the
buddha in life
and art
NIGEL CAMERON
the great renunciation
The legends and commentaries tell of how Siddartha sought at first instruction from two religious leaders, eventually finding their doctrines and ideas less than satisfactory. He came to a decision that the way forward might be a life of drastic austerities, physical as well as spiritual. Thus for six years he wandered the vast plains north of the Ganges River in the company of five the buddha in life and art
Following his 40-day fast in the quest for enlightenment, Sujata, the daughter of a village headman, approaches the Buddha with a golden bowl of food. Panel 84, lower terrace, Borobudur, Indonesia.
disciples. So far, under the two teachers he had attained a certain level of detachment from the needs and desires of human life – what in later doctrine was termed the state of Nothingness. “In this way it came about that my teachers attempted to make me their equal and a member of their own interpretation of the spiritual life.” But, having attained the state of Nothingness he 30
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THE FIRST SERMON
THE GROWTH AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
From the profound unease of the spirit in the young prince of the Sakyas as he grew up in royal ease was born one of the world’s great religions. From his Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya was born a lifelong dedication to changing fundamentally the manner in which humanity could alter the existing restrictions on thought and aspirations. From his teachings came a spiritual revolution. Rooted in the comparatively small area of the subHimalayan plains in northern India, the Buddha experienced the beginnings of spiritual liberation achieved by the intensity of his message and his determination in his pilgrimages. Its implications were profound, offering what was perhaps the first and certainly the most holistic attempt to circumvent, if not remove, the ignominies imposed on populations by the accepted hereditary caste system in India. His spiritual message attacked and sought to diminish or eliminate what the Buddha saw as the primary human motivation – what he called “ignorance and desire” – and the cause of sorrow of all kinds. Thus in practise the Buddhist way was two-fold: one element was to deny social determination at birth (and also the curse of unavoidable rebirth – samsara); and the second, the fundamental means to attaining the first, was spiritual emancipation.
the buddha in life and art
Devotees have pressed layers of gold leaf on the fingernails of the colossal seated Buddha at Wat Si Chum at Sukhothai, Thailand. The image is in the Bhumisparsa posture, in which the Buddha touches the earth to call witness to his enlightenment.
A cutting from the Bhodi tree at Bodhgaya was taken by sea to Sri Lanka where Buddhism first took root about 250 BC. The relief carving gives a vivid impression of movement at sea and offers detailed information on the construction of Javanese ships plying the seas between India and S.E. Asia. Stone relief from panel 86, Borobudur, Indonesia.
Worshippers in one of the many halls of the main entrance to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the tallest Buddhist monument in Yangon, Myanmar. Pacing clockwise round the base of the entirely gilded stupa, visitors hear the murmurs of chanting, and the notes of wind chimes.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST ART
The essentially simple story of the life of the Buddha is one of a man’s assessment of what he saw in the Indian civilization of his time, and his consequent search for some panacea to alleviate its ills. This man lived well over two thousand years ago in a physical, political and spiritual environment in many ways very different from any that we know today. His efforts to cast away all those temporal elements surrounding him, and in so doing to achieve an inner state of detachment and thus the means of creating a way to alleviate the suffering of common life, proved only moderately successful in his lifetime. Yet the way of approaching life that formed the basis of the creed he invented came to be one of the most influential beliefs in the world. Fortunately in his time the arts in India took up what was to become a popular subject, and as the Buddhist creed spread virtually all over the far eastern world, it inspired the Asian artists who created some of the world’s greatest masterpieces. The serene Kamakura Buddha, seated in Dhyana mudra posture (meditation), is colloquially known as the Daibutsu. Cast in bronze in 1252 AD, a tidal wave of 1495 swept away the wooden temple that housed the sculpture. In spite of repeated efforts to re-house the image, the Diabutsu has remained ever since exposed to the elements.
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No memorial throughout history has towered higher than the many monuments to Buddha spread across Asia. The serene form and aspect of these gentle giants represents the attainment of all we seek to be. We stand in awe of their massive passivity, and we wonder at the hands that fashioned wood, stone and metal into such sublime grace. Pursuing their daily life beneath that gaze, those who dwell in the heartland of Buddhist Asia feel they draw their spiritual livelihood from a deeper source.
ISBN-13 978-988-98269-8-7
4 895069 301986