Happy Birthday, Mr. Buddha!
By pm317 on May 13, 2009 at 10:00 PM in Buddhism, Religion
(Bumped up from earlier this evening.)
In this age of religious extremism and terrorists abusing religious ideology, a pacifistic religion like Buddhism must resonate well with everyone. Last week, coinciding with the full moon (aka Buddha Poornima), India, Sri Lanka, and many Southeast Asian countries celebrated the birth anniversary of the founder of the religion, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha.
Buddhism and Jainism were two religions that caught the imagination of parts of India about 2500 years ago. While Buddhism did not explicitly preach non-violence, Jainism did and influenced other religions including Hinduism in many ways — for instance, vegetarianism seen in Hindu culture is said to be an adoption of Jain philosophy. Though Buddhism flourished for centuries in India, it gradually declined for lack of royal patronage. Jainism on the other hand has survived to this day with some noticeable following.
Siddhartha Gautama was born in 563 BC (approximate date) into a royal family and led a life of opulence until he was about 29 when he was exposed to the vagaries of the real world outside his palace. He then rejected his princely way of life and in his quest for the truth, attained nirvana or enlightenment at the age of thirty five from which point on he opened up to share his thoughts with the populace. He was then given the title Buddha to mean the enlightened one. Here is more on the fundamental teachings of Buddha.
Buddhism enjoyed the patronage of many kings at its peak in India, most notably that of Emperor Ashoka from the 3rd century BC. Legend has it that Ashoka after surveying the destruction of what was his last battle decided to adopt the new religion and the philosophy of non-violence and helped spread it far and wide (See here for a brief introduction). Another well known royal to promote Buddhism was Emperor Harshavardhana from the 7th century AD (more here). He is also known to have followed Mahayana Buddhism.
The best archeological evidence of Buddha and the religion he founded is preserved in the Ajanta caves in Northern India. There are about 29 caves carved into the cliff side of a magnificent gorge along the river Waghora. Paintings and sculptures in these caves beautifully depict the remarkable life story of Buddha as seen through the eyes of his followers over a number of centuries. These paintings and sculptures were created by Buddhist monks and other artisans over a period of 800 years starting as early as 2nd century BC. As Buddhism began to decline, the caves fell into natural degradation and remained hidden for centuries before they were discovered by a British Infantry captain stationed in Madras in 1819 who was on the hunt for a tiger in the vicinity. Religious or not, this remarkable human history of magnificent arts and creativity takes my breath away. The pictures above show a reclining Buddha on his deathbed surrounded by his followers as seen sculpted in Cave 26.
See this audio slide show from the NYTimes for an introduction to the caves. An accompanying article can be found here . The picture above the fold is from Cave 12 and the one below is in Cave 26 (more pictures here).
In addition to the Ajanta caves, we find Buddhist sculptures dating from 500 - 750 AD in the nearby Ellora caves. The activity continued in the Ellora caves between the 6th and 10th centuries with Buddhist caves being carved in the beginning of that period. All three religions Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism are represented in the Ellora caves which many note is a testament to the long and historic religious tolerance in India. Below is a picture from a Buddhist cave, one of 12 in Ellora. More here.
I will end this brief post about Buddhism and Buddha with this perhaps mundane note. For a while I had a rule in my house of not having any religious symbols in any part of the house. Then I came across this beautiful idol of Buddha in an artsy store near Big Sur, CA and I had to have it. My Buddha is wearing a red shawl and his hair is perfect and I fell in love with him. He sits in the center of my living room now to everyone’s attention. In stressful periods in my life, I had a ritual — coming down the stairs every morning, I would call out jauntily “Hello Mr. Buddha, how are you today?” The days I didn’t feel like doing that I knew I had to calibrate my emotions as I stepped out into the world. But today I say to my beloved friend, “Happy Birthday, Mr. Buddha!” I guess it is possible even for an atheist to intellectualize and then personalize a benevolent religious figure.
[h/t to Preeti Aroon and her photo essay at FP]
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oh,,that really touched my heart,
made me smile.thank you,
I love the gentle philosophy of Buddhism, particularly as it is expressed (or not-expressed) in the “school” of Zen.
Compassion for living creatures suffering in this universe; kindness towards innocent beings: these principles have become increasingly important to me as I’ve gotten older.
Thanks for the article, pm317.
Guatama Buddha predicted before His death that at the end of Kali Yuga (now) another Buddha, a Bodhisatva like Himself, by name Maitreya, would come to usher in a new age and the beginning of a brilliant new civilization, one based upon sharing, brotherhood and creativity, where no two days are alike.
