Thangka
paintings vary widely in cost based on size, detail, and artist skill,
typically ranging from $150 to over $5,000 for high-quality, handmade
pieces.Small,
simple pieces or prints can cost under $100, while large, detailed, 24K
gold-decorated masterpieces can reach several thousand dollars.
My experience with Tushita Heaven was the most powerful when I was taken by Tibetan Buddhist Monks to see Ling Rinpoche who ruled Tibet while the Present Dalai Lama was growing up until he was 18. This would have been January 1986.
Ling Rinpoche was in the Maitreya Mudra with his right hand up in a teaching position radiating enlightenment and his left hand in his lap. I asked the Tibetan Monks through a Translator because I don't speak Tibetan if Ling Rinpoche was coming back from his meditation. They said no.
Later I saw wax figures in Tibetan Gonpos but did not understand the significance at the time. However, now I realized after reading a book when I returned from the 5 months in India and Nepal that an Actual Tibetan High Lama in a teaching mudra is usually inside those perfect wax replicas of the Lama when he was alive that sits in Tibetan Gonpos (Temples) in India and Nepal. I'm not sure the Chinese let Tibetan Buddhists do this anymore in Tibet though. But, this practice still happens in India and Nepal (at least it still did in 1985). So, if you want to see this you will have to search for this yourself during your travels to India and Nepal in the Himalayan Mountains.
Tuṣita (Sanskrit, PāliTusita) or Tushita is one of the six deva-worlds of the Buddhist Desire realm (Kāmadhātu), located between the Yāma heaven and the Nirmāṇarati heaven. Like the other heavens, Tuṣita is said to be reachable through meditation. It is the heaven where the BodhisattvaŚvetaketu ("White Banner") resided before being reborn on Earth as Gautama Buddha, the historical fourth Buddha. It is, likewise, the heaven where the Bodhisattva Nātha ("Protector") currently resides, who will be reborn as the future fifth Buddha Maitreya.
Most Buddhist scriptures state that Queen Mayadevi died seven days after giving birth at Lumbini to her son Prince Siddhartha, who became Gautama Buddha or the Buddha, and that she was reborn in the Tushita Heaven. Then seven years after the Buddha's enlightenment, Mayadevi came down to visit Tavatimsa Heaven, where the Buddha specifically preached the Abhidharma to her,[1] and to the other gods in the realm.
Like all heaven realms in Buddhism, the Tuṣita Heaven is the residence of divine beings or devas. According to the Visakhuposatha Sutta of the Pali Canon,[4] time runs much differently than on Earth:
That which among men is four
hundred years, Visakha, is one night and day of the Tusita devas, their
month has thirty of those days, their year twelve of those months; the
lifespan of the Tusita devas is four thousand of those heavenly years...
Buddhist View
In Mahayana Buddhist thought, the Tuṣita
Heaven is where all Bodhisattvas destined to reach full enlightenment
in their next life dwell for a time. One such reference can be found in
the Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life, a Mahayana text:
Each of these bodhisattvas,
following the virtues of the Mahasattva Samantabhadra, is endowed with
the immeasurable practices and vows of the Bodhisattva Path, and firmly
dwells in all the meritorious deeds. He freely travels in all the ten
quarters and employs skillful means of emancipation. He enters the
treasury of the Dharma of the Buddhas, and reaches the Other Shore.
Throughout the innumerable worlds he attains Enlightenment. First,
dwelling in the Tusita Heaven, he proclaims the true Dharma. Having left
the heavenly palace, he descends into his mother's womb.
The Tuṣita
heaven is therefore closely associated with Maitreya, and many Mahayana
Buddhists vow to be reborn there so that they can hear the teachings of
the Bodhisattva and ultimately be reborn with him when he becomes a
Buddha. Other Bodhisattvas dwell in this heaven realm from time to time. Tuṣita is part of the same world-system as Earth, and so is relatively close, whereas the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha is treated as a separate world-system entirely.
References
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