So, Tell Us About Your Avatar.............

[Barry]

My Avatar

First of all allow me to be pedantic about the word avatar. In Hindu mythology an avatar is the manifestation or incarnation of a god. This word seems to have been appropriated by those people who want to reinvent themselves in cyberspace in ‘Second Life’ or other virtual worlds – as if living a ‘first life’ were not wonderful enough. Anyway I digress.

My avatar (sic) is of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom and knowledge. Bodhisattvas are mortals who having attained enlightenment, choose not to take the final step into nirvana or extinction and so escape the cycle of birth and rebirth. Rather, they have elected to remain behind to help other mortals achieve enlightenment. They are roughly the Buddhist equivalent to saints.



Manjushri’s purpose was to lead beings in an inquiry whereby they could discover the true nature of reality. For that reason, he is usually depicted displaying the two tools essential to that investigation: in his right hand he wields the double-edged sword of logic or analytic discrimination and in his left, a text on Buddhist teaching. Manjushri's sword of discriminating wisdom is tipped with flames to show that it severs all notions of duality. It can cut away delusion, aversion and longing, to reveal understanding, equanimity and compassion. Manjushri is depicted as a youth suggesting that age is not a necessary precursor to wisdom.

The avatar thus combines three of my interests: comparative religion, buddhist iconography and travel (I have been all over the far east to look at the various iconographic styles). The depiction of my avatar is done in the Tibetan style; whose culture was virtually destroyed by the Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution – hence the political comment.

I like to think that there is a connection to the three Alexandrian principles that form the ethical guidlines of AoS

Was it worth the wait? – didn’t think so.