Amida And The Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas

As stated previously, this is a depiction of Buddha Maitreya. He is a particularly interesting subject because of his special place in Buddhism, namely that he is both a bodhisattva and a Buddha. It is believed that when the current version of our world ends he will be the next great teacher. He is thus greatly revered

Aaron Douglas’s piece titled Aspiration is oil painted on canvas by Aaron Douglas. All the flash lights in the dark night are what caught my eye first. When I divide the order of paintings into upper, middle, and lower, I feel that there is a higher ruling class living there. Two men in the middle and one woman each of three figures is holding an object in their hands that might symbolize different subjects of something and dreams of the life of the ruling class through the object. Three people in the middle are looking at the lights or building ahead. It looks like they are trying to reach the city on the hill and dream for the future ahead of them. And those three figures depicted had been escaped from the chains that hold the people under the three figures. And those people down there are also try to escape from there to find freedom. And also shows as what most of them dreamed of being.

Both Dai Jin, a professional Chinese painter,and Sesshu, a Zen Monk painter, painted the story about Huike and Bodhidharma. The story,“Huike Presenting His Severed Arm to Bodhidharma”, begins with a monk named Huike who desires to learn from Bodhidharma about enlightenment. Bodhidharma is found within a cave but in deep meditation but once awakened Huike pleads and he thus tests his readiness. To show his huge desire to become a disciple, Huike cuts off his arm to show he is ready mentally and spiritually. Surely enough he followed behind Bodhidharma’s footsteps and also becomes an important figure in Zen. Overall, the main theme shown in Dai Jin and Sesshu’s paintings is the psychological and spiritual tension upon an unenlightened monk who wants become the disciple of a master who answers Bodhidharma’s test by unhesitantly sacrificing a part of body. Although both artist utilizes the formal elements; composition, space, volume, line, texture and tone to depict their own visual version of the story, the artist who best depicts the theme between the two figures and highlights the story better is Sesshu rather than Dai Jin.

After looking at all the themes listed, the theme of “Picturing the Divine: Gods, Goddesses, Prophets, Buddhas, and Saints” caught my eyes. Out of this theme, I picked two incredible works of art, Meditating Buddha and Vladimir Virgin. When you first look and read the title of the theme I choose, it may cross your mind that my theme has something to do with religion. Meditating Buddha from Gandhara and Theotokos of Vladimir may come from different cultural traditions; however they both share the same general theme of picturing the divines.

The wall painting features Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future, sitting surrounded on both sides by two monks -standing immediately to the left and right, slightly to the back-, the ruling king and queen -sitting and in elaborate headdresses and robes, further left and right-, the crown prince and princess -standing between their parents and Maitreya-, and many other disciples and bodhisattvas -doing

The painting has some bright colors on the clothes of the people. The colors of the clothes are mostly pink, blue or red. The background of the entire piece is gold as well as the frame it is in. The frame is very detailed in the spirals and branching off decorative pieces, it looks like the opening to a cathedral. The people are drawn out very well, 22 people in the entire painting. The painting is a 2D painting as well. The lines on the clothing make it look realistic as well as the facial expressions of those in the paintings. The lighting is very bright making it look almost regal. The entire background of the painting is entirely gold. There are also gold highlights in the shape of circles circling everyone's heads in the painting. The painting itself is not too big, not more than 1-2 feet in length and 3 feet in height with the frame included. In the picture there are a lot of objects, there are two musicians with a violin and a harp. Other objects include books, most likely Bibles, a cross, a crown, a huge cathedral like stage that Mary and Jesus sit upon, and possibly a sword.

The temple contains the images of many bodhisattvas,Buddha's, and disciples. The images of the Buddha's and bodhisattvas are the focus of the rooms and outside. For example, in the main shrine and Bodhisattva hall, the focus are the images. Another example is the garden of the eighteen arhats in which the Buddha is surrounded by his first disciples. The other garden that is in the temple is the Vessel of Compassion for Universal Liberation. The main image in this garden is that of Avalofitesvara Bodhisattva. The other images depicted are of heaven kings. The bodhisattva is important because the vows of this Bodhisattva are of a compassionate mind and the power of wisdom. This bodhisattva answers the prayers of sentient beings no matter where they are and manifests in different forms. These eighteen arhats extinguished all defilements and afflictions. They had reached nirvana and their righteousness is exemplary to all Buddhists. Comparatively, symbols play an important role in buddhism and we can see this through the offers made to the Buddha's and bodhisattvas. For example, incense symbolizes inner peace, a lamp offering symbolizes the brightening of our vision and the enhancement of our wisdom. In addition, in the images, mudras or certain objects are a symbol of important rules to follow. Such as in image of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, the elephant symbolizes practice. The sounds that are used are that of instruments during the service in the main shrine and the sound of bells which usually mark the initiation of a service or other announcements. Furthermore, the smells that are used throughout the temple are incense. Incense is used as an offering and it is meant to help the Buddhist concentrate and focus on meditating. Lastly, taste is used in the ritual of eating vegetarian meals

