Chagdud Gonpa Rigdzin Ling, Junction City, CA

Rigdzin Ling is a Tibetan Buddhist Center located in Junction City, California. The Center’s focus is on preservation of the arts, philosophy, and meditation practices of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

I was mesmerized by the large mechanical prayer wheels. The embedded video above is made from a sequence of several hundred images exposed 1 second apart and played back at 24 frames per second. The resulting video provides for the illusion that the Dakinis and lotus petals are turning in opposite directions. In actuality, everything is spinning equally in a clockwise rotation. To state “actuality” and “illusion” in regards to Buddhist art and philosophy has me wondering…..