A dedicated part of the Buddha's Face 101 Project
Monday 19 July 2010
Painting the Buddha - Our Latest Video
In my last post I profiled a You Tube video of a time lapse painting of the Buddha. In my search for content I came across some more videos of painting of the Buddha. I've picked the best,edited and assembled them together to make a short video of the the best of You Tube for our new channel Statues of the Buddha. The music is Willow by Cafe del Mar - this is there version of the operatic aria from Verdi's opera Otello - Café del Mar Aria is an album concept that combines Chill out music with opera arias. The Café del Mar concept originated from the "sunset bar" with has the same name in Sant Antoni de Portmany on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza.
A dedicated part of the Buddha's Face 101 Project
A dedicated part of the Buddha's Face 101 Project
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Recently I have come across Buddharupam (images of the Buddha) that seem nice, but the fact of the matter is that the artist jumped right into his or her rendition WITHOUT DOING ANY RESEARCH on the subject matter. A Buddha image is much more than someone's "interpretation" of the Buddha. They are meant to inspire. The stillness of the statue invites restraint. Large sized images tell of His limitless virtue. And the robe arranged ALWAYS WITH THE RIGHT SHOULDER BARE (as is done in ALL Asian countries-India to Japan-as a gesture of respect) shows that even the Enlightened One Himself had the most profound respect for the Dhamma He awakened to. Every sutta which tells of someone coming before the Lord, for whatever reason, always mentions the person arranging his robe to bare his right shoulder and placing his hands palm to palm (customs which pre-date the Buddha). There was a monk once removed from the Sangha (recent times) who refused to disrobe. Out of utter defiance and to show the most DISRESPECT possible, he continues to wear his robes...over his RIGHT shoulder, bearing the left instead. From China to Sri Lanka..even look at Asia's traditional clothing and you will see it styled or cut to represent the right shoulder being less covered than the left. Theravadin Bhikkhus, after being away from the vihara, immediately arrange their robes from being fully covered to showing the right shoulder as soon as they come inside a monastery's walls. Watch Tibetan monks when they approach eachother-they unwind their robe to show the right shoulder as they bow...It's such an important part of Buddhism that gazing upon images done wrong-as if the Buddha woke up and thought in front of the mirror, "which way today? Right or left...And should I wear the ochre robe or the ochre robe?...I'm having a bad robe day..." and that does anything but inspire. As he was infinitely compassionate and decided to share...the lighted path that leads out of darkness; the remedy for suffering; the cure for ignorance, He should be shown the respect befitting not only Him, but us as well. After all, this respect ultimately benefits us, not Him. It's a little part of one's practice that can surely go a long way. How many times have you been asked about a Buddha statue? The opportunity to share Dhamma is right there. Just putting the word out.
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