Prayer Walls

Prayer walls are made of many stones of shapes and sizes engraved with Buddhist prayers.   

Some prayer walls extend for more than a hundred yards and added to the walls are Buddhist Prayer Flags.  

In respect to Buddhist ritual, these walls are passed on the left.

Seven Valleys

From Seven Valleys – Haft-Vádí (1860)

"In the ocean he findeth a drop, in a drop he beholdeth the secrets of the sea."

"Split the atom’s heart, and lo! Within it thou wilt find a sun."

From the Wikipedia entry on Seven Valleys – Haft-Vádí (1860)

the path of the soul on a spiritual journey passing through different stages, from this world to other realms which are closer to God, as first described by the 12th Century Sufi poet Attar in his Conference of the Birds. Bahá’u'lláh in the work explains the meanings and the significance of the seven stages.

In the introduction, Bahá’u'lláh says “Some have called these Seven Valleys, and others, Seven Cities.”

The stages are accomplished in order, and the goal of the journey is to follow “the Right Path”, “abandon the drop of life and come to the sea of the Life-Bestower”, and “gaze on the Beloved”.

The Hoopoe

The poetic text of 'Attar’s Mantiq al‑Tair comprises a series of parables narrated by the hoopoe, who leads a gathering of birds on a difficult journey to find the mythic Simurgh. Perhaps the best‑known image from the manuscript, this folio illustrates the small, crested hoopoe bird addressing his companions before their departure. This charming painting is one of four added to the original manuscript in the early seventeenth century at the court of Shah 'Abbas (r. 1587–1629), and is signed by the painter Habiballah.

"The Concourse of the Birds", Folio from a Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds)

Painting by Habiballah of Sava  (active ca. 1590–1610)

The Concourse of the Birds painted by Habib Allah. The hoopoe, center right, instructs the other birds on the Sufi path.


  Hoopoe

The Conference of the Birds (Persian: منطق الطیر‎, Mantiqu 't-Tayr, 1177) is a book of poems in Persian by Farid ud-Din Attar of approximately 4500 lines.

In the poem, the birds of the world gather to decide who is to be their king, as they have none. The hoopoe, the wisest of them all, suggests that they should find the legendary Simorgh, a mythical Persian bird roughly equivalent to the western Phoenix. 
 
The hoopoe leads the birds, each of whom represent a human fault which prevents man from attaining enlightenment. When the group of thirty birds finally reach the dwelling place of the Simorgh, all they find is a lake in which they see their own reflection.

Besides being one of the most celebrated examples of Persian poetry, this book relies on a clever word play between the words Simorgh – a mysterious bird in Iranian mythology which is a symbol often found in sufi literature, and similar to the Phoenix bird – and "si morgh" – meaning "thirty birds" in Persian.

It was in China, late one moonless night,

The Simorgh first appeared to mortal sight –

He let a feather float down through the air,

And rumours of its fame spread everywhere; ^[1]

Its most famous section is:

Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,

And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:

Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide

Return and back into your Sun subside

The story recounts the longing of a group of birds who desire to know the great Simorgh, and who, under the guidance of a leader bird, start their journey toward the land of Simorgh. 
One by one, they drop out of the journey, each offering an excuse and unable to endure the journey. 

Each bird has a special significance, and a corresponding didactic fault. The guiding bird is the hoopoe, while the nightingale symbolizes the lover. The parrot is seeking the fountain of immortality, not God and the peacock symbolizes the "fallen soul" who is in alliance with Satan.

The birds must cross seven valleys in order to find the Simorgh: Talab (Yearning), Eshq (Love), Marifat (Gnosis), Istighnah (Detachment), Tawheed (Unity of God), Hayrat (Bewilderment) and, finally, Fuqur and Fana (Selflessness and Oblivion in God). 

These represent the stations that a Sufi or any individual must pass through to realize the true nature of God.

Within the larger context of the story of the journey of the birds, Attar masterfully tells the reader many didactic short, sweet stories in captivating poetic style. 

Eventually only thirty birds remain as they finally arrive in the land of Simorgh – all they see there are each other and the reflection of the thirty birds in a lake – not the mythical Simorgh. 

