VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents their April Artful Thursday: Opening the Vastness: Buddhist Ways to the Heart,  Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 6:30 PM, at the Caroline Wiess Law Building. 

Presented by Anne C. Klein, professor of Religious Studies and former chair of the department, Rice University; founding director of Dawn Mountain Tibetan Buddhist Temple and Dawn Mountain Community Center & Research Institute, Houston; and author of "Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse: A Story of Transmission."

Every story of spiritual awakening is a story of transmission, of how the inconceivable makes itself known. Moses received the transmission of God’s word and power through a blazing bush. Rumi, the great Sufi mystic, communed endlessly with the Friend. Siddh?rtha Gautama, the primary figure of Buddhism, was so transformed by his encounter with the Buddha of an earlier era that he vowed to become a Buddha himself.

Practitioners of Buddhism seek to experience the unimpeded vastness of their own being, made possible through what Tibetan Buddhists call “waves of splendor.” Anne C. Klein talks about the various means of transmission through which one of the oldest Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Heart Essence, has passed unbroken since the 8th century, and how its precepts are embodied in works of art in the Nidhika and Pershant Mehta Arts of India Gallery at the MFAH.

On Sunday, April 10, at 2:00 p.m., the MFAH will screen Unmistaken Child, a story of transmission that follows the search for the reincarnation of a world-renowned Tibetan master.

Artful Thursdays are open to the public. Admission is free. A reception follows the program. Refreshments generously provided by the Buffalo Speedway Starbucks (corner of Buffalo Speedway and Westpark), Carla Everett, manager; and the Rice Village Starbucks, Jenna Ortiz, manager.

Artful Thursday programs receive generous funding from the Rockwell Fund. Promotional support is generously provided by KUHF 88.7 FM, Houston Public Radio. Refreshments generously provided by the Buffalo Speedway Starbucks (corner of Buffalo Speedway and Westpark), Carla Everett, manager, and the Rice Village Starbucks, Jenna Ortiz, manager.

Pictured:  Nepalese, Shastradhara (Weapon-Bearing) Hevajra, c. 1531, gilt copper and pigment.