"There is no conflict between creativity and meditation" says buddhist teacher and artist Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, "Both have to be appreciated as the best of our mind's potential."

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche (Jigme Namgyal), founder of the US-based Mangala Shri Bhuti, created this original painting and donated it to the Shambhala Sun Foundation's auction. He is one of a handful of Buddhist teachers to have taken up Western-style artmaking and given it his own stamp.  He began painting in the mid-1990’s with French abstract expressionist painter Yahne Le Toumelin. It was his exposure to the work of Kandinsky and Picasso that first piqued his interest in western art, "its acceptance of formless technique...closely mirrored the relaxation of strict discipline found in advanced meditation."

In his book Natural Vitality Rinpoche says "Art, when it is free of...notions of beauty and ugliness, ‘shoulds' and ‘shouldn'ts' can be used to express (the) complete experience of mind." The Shambhala Sun Foundation is pleased to be able to present this work.

"Untitled #221",2006, oil on paper, 14.5"X18.3"