It is the Sufi doctrine that God is not external or separate from the universe, rather is the totality of existence. 

The thirty birds seeking the Simorgh realise that Simorgh is nothing more than their transcendent totality. 

The idea of God within is an idea intrinsic to most interpretations of Sufism. 

As the birds realize the truth, they now reach the station of Baqa (Subsistence) which sits atop the Mountain Qaf.



For more information go to:
 http://sufibooks.info/Sufism/The_Conference_of_the_Birds_Fardiuddin_Attar.pdf


 

 This image of this painting by Habib Allah (c.1600) “The Concourse of the Birds” is available from the Wikimedia Commons. The original is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This is an illustration of the Persian mystic, Faridu’ud-Din Attar’s allegory (c.1100?) “The Conference of the Birds” which I believe is also called Mantiqu’t-Tayr Language of the Birds.

This work may have inspired   “Journey to the East” by
Herman Hesse.

It describes the seeker’s parallel journey to self-discovery, self-actualization, self-realization through the elusive search for God.
 

Siddhi Lakshmi Temple, Bkahtapur, Nepa

Traditional guardian figures flanking the steps of the Siddhi Lakshmi temple in Bkahtapur

Keith Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money? | Video on TED.com

Keith Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money? | Video on TED.com

Three Mystic Monkeys Netsuke

Antique Japanese Carved Okimono/Netsuke Figure
 http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Antique-Japanese-Carved-Okimono-Netsuke-Figure-/200908717593?pt=Asian_Antiques&hash=item2ec717be19

Hot Springs Monkeys

 










SOURCE:
2011 International Photography Award Winners - My Modern Metropolis
  2011 International Photography Award Winners - My Modern Metropolis http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/2011-international-photography-award-winners 

Quotes

"The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary."
- Thomas Edison

 

“Philosophy (nature) is written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes. I mean the universe, but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in the mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word of it, and without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.”

-- Galileo, The Sidereal Messenger (1610)

When one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature, then temples, mosques and churches become important.

-- Krishnamurti, Beginnings of Learning

Patience

It is hard! But what can not be removed, becomes lighter through patience.
-- Horace, Carmina, I. 24. 19.





Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.
-- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 710.

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper sprinkle cool patience. 

-- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Hamlet, Act III, sc. 4

 

 

Patience is the companion of wisdom. 

-- Saint Augustine (354 AD - 430 AD)

 

 

 

 

Patience

 

 

Patience is the companion of wisdom. 

-- Saint Augustine (354 AD - 430 AD)

There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness. 

-- Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924)

 

 

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent. 

- Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)

 

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.  
-- Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

 

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew. 

-- Saint Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622)

  

 

 

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper sprinkle cool patience. 

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Hamlet, Act III, sc. 4

 

 

 

 

 

 
Patience is the ballast of the soul, that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms: and he, that will venture out without this to make him sail even and steady will certainly make shipwreck, and drown himself; first, in the cares and sorrows of this world; and, then, in perdition.
- Ezekiel Hopkins,  Death disarmed of it Sting Of Patience under Afflictions.

 

 

 

 

 

Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.
-- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 710.

 

Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains.
- William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude In Reflections And Maxims (1682) no. 234.

 

 

 

Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, Stanza 9. 




All things come round to him who will but wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 
Tales of a Wayside Inn, The Student's Tale, Part I. 




It is not necessary for all men to be great in action. The greatest and sublimest power is often simple patience.
- Horace Bushnell, p. 443.



Patience is the ballast of the soul that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms.
- Bishop Hopkins, p. 442.


Dispose thyself to patience rather than to comfort, and to the bearing of the cross rather than to gladness.
- Thomas à Kempis, p. 442. 


How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
-- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act II, scene 3, line 376.



He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding.
- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida Act I, scene i.



Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
- Benjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming, Part IV, Chapter V.


It is hard! But what can not be removed, becomes lighter through patience.
- Horace, Carmina, I. 24. 19.


For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill.
- Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes, line 352.

 

Value Your Health - Body, Mind and Spirit

‎

"Health is the greatest possession.
Contentment is the greatest treasure.
Confidence is the greatest friend.
Non-being is the greatest joy."

                                                                          - Lao Tzu