Buddha Bhagavan Album

I have stashed these beautiful Hindu conceptions of the Buddha, of which the above is an example, in my new Buddha Bhagavan album. Please read bhagavan.jpg first. (enlarge the image to see the text clearly).

In general, American mainstream conceptions of the Buddha suffer severely from the Nihilist heresy, which asserts that phenomena do not exist. That was NOT the teaching of the Buddha. What He taught is that phenomena have no self-nature, in other words, that they do not exist in the way we percieve them. This is not hair-splitting, please. It is the cataclysmic chasm between someone who, having never practiced on the Path given by the Buddha, has absolutely nothing in his or her mind by which to anchor the Buddha’s teaching to the meaning of anything, on the one hand, and someone to whom the Buddha’s teaching has become transparent because it is the person’s spiritual Path.

The Buddha’s teaching is an industrial-grade spiritual Path, arguably the shortest and most effective Path that has ever been uttered, or which could ever be uttered, on this planet. In demographic terms, it has had a wider effect on the culture and institutions of this planet than any of the other great religions. No teaching obtains that effect by denial, on any level.

The Nihilist heresy of Buddhism which has become endemic in America has arrived from three sources:

1. Pseudo-Buddhist Beat poets of the ’50’s in general, and their ring-leader, the drug-addled gas bag called Dr. Alan Watts, in particular.

2. The largest Japanese Buddhist sect, the Jodo Shinshu, which also happens to still be the largest “Buddhist” sect in America. This sect is not even strictly Buddhist. It is rather the ancestor cult of its founder, Shinran, who taught that human beings do not have the Buddha-nature, among other Nihilist phantasies. The top man in the Jodo Shinshu is, by definition, is the keeper of Shinran’s mausoleum in Kyoto. The official symbol of the Jodo Shinshu is the official seal (Mon) of Shinran’s family. What else could be an ancestor cult, please? There’s nothing wrong with an ancestor cult per se, but when it is asserted to be the teaching of the Buddha, this is patently false, wrong, unacceptable, heretical, and untransmittable to the American mainstream.

3. The ongoing hallucinatory phantasies of web-wonks who think, like the approximately 125 generations of intellectual deadheads that preceded them, that the Buddha’s teaching is nothing but words.

The antidote to the Nihilist heresy is no verbal concoction, but rather an accurate perception of Who the Buddha actually was. That’s what we see in this collection of Hindu graphics. What a guy! The Buddha was a huge and powerful personality, who profoundly and irreversibly altered the entire course of human history on this planet, and who was a profound personal influence on everyone who encountered him, including the women, nay, especially the women.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Datong

An example of the beautiful Northern Wei Buddhist art, which still pounds Central Asian vitality in all directions, at the Yun Gang Cave Grottoes at Datong.

In Beijing for the Olympics? Visit the major Buddhist historical site at Datong, a several-day side trip from Beijing.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Of Japanese Buddhist Altars

(click image to enlarge)

Other Obon photos can be found in my Obon Album.

How do we know that this altar is Japanese and not Chinese? There are probably innumerable answers to that question, but the most salient might be these four:

1. The JODO SHU MON (that round split flower design which is repeated in the front and also hangs down from the ceiling). This identifies the Jodo Shu as a Japanese clan, and would probably be considered a doctrinal deviation by the Chinese.

2. Everything is so, um, VERTICAL.

3. The emphasis on SPACE rather than mass. Chinese art, by tendency, defines mass. The best Japanese art, of which this is an example, defines space. The importance of the Buddha is established not by the size of the statue, but by the extraordinary quality of the space that he is surrounded by.

4. Elegance, elegance, elegance. There isn’t a single wasted detail here. The complexity comes from the robustness of the symbolism, not from a need for complexity in and of itself.

In my never humble enough opinion, this is the most beautiful Buddhist altar I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen bigger ones, more expensive ones, more ornate ones, and more fussed-over ones, but none other this beautiful. Maybe there are more beautiful ones out there, because I have not seen every Buddhist altar, but even in books of the best standards available, I’ve never seen something this beautiful in a Buddhist altar.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Kwan Yin Temple and the Geometry of the Vortex

(click image to enlarge)

Kwan Yin Temple, at Vinyard St. and Nu’uanu Stream in downtown Honolulu, is very difficult to photograph because it’s so protected. There is just no way to get a straight shot at it, and when you do, it’s wreathed in shadows. As a result, there is no real photodocumentary about it online.

All of that notwithstanding however, It occurred to me that if I complied all my existing shots of it into one album, I would have the premier photodocumentary of this really beautiful and geometrically amazing temple online, and so that’s what I’ve done. Check it out:

My Kwan Yin Temple Album

Sacred geometry is the geometry of the vortex, and most basically, you arrive at it either by using the proportional constant Phi (1.618…), or by using numbers out of this series {1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34, …) where each term is the sum of the two terms preceding it. As this series goes to infinity, the ratio of its two last terms goes to Phi.

Kwan Yin Temple uses a square geometry fundamentally derived from Chinese Feng Shui, which is based on these terms of that series: 1, 3, 5, 8, and 21. You can see some of it in the shot above, and in this one:

(click image to enlarge)

This geometry generates the etheric vortex, and an etheric singularity (point source) at the center. The singularity becomes a source of spiritual transmission because of the orthodox practice of the resident Sangha there.

It should be pointed out that none of this geometry becomes sacred without practice. The Kling’on, for example, use the singularity as the power source in their star drive. They have become galactic predators and highly unattractive as a whole species, because although they understand the geometry of the vortex, they are just too stupid and lazy to build it. (Did you ever check the geometry on their Bird of Prey prototype? Gak!) As a result, they have to hunt and trap the singularity. Wrong!

When you prey on beings, you will speak garbage, look ugly, act stupid, and be condemned. The geometry of the vortex is no salvation for you when you do that.

Oh, and hey, transmission stabilized in this way works through an image as well. For example, if your practice is orthodox Buddhist, you can use the above image as wallpaper on your desktop, and recieve transmission from it, even while you kick heretic butt. Hey, why mess around, you know what I mean?

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

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