FEATURE 104 ~ Touching The Earth ~ The Ritual

Photo by Vidyavajra

It's amazing how things progress. The first meeting to discuss possible themes for Windhorse's Celebration of the Buddha's Enlightenment was just before Christmas in 2011. Most of the specific ideas we came up with in that meeting, didn't make it into the finished thing. The underlying intention, to focus on the necessity of determination in practice in order to reach Enlightenment, did,however, remain intact. Five months later, after a lot of development, it happened, and now its over for another year. What had filled up all my mental and physical space, has now gone. So now what do I do ~ apart from think about next year!

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Vidyavajra

The broad theme of Touching the Earth, ended up being explored through the 6 Perfections ~ Generosity, Ethics, Forbearance, Energy, Meditation,Wisdom. These were exemplified by six folk tales about the Buddha's previous lives from the Jataka Stories, which were traditionally associated with the attainment of these perfections. These stories and the centrality of the Earth Goddess Dridha became the major motifs of the ritual that unfolded. There was a lot of earth, and elements, plus colour, noise and reflection. The day was quite multifacted, with a video, a procession, a visualisation and a puja. Here are a selection of photos to give you a bit of the flavour.

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Shakyakumara

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Vidyavajra

Photo by Shakyakumara