poetry that refer to the poet-lover who, separated from his beloved, has become an ascetic. A similarly composed page depicting a Nath yogi with a single dog has also been identified as having belonged to the Salim Album. Considering their related subject matter, composition, setting, and poetic inscriptions, one can surmise that the two pages faced each other in the album.

Mika M. Natif

[1] The order of yogis is called Nath Sampradaya, or sometimes Kanphata (split-eared) or Gorakhnath: see White 1996, 7–9.
[2] Such earrings identify members of the Nath order. During the initiation ceremony, the master, or guru, cuts the initiate’s earlobes; the large earrings are inserted later. Briggs 1973, 1–2, 6–7.

http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/165804

[Nichi]

Two women and a small child visiting a yogi and yogini at night, Provincial Mughal, India, late 18th century.

Enlarged view in the attachment and here: http://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L09/L09721/L09721-39-lr-1.jpg

[Nichi]

I'll say one thing, with my paltry grip on India's history: Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan were all responsible for the production of some beautiful art.

[Michael]

Book I'm reading presently said that for all their faults the Muslims beautified India. He nonetheless thinks it was a lot of over-indulgent ornamentation that wasted huge amounts of wealth.

[Nichi]

He nonetheless thinks it was a lot of over-indulgent ornamentation that wasted huge amounts of wealth.

That's sort of an age-old criticism about the arts, n'est-ce pas?

[Nichi]

"A Holy Man, Master of Animals, Punjab Hills, Basohli, ca. 1675." Master of animals, bull-necked, his baton conducts the tiger's stripes and panther's spots; while the buck and doe look round and up, and nudge, and sweeten the air - and his red chappals. Distant "echo" of Rustam's tiger stripes in tigers - Stuart Cary Welch

Attachment for best view.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/c-welch-part-ii-l11228/lot.55.html

[Nichi]

A Wandering Sadhu. Display Artist: Chajju Lal. Creation Date: ca. 1900. Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, The San Diego Museum of Art

[Nichi]

Five Holy Men, attributable to Govardhan, India, Mughal, circa 1625-30, A leaf from the St. Petersburg Album, Borders signed by Muhammed Hadi, dated 1172 AH/1758-9 AD. (Sotheby's)



When Sotheby's says "attributable to...", they mean that they're not sure. It could be a reproduction. But, original or not, the artistry in this painting is quite fine.

[Nichi]

Yogini with Mynah

Surrounded by surreally surging hillocks and hugely blooming flowers, a yogini stands quite still, almost spellbound, though her gold sashes furl and the delicate tendrils of hair around her tilted head quiver. Impossibly elongated, she has the ash-covered skin and the dreadlock (jata) topknot of female ascetics associated with the deity Shiva. The visionary painting was created at the Islamic court of Bijapur, where yoginis were understood as agents of supernatural power.

Yogini with Mynah
India, Karnataka, Bijapur
ca. 1603–4
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin In 11a.31

~Freer and Sackler

http://www.asia.si.edu/explore/yoga/object.asp?id=T0002527b


There are many versions of the above painting.
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId={8951577E-FB8D-4B46-92DE-C4F08364DF96}&oid=458033&pkgids=296&pg=3&rpp=20&pos=51&ft=*

[Nichi]

Dervish Leading a Bear, Folio from the Shah Jahan Album. Date: recto: early 19th century; verso: later copy of 16th century original. India, Islamic.

Stunning view here: http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/is/original/DP247742.jpg

[Nichi]

"Devgandhar Ragini. Bikaner, circa early 18th century. In poetic descriptions of this ragini the figure is a lovelorn woman who in the belief it would bring about the return of her husband practiced severe austerities for so long that the gods turned her into an ascetic complete with dreadlocked hair and ash-smeared body. In pictorial representations this figure is sometimes seen with a semblance of womanhood but more often - as here - is shown as a male with long, unkempt beard." ~Peter Blohm   http://www.indianminiaturepaintings.co.uk/Bikaner_Devgandhar-Ragini_000582.html

(A woman transformed into a man!)