Although the scroll has a small picture, the painting has a vast sense of space and is considered to be a representative masterpiece of the “study-retreat picture.” This painting is another example of depicting the natural world and seclusion, which for Zen monks it was important to the belief of hermit seclusion for inner reflection. In a majority of Shubun’s work, the common theme is the inclusion of a recluse which explains why the building and the figure can barely be seen. Recluse poetry and paintings became common among Japanese Zen Buddhist monks around 1400. There were those whom philosophically identified with the “pure” form of this practice and diligently meditated while living in huts or small temples that were secluded in the mountains far from the Japanese court society. However, a majority of artists that created these masterpieces, like Shubun, did not reside in mountain hermitages far from the court society

Later we went in to the museum this is where we saw many artifacts of the Buddhist culture. These artifacts were from all different branches of Buddhism. We saw a depiction of Buddha in his last moments before he passed on to Nirvana and by this statue there were tiny marble like balls that apparently represent the merit achieved before they passed away. Then there were multiple statues of Buddha and the Bodhisattva and there were multiple art works done by many different Buddhist that the museum cycles through. Although this wasn’t a huge museum it provided with a lot of different material and information. Then at the end of the museum the guide told us a bit about Hsing Yun, the founder of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist movement. This Buddhist

The Jataka is the most important Buddhist literature which was written in the 4th century BCE, and there are 547 stories. These stories are about the early lives of the Buddha before he was enlightened. The Buddha was born and reincarnated in rituals of humans, animals, and god. Buddhism is the religion of compassion that teach moral values and provides lessons. The objective of Buddhism is to enlighten about dharma and karma that might help individuals to escape the karmic cycle and reach nirvana. Dharma is expressed as the system of ethical behavior of life, distributing good life energy through the universe. Karma is mean as the network of cause/effect from the human action that can determine future reincarnation as a higher or lower creature.

A we entered the “Hando” (main Hall) my attention was immediately drawn to what is known as the Amida Buddha. The Amida Buddha is the Buddha of wisdom and compassion. On the left of the statue sat an alter with lit candles and floral decorations along the edges. In the center of the alter sat a single scroll. Within the scroll was the Nembutsu written in Japanese.

Buddha statue that “remains on earth as a means of helping other believers lead a better life so that

Particularly, the south (autumn) door depicts a breathtaking detailed image of Raigō of Amida and the Celestial Host (1053), made with colors on wood. This image is of importance because it not only depicts monks and a host of celestial beings, but also a new element emerging; that of Japan’s rural landscape – the ‘serene, low-lying hillocks and meandering streams of Yamato’ (Stanley-Baker 71). Yamato-e is a style of Japanese painting inspired by Tang dynasty paintings and fully developed by the late-Heian period, becoming the classical Japanese style (Akiyama 146). Meanwhile, the paintings remained first and foremost religious works relating to belief in Amida, but in China and Japan the most important was Kan Muryōju kyō, which describes the appearance of the Pure Land (Akiyama 147). The greatest of the Heian interpretations of the raigō (“welcoming approach”) conception is the Descent of Amida and the Twenty-five Bodhisattvas during the late eleventh century (Paine and Soper 98). In this work, the Amida no longer “sits aloof on cloud forms of some sutra-inspired and grandiose vision of heaven”; rather, the deity descends to Earth for the work of salvation of souls (Paine and Soper 98). These works are portrayed as more cheerful due to the vividness of contrasting tones of red, oranges, and greens—distinguishing from the more solemn renderings that had preceded

It is regarded as a deity and emanates great spiritual power. The sculpture’s face is soft and slender, portraying masculinity to the figure. There is a sense of deep contemplation from the Bodhisattva. It has curved eyebrows and eyes that appear to be casting down as if its resting to meet the individual staring at it. This sculpture has long ears and elongated earlobes indicating its connection with Buddha, whose long ears are part of his iconography.

The ritualistic bowing in which she doesn’t kneel, but returns to a somewhat fetal position from standing straight and she has a bowl or object in her hands symbolic of an offering. I found something odd and creepy on the bottom right side of the screen, it looked like a spear tip, but I could not tell what is was. If indeed it was a spear tip that might symbolize the pending attack of the town in the background. The Architecture details of the town also speak to the importance of water. That style of construction is for semi-arid to desert conditions, which means water is a scarce. Such an interesting piece of art, I feel the chants (with marakas), Architecture, clothing, and performance communicates exoterically allowing the viewer to determine the performance has Native American Cultural