Ragaraja

Aka Aizen Myō'ō, welcome to one of the revered Wisdom Kings in Esoteric and Vajrayana Buddhism. Never heard of those types of Buddhism? Me neither. And now I know more than the devout Buddhist who commissioned this. What's he do? Well, he embodies a certain type of transformation. Feed him your lust, your greed, your anger, and he'll transform those drives into the desire for spiritual enlightenment.

Every part of this is a symbol. In his first hands, you've got a vajra (a lightening bolt) and a bell, which symoblize the power to cut through the bs. In hands 2 and 3, you've got a two pronged arrow and a bow, used to capture bad things in your way and get rid of them. And then finally in the final hands, enjoy a lotus bud and a hand holding the "thatness." The bud symbolizes so much, my favorite being that you can't rush things. If you force a blossom open, it dies. As for the "thatness," it's what's beyond all widsom, names, and understanding. Could I go on and on? YES.

Printed by Tannery Prints on hot press archival paper.