Let us hope.
What a beautiful post, pm317 - thank you so much.
I have statues of Buddha in my house, as well as outside in the yard. And, Kwan Yin is here, too. I find Buddha’s image to be so peaceful and serene…
Thank you!
I saw a good sized garden Buddha this evening in our neighborhood nursery. What a coincidence, ha, just as I was talking and thinking about it? But it was too expensive.
I too have a rather large golden Buddha statue on top of a chest of drawers in our bedroom. It serves as a natural tranquilizer.
Followers of other religions have been known to adopt some Buddhist practices such as mindfulness and meditation and blend it with their own beliefs. I’m pretty sure that Catholic Monk Thomas Merton did so as have many Jews and probably others as well.
Thanks for the article.
What a remarkable place those caves must be…
Most of the time I visit India, I would end up spending time with the relatives and in-laws. But not next time. I have already drawn up an itinerary that includes Ajanta and Ellora.
I also had the rule that no religious artifacts were allowed in the house, but Buddha came to me on a clearance pile at a Ross store. I couldn’t leave that day without taking Buddha home.
My son is a caver. He carries a little green one inch high Buddha in his backpack any time he goes underground.
Eastan, when he looks at these pictures and others, he will take a hammer and a chisel on his next caving trip.
I consider myself lucky to have visited the caves in Ajanta. It takes a taxi to visit each temple, where one can see the transition from the several religions in succeeding eras. Though I’m a Buddhist, I found the earlier Hindu religion temples most fascinating.
Lucky you. I have heard (from my hubby) rave reviews of the Kailasa temple (Hindu) in Ellora. In fact a temple tour of India will be fascinating.
I visited Ajanta and mostly the northern areas, from Kashmir, Dehli, Mumbai, Varanasi, Manali, Bodgaya and Dharamsala, and of course Goa. My first trip was 6 mos and then other two trips 3 mos each. I liked many aspects of India, but I dislike how dirty it is. India is not willing to adjust to see poverty and withstand a dirty environment (air and trash).
Did you also go to Sanchi?
Here is a picture from the Jain temples in Mt. Abu. Look how intricate are those stone (I think it is marble) carvings.
http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/Rajasthan/MtAbu/DilwaraTemples06.jpg
nice pm317, thanks for the links too. I’m for non-violence and pacifism.
What about the giant Buddhas that were destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan? http://chaplaindanny.blogspot.com/2009/02/taliban-trying-to-destroy-more-buddhist.html
I don’t have any artifacts, just lots of books on all religions. If I had a garden statue, I would choose a statue St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment, then a Buddha.
I know, what the Taliban did to those Bamiyan Buddha statues is unthinkable.
what a beautiful post. thank you very very much.
Though Buddhism flourished for centuries in India, it gradually declined for lack of royal patronage
Here is an interesting article, that says the Last Lesson taught in Nalanda was a Sanskrit Grammer class, with only two students in the last class - That is out of seventy who went to hiding, only two returned. The nonagenarian teacher asked them to go home, declaring he has taught them all he knew.
http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/full_story.php?content_id=31704
Incredibly, it was by Nalanda’s last student: A Tibetan monk called Dharmaswamin. He visited Nalanda in 1235, nearly forty years after its sack, and found a small class still conducted in the ruins by a ninety-year old monk, Rahul Sribhadra. Weak and old, the teacher was kept fed and alive by a local Brahmin, Jayadeva. Warned of a roving band of 300 Turks, the class dispersed, with Dharmaswamin carrying his nonagenarian teacher on his back into hiding. Only the two of them came back, and after the last lesson (it was Sanskrit grammar) Rahul Sribhadra told his Tibetan student that he had taught him all he knew and in spite of his entreaties asked him to go home. Packing a raggedy bundle of surviving manuscripts under his robe, Dharmaswamin left the old monk sitting calmly amidst the ruins. And both he and the Dharma of Sakyamuni made their exit from India.
Thank you, noname. what a story, poignant. 13th century, 300 Turks,..that was after the Muslim invasion started. So the decline hastened with the invading Muslims.
From the article you linked:
PM, A guy named Bakhtiyar Khalji ransacked Nalanda. He burnt the budhist monks and Nalanda’s library, which is said to burn for few months.
The above story is an incident 40 years after the ransack, when a tibetan by name Dharmaswamin, found one teacher still conducting classes. They say, it had upto 2000 teachers at one time.
Noname, how about giving us a working email (site rules). Besides, you seem to know a lot and may come in handy for me to verify things when I write these posts.
Updated the mail. Thank you.