Thursday, July 3, 2014

Part 2 of 2 Making Sacred Calligraphy Paper for Tara Mandala


Yesterday i ‘fired' up the Critter to make a special pulp combining cooked Kozo, Ping Tang, and linen which I beat for several hours. To the Critter,  earlier I had added many sacred texts and katas (scarves) blessed by great Tibetan masters such as HHDL, Dilgo Khyentse and Choegyal Namkhai Norbu.  Later a long list of sacred substances and blessed water was added to the vat of finished pulp. I also beat some pieces of a scarf worn by the late poet, Allen Ginsberg in the last months of his life since Lama Tsultrim, founder of Tara Mandala was once Allen’s meditation instructor. 

Thunder and Lightening shook us knee deep in water as the rain deluged all around us. I had to keep reminding myself that in some quarters rain is a blessed and auspicious occurance. Then I remembered among my favorite poets Simon Ortiz from the old Naropa days, here reading from Going for the Rain on the Poetry Foundation page, one of his first books.






[Sheryl pouring the finely beaten pulp into the vat]



[Preparing the vat]



[Delicately adding the ground sacred substances sent to us by Lama Tsultrim]





 [Sheryl using my favorite handmade mould for calligraphy--perfect size for horizontal mantras or vertically for single seed syllables. Behind her is the couching table]

After using the horizontal mould Sheryl made a few more pieces of the sacred paper using her large Japanese Sugata mould. Currently all are in her drying box now in Ludlow where I will pick up and hand deliver to Lama Tsultrim briefly in town next week. 





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