Haiku 21 - Jewel Tree / Lineage Tree

Many of the Buddaverse Variations video haikus are based upon reinterpretation with image & glitch processing of earlier work. In this case, Haiku #21 'Lineage Tree #2' is based upon a piece of mine from 2010 'Jewel Tree #1'

Jewel Tree #1 © M.Gilliland 2010

Lineage Tree #2 (00:22)  © M.Gilliland 2020

Sample Haiku from Buddhaverse Variations ©2020-21 

[Please turn on audio to hear chant soundtrack] 

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Buddaverse Variations: Jewel Tree

This post is a "before and after" showing source images and one of the haiku animations inspired by them. The "before" images (from 2010) take the form of a protective Thangka referred to as a 'Jewel Tree' - a graphical lineage tree depicting a personalized chain of ancestors and teachers. (In this case, the first  image - Jewel Tree 2 - includes my parents, my grandmother, and teachers such a the Dalai Lama and Terence McKenna. The second image - Jewel Tree 1 - shows me embodied as a teaching Buddha in the form of Avalokiteshavara.) 

Jewel Tree 2

Jewel Tree 1

haiku 20

As a matter of interest, please check out earlier static work (from 2017) where I first started to "glitch the image." I feel the animated haiku versions are more effective / interesting with the individual visual components being independently processed before layering, and with the inclusion of a meditative sound track. What do you think?

More Glitch Tests

I wanted to play around with a larger, more complex image to apply the various glitch processing upon. I chose a Jewel Tree image as the base with the following results:

This is the original unmodified image:

Buddha Self via Dreamscope

More art images passed thru various Deep Dreaming filters. Interesting results.

Tree Protector

Mahakala Tree Guardian

While journeying to meet with my guides, part of the discussion turned to the need for me to create a Tree Protector thangka, honoring and celebrating my deep connection with the tree spirits. I was shown the basic "layout"as a mandala and understood that Mahakala (The Great Dark One) would be the central deity. This did not particularly surprise me as Mahakala is my Heart Chakra protector, as well.

His powerful mantra is: OM SHRI MA HAKALA HUNG PHAT

I create several images to date using this basic theme - one belonging to the Jewel Tree series.

Jewel Tree of Mahakala

The Jewel Tree image also contains the Hummingbird - symbolic messenger between the our world and the spirit worlds of the Ancestors and Illuminated Ones. The flowers shown are Datura, a beautiful, yet dangerous visionary plant used by Native American shamen in the Southwest and in California.

Mahakala Mantra Chant

By Lama Karta

Jewel Tree of Prajnaparamita

The latest Jewel Tree mandala displays the infinite expansion of grace and compassion from the heart of Prajnaparamita, visualized as filling (being) each and every atom of spacetime in a crystaline matrix. The radiating network of emanations form the bejeweled fabric of Indra's Net.

From Wikipedia:

Buddhist concepts of interpenetration hold that all phenomena are intimately connected; Indra's net symbolizes a universe where infinitely repeated mutual relations exist between all members of the universe. [It's] a metaphor used to illustrate the concepts of emptiness, dependent origination and interpenetration.

Indra's net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels.

"...Since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. [Looking] closely at [one jewel], we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring." - Francis Harold Cook

Chords of Light

I received this newsletter and the image of the rainbow cords of light made me think of the Prajnaparamita visualization - or of the full Tara Jewel Tree visualization...

Receiving Assistance from the Star Elders and Pleiadians
March 18, 2010 - A Message received in the Palace Courtyard in Palenque

The following is the first message that we received in the sacred site of Palenque 3/18, 2010. You can find other messages our website at www.alunajoy.com under the link titled "articles". We are sharing this message here with you just as we received it, in present time, with very little editing. We do this for a very important reason. We know the messages that we receive are not just for our groups, but are for humanity. So as you read this, just imagine that you were there with us... the Masters and Star Elders assure me that the message and the corresponding energy will be transmitted to you. You might want to imagine that you are sitting with us in Palenque (you can use this PHOTO for visual help):

We were standing in a circle inside the palace courtyard of Palenque… this is what I saw…

I see chords of light radiating out of the heart centers of everybody in this circle (and those reading this) and merging into a large beam of light in the center. So these chords of light are connecting all of our hearts to this huge beam of light. When they let me look where this beam of light is going out to, I see that it is going to the Pleiades. I am receive a instant feeling back from this area of our galaxy… from the ones watching us here right now. It feels like a really deep sense of gratitude, an appreciation that we are here with this intent, an appreciation for our focus, and our heart's calling to be of service to the earth. It is clear to me that they are our family. I know a lot of you in this circle (and those reading this) already feel this, but I don't see a single thread coming from any heart that is not connected to this place in the sky that the Star Elders came from, the Pleiades.

The Star Elders and Pleiadians are sending us a feeling of thankfulness that we are here because it took courage for us to come here. This reality is dense, it operates in linear time and has gravity. This world we live in is operating from a geometry, chemistry, and laws of nature that is not natural to who we originally are. This is why, even from a young age, we felt a little different from everybody else. We felt like our family was not our family. We felt like outsiders, because we actually are. We came here to anchor our beautiful energy to the Earth. Many of our ancestors had to leave because it was too dangerous for them to stay here. When this happened nearly all the rest of us went to sleep for awhile because it was too dangerous for us to stay awake. But there were little alarm clocks that began to go off, and with each alarm clock that went off, you began to remember again that you felt out of place, that you didn't belong here, that you were from somewhere else, and it made you start searching. These feeling taught you to be compassionate to people that didn't have the same opportunities as you, that had less than you, that felt like outsiders in other ways.

So our alarm clocks are going off in us, because it is safe for us to be here now. It is safe for us to have the knowledge and the wisdom that we went to sleep to protect. It is safe for us to be here, because the world is ready for what we have to offer. The collective consciousness is ready to wake up and to move into a new reality. There is enough awakening people now on Earth to create a tsunami that can't be stopped. It is a process that is already on its way.

The Star Elders and Pleiadians say that we stayed behind because we were the ones that had the most courage. We forgot how challenging day to day in 3D world could be, but yet we are still here. We are still standing up, we are still walking, we are still traveling, we are still talking, we are still writing, we are still doing our art, we are still doing our music, we are still finding ways to express what is deep in our hearts, and the world is ready for it now.

Excerpt from enewsletter by Aluna Joy. To read this mnewsletter in full, go to: http://www.kachina.net/~alunajoy/news04-2010-2.html

Copyright Aluna Joy - aluna@alunajoy.com - website: www.AlunaJoy.com

Jewel Tree Visualizations

New work for the New Year - a series based upon the Jewel Tree visualization practice outlined in "The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism" by Robert Thurman.

Bodhisattva Jewel Tree

Tara Jewel Tree

Kalachakra Jewel Tree

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If you are interested in the book "The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism" by Robert Thurman - which I highly recommend, here is a link to it on Amazon.