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Ganesh
JohnMac
DrScotland Veteran
I have read that "Ganesh is a yidam in the Buddhist Tantric tradition and is believed to be of the lower Tantras and the emanation of Avalokiteshvara" could anyone add any information on how Ganesh is observed in the Tibetan tradition? I have acquired a rather lovely Ganesh statue and I wonder how best I might use it in my practice...
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Utterly off the point, perhaps ....
When I saw a statue of a many-armed Kuan Yin, I fell instantly in love. It was sitting in some oriental bric-a-brac shop window. I had to have it and, although it was outside what I had for a budget at the time, I finally bought it.
But then there was the question of what I was to do with it. No place around the apartment seemed fitting enough or venerating enough. I gave up and put it in front of the place where I generally did my at-home sitting. And I took to touching it as I passed by in the course of doing chores around the house. Just a slight touch ... nothing fancy. Then as well, I might touch it after I had completed sitting and bows in front of it. Again, it wasn't much of a muchness -- just a touch as if to say hello. We never did work out a ritual in any by-the-book sense.
Time passed and of course the heat of first love wore off. At first it dwindled into a fine friendship, a fine companion, a fellow traveler of some sort. In conversation, it might have been put as, "I'm going to run down to the store. Want to come?" And the answer came back, "Sure."
My friend still lives with me or I with him/her. We've grown old together, though his/her wear and tear is less noticeable than my own. When I wonder how we ever brought usefulness to each other, I really couldn't say. Maybe s/he taught me or I taught him/her ... but of course good friends don't worry quite so much about proprieties like that.
FWIW.
Like it.
I would be utterly surprised if that were the case, @JohnMac.
I first started meditating with an advaita vedanta group, whose leader had spent several years in India and was singularly in love with Ganesh.
I felt an instant affinity to Ganesh which lasts to this day.
When I was going through the contraction pains of birth, I visualised him during my breathing meditation.
He is supposed to represent wisdom and the overcoming of obstacles.
I have two images of his in my altar.
The other times in my life that I felt so smitten were with Green Tara and Kuan Yin, both related to Avalokiteshvara.
Elephant Power!
http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Ganesha
That's a scary picture! Good reference though!
As the remover of obstacles, it is a good way to remind myself to keep on the path no matter what happens.
Good grief @lobster, you can't 'arf find 'em!!
But - where's the mouse? Ganesha is never without his mouse....
Good grief @lobster, you can't 'arf find 'em!!
But - where's the mouse? Ganesha is never without his mouse....
This is how my mom's Hindu shrine, with Ganesh on top as well as in within the shrine as well.
I've been thinking about getting my own shrine as well, nothing as extravagant as my mom's, just a small wooden one.
Thanks for sharing the picture, lovely.
That's an amazing bit of furniture, @Guanyin ..! I take it, that it's purpose-made as a shrine? Wish we had stuff like that locally I could look at... Wonder if Amazon have anything in that line?
I'm serious - they're branching out in all directions, of late!
@federica thanks! Yup, it's made for just being shrine. I don't think Amazon will carry it as it was made in a temple in India (where my parents bought it).
Just get me a couple and post 'em over, would you?
The image I posted is an art installation. For some it will have no connotations of Hindu deities.
I love Ganesh but have been ignoring him lately. Sorry big bellied dude. He is back on one of my shrines.
I have not grown up a Hindu and my mystical and abstract tendencies were very critical of 'idols'. No longer.
Connect to the sacred, the Ganesh, the lama, the temple, the good any way you can. Why? Karma.
That sounds good Lobster. Very good indeed.
I believe it was Bodhisattva Yoda who said:
Think not. Do! (words to that effect)
@lobster: "Connect to the sacred, the Ganesh, the lama, the temple, the good any way you can. Why? Karma."
Like it!
Ganeshe is the remover of chocolate dharma obstacles.