Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

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Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Postby Mr. G » Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:52 pm

I received a very nice thangka of White Mahakala from a very good friend. He even had it specially framed, and I believe just the framing itself cost a good deal of money (possibly around $300). My friend doesn't know much about Tibetan Buddhism, and took the thangka solely to be a piece of art. I know I'm not supposed to hang up thangkas in my apartment like it's just a piece of art, but I also would not like to offend my friend. Thoughts?
    How foolish you are,
    grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention!
    - Vasubandhu
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Postby conebeckham » Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:57 pm

Hang it up!

Treat it with respect, maybe arrange a small table underneath it with some flowers, or something....doesn't have to be too elaborate, you know.

That's my opinion!
དགེ་བའི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་བསགས་པ་ཀུན།
བདག་གི་ཡོངས་སུ་བཟུང་མེད་པར།
སེམས་ཅན་མ་ལུས་ཀུན་དོན་དུ།
ཆོས་དབྱིངསླ་ན་མེད་པར་བསྔོ།།


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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Postby heart » Thu Oct 04, 2012 8:33 pm

Mr. G wrote:I received a very nice thangka of White Mahakala from a very good friend. He even had it specially framed, and I believe just the framing itself cost a good deal of money (possibly around $300). My friend doesn't know much about Tibetan Buddhism, and took the thangka solely to be a piece of art. I know I'm not supposed to hang up thangkas in my apartment like it's just a piece of art, but I also would not like to offend my friend. Thoughts?


White Mahakala, that is very auspicious! Have it consecrated by a qualified lama and put it up.

/magnus
"The direct, hard to understand, subtle field of knowing, the Great Path, is non-conceptual (akalpana), and entirely beyond the grasp of intellectual thought. Divorced from verbal ideation, it is difficult to point out and as difficult to enquire into. It cannot be communicated through words and [therefore] is not within the scope of the neophyte (adikarmika). Nevertheless the path is to be approached through studying scriptures (sutra) of the World-Teacher and following the personal instructions (upadesa) of one's Guru-ji."

Bodhicittabhavana by Acarya Sri Manjusrimitra
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Postby Malcolm » Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:11 pm

Mr. G wrote:I received a very nice thangka of White Mahakala from a very good friend. He even had it specially framed, and I believe just the framing itself cost a good deal of money (possibly around $300). My friend doesn't know much about Tibetan Buddhism, and took the thangka solely to be a piece of art. I know I'm not supposed to hang up thangkas in my apartment like it's just a piece of art, but I also would not like to offend my friend. Thoughts?



Hang it up.
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look at a grove of various trees and plants."

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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Postby Mr. G » Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:36 pm

Thank you all!

White Mahakala was the first empowerment I ever received, and it was from Luding Khen Rinpoche. :smile:
    How foolish you are,
    grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention!
    - Vasubandhu
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Postby deepbluehum » Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:03 am

Hang it with the 8 offerings.
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Postby ngodrup » Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:16 am

And put a khatags over it.
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