Inner Path Festival: An Expressive Celebration of Buddhism

The Inner Path Festival is an annual celebration of the unique Buddhist philosophy and its influence on all walks of life. In its fourth edition this year, the four-day long festival brings together celebrated works of visual & performing arts and other forms of creative and cultural expression, philosophy, discourse and discussions related to Buddhism from across the world.

Buddhism celebrates the organic and ever-changing nature of life and  highlights the playfulness in this change. The “four noble truths” of Buddhism – existence is suffering, there is a cause to the suffering, the eightfold path, much needed to end the suffering — encapsulate this nature rather subtly.

His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who heads the 900-year-old Karma Kagyu Lineage and guides millions of Buddhists around the world, shared his thoughts on the importance of art in his life. “There could be a number of reasons why art is important, and it’s not necessarily important to everyone for the same reason. In my case, when the environment around me seems to be quite restricting, which happens to be often, and I feel the need to vent out this feeling of restriction that I’m bound by, then I want to put my feelings of creativity or imagination on paper or canvas and nobody’s trying to restrict me from doing that. For me art is a very important way to express myself under such circumstances, to have an outlet for my creative energy,” said Karmapa. His artworks in the exhibition exemplify this philosophy.

The quest to express and understand is an inherent nature to all beings. Platforms like ‘The Inner Path’ are a way to encourage and hear the voices of such questioning minds. This year the exhibition comprises of a diverse collection of this expression through varied mediums with paintings, ceramics, sculpture.

The artists envisaging this philosophy have thus been included in the exhibition. Each has their distinct style, story to tell, and a belief for doing, what they are doing.