Published in the KTM post, August 25, 2013
(1) A Literary monk
(2) Siddhartha - the enlightened teacher
(3)
A monk of inner strength & determination
(4) A monk of philosophy & leadership(5) A monk of art & creativity
(6) A monk of knowledge & wisdom
(7) A group of monks marching for world peace
(8) A group of monks towards enlightenment
(Oil on Canvas)
Artist Sandhya Regmi
Buddhism is a fusion of religion and philosophy.
Buddhism is a religion to the extent that it is characterized by devotional
practices and rituals devotion to the Buddha or Buddhahood. However, it neither involves belief in a creator God or
any such supernatural power that has control over human destiny, nor seeks to
define itself by reference to a religious belief, neither does it believe in
the existence of soul and hence consecutively cherishes no expectation for any solace
from the God. Buddhism has been described as a philosophy, a way of life, a
code of ethics, and science of mind. Its path is driven by the goal of attaining
knowledge, independence and freedom.
Buddha has a variety of faces in different parts of
the world. To my astonishment, I have seen the crafting of the same Buddha in
diverse faces in countries like Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos,
Vietnam and Cambodia. No
craftsmen who carved Buddha knew exactly how he precisely looked like. His face
was expanded relying on the hearsay that he was a very good looking prince.
Besides relying on oral description of his outlook, craftsmen understandably
filled any gap applying their own skill, experience, and imagination. Thus,
Buddha’s image is a resultant of the accuracy with which his followers
understood Buddha’s real look, the accuracy with which they explained it to the
craftsmen, and the accuracy with which the craftsmen portrayed the image. In this process, Buddha’s face was localized
distinctly, in different parts of the world.
Buddhism is the highest pedestal
of all other existing religions and philosophies in the world because of the
fact that Buddha always humbled himself even after his 'Enlightenment', and
conveyed his disciples and followers that he was no God, no teacher, no
preacher, and asked them never to worship him as the Almighty, rather follow
the path of ‘Dharma’ and ‘Shangha’. With the exception of Buddhism, other
religions such as Hinduism, Christianity, Islamism, believe in a Creator the
Almighty Lord positioned and crowned high in Heaven and all the human beings
down below on Earth creating a ‘Laxman Rekha’ a concrete wall and an
unbreakable barrier between ‘Man’ and ‘God’, the concept of ‘Heaven’(Swarga)
and ‘Hell’ (Narak). In Buddhism, there is no such term as ‘Man’ and ‘God’.
There is hence neither ‘Heaven’ nor ‘Hell’, and in their absence there is no need of limitlessly
stretched preaching and practice of pleasing the God and making arrangements
for after death happiness. In Buddhism everyone is equal. In sharp
contrast to other religions, even an ordinary man born, grown up, and lived as
a human being can in his course of life attain ‘Enlightenment’ and become a
Buddha himself.
In the series of paintings 'Reincarnation of Buddha' I have attempted to
portray the Buddhist monks, who have marched and are marching their ways to the
path of world peace, hope, faith, freedom and enlightenment. 1) a group of monks marching for world peace, 2) a group of
monks towards Enlightenment ('Buddham Sharanam Gachhami'), 3) a literary monk who
dedicated his life for the prosperity of Nepali language and literature, 4) a
monk who has shown rays of hope to the whole world with the inner strength of
determination, courage and perseverance, 5) a monk of philosophy and
leadership, who worked throughout his life to uplift the down-trodden of the
society, and 6) a monk of knowledge and
wisdom in the route of 'Karma Yoga'. What all these monks have in common
is they all have the origin in Nepal, the place where Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
was born. Each of them has taken different route in life, but each and every
track merge to the same point, the point of attaining the enlightenment
('gyana').
It is interesting to note that
the 'Reincarnation' represents a group, a society and not an individual. Each
Buddha is representing a group of people, a society covering a broad geography.
The
reincarnation series of paintings have depicted the fact that elements of
Buddha exist in ordinary people, and that everybody is capable of marching
towards the path of Enlightenment and transforming herself/himself into Buddha.
It is to understand that the elements of Buddha exist in each individual. It is
just a matter of degree. Given that Buddha is a union of a particular state of
mind and of action, each individual is capable of adjusting the extent of
Buddha in him/her.
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