Comments on: Interview: Chuck Pettis, Founder, Earth Sanctuary http://iconia.canonist.com/2008/05/12/interview-chuck-pettis-founder-earth-sanctuary/ Wherever faith meets art. Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:57:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Monica Wilson http://iconia.canonist.com/2008/05/12/interview-chuck-pettis-founder-earth-sanctuary/#comment-29971 Wed, 21 May 2008 15:58:44 +0000 http://iconia.canonist.com/2008/05/12/interview-chuck-pettis-founder-earth-sanctuary/#comment-29971 My daughter Ariel and I are Tibetan Buddhists who also practice at Sakya Monastery. As part of a class on Eastern Religions at her high school, she wrote a paper on thangkas which included this introductory paragraph: Imagine a world in which artists don’t sign their artwork. A world in which the art is produced as a focus for spiritual contemplation, where the goal of the artist as well as the person viewing the art isn’t simply enjoyment, religious awe, intellectual provocation or any of the other various reasons for creating a work of art, but because the desired goal is enlightenment, “liberation through beholding.” This is the world in which the Tibetan Buddhist thangkas have been created for centuries. Hopefully, this will help people to better understand art within the framework of the Tibetan Buddhist perspective. My daughter Ariel and I are Tibetan Buddhists who also practice at Sakya Monastery. As part of a class on Eastern Religions at her high school, she wrote a paper on thangkas which included this introductory paragraph:

Imagine a world in which artists don’t sign their artwork. A world in which the art is produced as a focus for spiritual contemplation, where the goal of the artist as well as the person viewing the art isn’t simply enjoyment, religious awe, intellectual provocation or any of the other various reasons for creating a work of art, but because the desired goal is enlightenment, “liberation through beholding.” This is the world in which the Tibetan Buddhist thangkas have been created for centuries.

Hopefully, this will help people to better understand art within the framework of the Tibetan Buddhist perspective.

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