451: Animated by the Dharma

Mandarava has always been a maker. Her way into puppetry came initially through trying to make sense of deep family grief. Mandarava’s work is brimful of magic - filtered through fairy tales, her own deep immersion in illustrative art and the realm of stories accompanying long-cherished images, both from childhood and her further adventures as a grown-up. We hear about her exploration of female figures from the Buddhist and other mythic traditions, including the resonances between old mythologies and certain kinds of visualisation meditations that feature imagery representing a rich seam of possibilities for transcendent Buddhist practice.

Aryajit, animator extraordinaire, was inspired as a boy by Star Wars’ retelling of classic mythology. It was a major influence on his deciding to live out the Buddhist path as “the adventure of my life”; and to help make the tradition new in his own work animating many aspects of that path. His work appears extensively on The Buddhist Centre Online, explaining and evoking in brilliant ways both the nuances of the Dharma and the life of the Buddha as a set of nested myths and stories that still resonate today when re-presented in this way. Watch any of his animations (see the show notes below!) and you can feel his own quietly passionate heart in the work. 

Prasannavira from The Windhorse Trust was instrumental in helping fund Aryajit’s new animated series, ‘The Legend of the Buddha’. We talk about helping shape a Buddhist context to fund creators and innovators. And how bringing up his own children within a broadly Buddhist culture informed by classic stories and images has helped him as a parent. We also hear about Prasannavira’s own trove of mythic reference points, including Studio Ghibli’s ‘The Tale of the Princess Kaguya’. And about his early days as a Buddhist in London, profoundly affected by modern evocations (inspired by Tibetan tradition) of the great guru Padmasambhava.

There’s so much to enjoy in these thoughtful exchanges: from the legacy of classic British children’s television and theatre to the life of the imagination itself. We explore how stories can help us work with past trauma to figure out a realistic path through life in relation to our ideals. And the connections between new work in animation, illustration, puppetry, drawing and painting and established traditions of folk and classical Buddhist art (from India, China, Japan and elsewhere). Whether it’s the value of dramatization, theatre and ritual for evoking the best of Buddhism, or how being “good” at art isn’t the point - everything flows in this fun episode about how to never lose touch with the sense of wonder and creativity we have as kids, and need now more than ever.

Show Notes

Home Retreats by Mandarava and Nagasiddhi (with original puppetry and set design):

🎬 The Myth of Innana (including silhouette storytelling)

🖥️ In the Footsteps of the Buddha (puppet storytelling each day in session 2)

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Aryajit’s animation work: 

🎬 Guide to the Buddhist Path (Legend of Buddha)  

🖥️ Discover Buddhism   

🎬 Letting Go of Fear   

🖥️ Follow Aryajit on Substack  |  🎗️Support Aryajit’s ‘Legend of the Buddha’ project!

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Star Wars: 

🎨 Original concept art by Ralph McQuarrie    

Source myth and legend: 🖥️ Overview  |  🎬 The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell  | 🖥️ George Lucas on the mythology of Star Wars

Star Wars model making: 🖥️ Overview  |  🎨 Image gallery  |  🎬 Industrial Light and Magic model makers (documentary)

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Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin (Bagpuss | Ivor the Engine | The Clangers): 

🖥️ The History of Smallfilms  |  🎬 A Life in Smallfilms (documentary)

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The Wombles:  

📚 Books by Elizabeth Beresford (illustrated by Margaret Gordon)  |  🎬  Watch the animated series 

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The Tale of the Princess Kaguya by Isao Takahata (Studio Ghibli): 

🎬 Japanese trailer  |  US trailer (dubbed)

🎧 The Procession of Celestial Beings (from 'The Tale of Princess Kaguya')

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Lottie Reiniger animation: 

🖥️ The Art of Lottie Reiniger  (The Metropolitan Museum, NY) 

🎬 Silhouette Animation: The Genius of Lotte Reiniger (video lecture by Nannina Gilder)

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Other sources of inspiration:

🖥️ Illustrator John Bauer and Princess Tuvstarr (Cottongrass)

🖥️ Buddha: Japanese manga series by Osamu Tezuka

🖥️ The Lincoln Imp

🎬 Blending indigenous Mexican culture in retelling the Tibetan Book of the Dead

🎨 The work of Alison Harper

🎨 The Impermanence of Everyone: In Studio With Buddhist Artist Hugh Mendes (Paramabodhi)

🎨 Buddhist art by Aloka

📖 The Artist and the Sangha by Aloka

🖥️ Padmasambhava and other Buddha and Bodhisattva figures

🎬 Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Walt Disney):  Trailer   |   Excerpt

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Podcasts episodes on the life of the imagination: 

🎧 The Many Jewels: Buddhism, Writing and the Arts

🎧 The Heart of Imagination in Buddhism with Vishvapani and Amitajyoti

🎧 Mindfulness and Imagination with Vidyamala and Vishvapani

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With grateful thanks to:

🖥️ The Windhorse Trust

🖥️ FutureDharma Fund

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Theme music by Ackport! Used with kind permission.