I loved seeing Tenzing Rigdol’s current art installation, Biography of a Thought, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.The installation is part of Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet, an exhibition on view now through January 12, 2025.
The masterfully painted murals, presented on all four walls of a large atrium, immerses the viewer in a contemporary mandala. The museum’s description is as follows:
Within this space the artist created an installation that tracks “the journey of a single thought that gathers momentum and produces many thoughts that cluster and form ideas.” Surrounding a central composition on interdependence is a handwoven carpet that marks the cardinal directions. This leads to four sets of paintings containing twenty-one mandalas that draw attention to issues that shape our world. Unifying his composition is a churning ocean representing emotion and clouds symbolizing fleeting thoughts. Moving clockwise from the wall at right, the imagery explores global warming, human conflict, and ideas of virtue juxtaposed against the illusory world of the digital age. Finally, as the waves quiet, we are invited to consider our relationship to the whole. [Read more here.]
I have researched and documented traditional Tibetan mandalas, such as Yamantaka at His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s Namgyal Monastery and Indo-Tibetan 10th-12th century mandalas in India. So, I very much looked forward to seeing this contemporary mandala work by Tenzing Rigdol.
By surprise, I was thrilled to find the artist present when I arrived!
Tenzing Rigdol not only graciously answered questions I had about his painting techniques, he also shared his thinking behind this particular image below, which features a central figure whose brain and digestive system are inverted. I had wondered about the meaning of this and learned that, just as one feels full from eating and therefore takes a healthy rest from it, it would be beneficial to feel physically full from thoughts. Then one would take a healthy mindful rest. I see this as especially vital in our attention-demanding digital AI times.
Of the 21 mandalas depicted, the following mandalas stood out for me: This one presents a sea creature filled with human plastic and other garbage.
This one presents a child with a gun.
And this one presents climate change.
All three mandalas pointed me towards realizing the hubris of humanity. We as a species believe we are the most intelligent life forms and yet we fail to see the deep interdependence of all phenomena. In the absence of this understanding, we do not think nor act effectively as a collective to reduce our harm towards ourselves, towards other living beings, and towards the planet. We would certainly all greatly benefit from increased and sustained self-awareness while expanding our scope of care.*
I must say the mindfulness movement gives me hope. Yes, let’s all take more healthy mindful rest, as Tenzing Rigdol’s above mandala proposes! Let’s expand our mental ability to understand the deep interdependence of all phenomena and live accordingly.
To learn more about Biography of a Thought mandalas, see this interview of Tenzin Rigdol:
*To learn more about the positive development of future intelligence as we continue human and chimeric AI development, I highly recommend reading these publications by researchers of the Center for the Study of Apparent Selves:
Biology, Buddhism, and AI: Care as the Driver of Intelligence
Toward an Ethics of Autopoietic Technology: Stress, Care, and Intelligence