Yea um I struggled with this one. India fascinates me but I've never been and I know little about the culture and...imagery. I have a slight elephant obsession so I considered that but animal day is looming later in the month.
Anyway, to cut a crazy ridiculous ramble a little shorter, the psychologist I'm seeing recently encouraged me to visit the Buddhist Centre near where I live. And being me, I did some research into Buddhism before I went... and this mani is made up of some of the symbolism I stumbled across. Now, a brief session on Google doesn't mean I actually know anything about Buddhism so forgive me if I'm wrong! My thumb is a hamsa...a hand symbol which features in, um most religions actually. A brief wander through the symbolism of hand gestures in Buddhism tells me that they're known as mudras and that it's far too complex for my little blog! Anyway the two common open palm gestures appear to be varada mudra- hand down for giving, charity, fulfilment of desire- and abhaya mudra- hand up for peace, protection, banishment of fear.
Phew.
On my middle finger is a lotus flower (or that's what it's meant to be!) Which again is common to several faiths and religions. It's an early Buddhist symbol representing purity, of mind, body and speech.
Finally on my pinkie is a deceptively simple looking little wheel called a dharmacakra or wheel of dharma. It represents the foundations of Buddhism, the Buddha's teaching of the path to enlightenment. The circle shape represents the perfection of this teaching whilst the hub represents the discipline at the core of meditation and the rim represents mindfulness holding everything together. The eight spokes reflect the Nobel eightfold path: right beliefs, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation attainment.
Yea I get caught up in Google and this is turning into an re lecture sorry! There's obviously a lot lot more that in leaving out and if you're interested is suggest looking into it... But maybe by asking someone who's done more than just link hop through Wikipedia!
Aaaanyway here's my Indian nails. Oh base is black cat celestial. Black is, as always, models own nail art pen. X
Anyway, to cut a crazy ridiculous ramble a little shorter, the psychologist I'm seeing recently encouraged me to visit the Buddhist Centre near where I live. And being me, I did some research into Buddhism before I went... and this mani is made up of some of the symbolism I stumbled across. Now, a brief session on Google doesn't mean I actually know anything about Buddhism so forgive me if I'm wrong! My thumb is a hamsa...a hand symbol which features in, um most religions actually. A brief wander through the symbolism of hand gestures in Buddhism tells me that they're known as mudras and that it's far too complex for my little blog! Anyway the two common open palm gestures appear to be varada mudra- hand down for giving, charity, fulfilment of desire- and abhaya mudra- hand up for peace, protection, banishment of fear.
Phew.
On my middle finger is a lotus flower (or that's what it's meant to be!) Which again is common to several faiths and religions. It's an early Buddhist symbol representing purity, of mind, body and speech.
Finally on my pinkie is a deceptively simple looking little wheel called a dharmacakra or wheel of dharma. It represents the foundations of Buddhism, the Buddha's teaching of the path to enlightenment. The circle shape represents the perfection of this teaching whilst the hub represents the discipline at the core of meditation and the rim represents mindfulness holding everything together. The eight spokes reflect the Nobel eightfold path: right beliefs, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation attainment.
Yea I get caught up in Google and this is turning into an re lecture sorry! There's obviously a lot lot more that in leaving out and if you're interested is suggest looking into it... But maybe by asking someone who's done more than just link hop through Wikipedia!
Aaaanyway here's my Indian nails. Oh base is black cat celestial. Black is, as always, models own nail art pen. X
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