Buddha's Joyful Garden designed by Garchen Rinpoche (October 15, 2022)
2022-11-30
Download high resolution images
➠ Version 1
➠ Version 2
---
Buddha's Joyful Garden is a piece of artwork designed by His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche. All objects and elements in the artwork were prepared and arranged by Garchen Rinpoche himself.
The frame of the work is a round wooden box specially made by the carpenter Samba. It has a transparent acrylic cover which attaches to the box with magnets. The rim of the cover is painted with gold color.
In the wooden box, there are three layers. In the bottom layer, there are aquatic organisms, as well as groves and flowers.
In the middle layer, there are lovely monks performing pujas and making musical offerings with a variety of instruments such as cymbals, drums, gyalings, conches, and the Tibetan horns (dungchen). On both sides of the middle layer, Rinpoche places the mini vases, from an old disciple, Judy, and puts artificial flowers he bought by himself. The flowers extend from the middle layer to the top layer.
In the middle of the top layer is a statue of Buddha Shakyamuni. It was made by Khenpo Gawang and offered to Garchen Rinpoche. The statue was filled with Tripitaka and consecrated. The two monks standing on the two sides of Buddha Shakyamuni represent his two major disciples. Other monks in the back are doing different activities; some are turning prayer wheels, and some are making phone calls. They symbolize that the noble beings benefit sentient beings in different ways in the world. The various animals in the artwork such as the dog, sheep, elephant, cow, pig etc. represent sentient beings in the six realms.
Garchen Rinpoche named this artwork “Buddha's Joyful Garden”, which implies that all sentient beings are happy. Rinpoche explains: In India, some temples offer free food for those in need. People who receive the food all enjoy the food happily. That is called Joyful Garden. Some Tibetans name their hostels Joyful Garden in the hope that whoever comes to the hostel will be happy with eating, resting, singing, and dancing.
The Buddha Shakyamuni statue in the middle was filled with Tripitaka, so it is complete with Buddha’s body (statue), speech (Buddhist canon) and mind (Dharmakaya is pervasive like space, and emptiness pervades everything) Therefore, Buddha's Joyful Garden is complete with Buddha’s body, speech, and mind.
The two background photos used are the landscape of Garchen Buddhist Institute. They were taken in the summer this year (2022). Since there was plenty of rain in the summer, the landscape was filled with greenery.
Buddha's Joyful Garden was set up in Garchen Rinpoche’s new room next to the new gathering hall on October 15, 2022, which was an auspicious day (འགྲུབ་སྦྱོར།)* in the Tibetan calendar. The next day was Lhabab Duchen (if not counting the extra month in Tibetan calendar and counting only with summer and winter solstices.) Therefore,
Treasure of Blessings - A Practice of Buddha Shakyamuni ritual was practiced.
Garchen Rinpoche said: because sentient beings don’t know that Buddha and Dharmakaya is pervasive like space, in order to let sentient beings generate faith and devotion, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya are necessary, since they are perceivable. This is like extracting butter from milk. For this purpose, I designed and made this Buddha’s Joyful Garden. If you think of Buddha, Buddha will indeed come to you at once. This is explained in Mipham Rinpoche’s text Treasure of Blessings - A Practice of Buddha Shakyamuni .
---
*Note. འགྲུབ་སྦྱོར། means “intersect”: The seven luminaries (sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Juniper, Venus, Saturn) intersect with the seven Mansions. Sun intersects with Chariot. Moon intersets with Ox. Mars intersects with Bond. Mercury intersects with Room. Juniper intersects with Ghost. Venus intersects with Legs. Saturn intersescts with Net. When this happens, astrologists say the day is auspicious.
---
ℹ️ More Sacred Items Designed by Garchen Rinpoche
May all beings benefit.
Garchen Dharma Institute (Taiwan)
garchen.tw/English
News 
