According to Buddhist tradition, Shambhala is name given to what they consider the Pure Land, a utopia of sorts whose reality is as much spiritual as it is physical. A place where everyone achieves a state of enlightenment and peace and tranquility. Author James Hilton morphed the name into Shangri-La for his novel Lost Horizon which describes a group of Westerners who find themselves the guests in a small idyllic nation of this name tucked away in a protected Himalayan valley.
Whatever you call it, the idea of a place of enlightenment and peace seems pretty attractive to me these days, given the many events going on in the world being driven forward by such negative factors as greed, hate and fear. That tranquil inner place is what I see in this new painting, an 18″ by 36″ canvas that carries this name, Shambhala. The road , for me, represents the search that leads to this elusive state and the sun a blissful guide with a warm lure that radiates throughout the sky. The Red Tree is on a small peninsula set into a calm body of water, still attached to the world but in an ethereal space. It is in a state of being where it is firmly in the moment, having set aside the past and disregarding the future. Just absorbing the now.
That’s what I see and that is what I imagine how that moment might feel but I am still on that path, looking ahead for a sight of that hopeful destination.
Redtree Times 