Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Pictures of revered teachers, places, rupas, temples, bhikkhus, shrine rooms etc. that bring inspiration to our members. Pilgrimage advice, devotion etc.
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Hanzze
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Hanzze »

pilgrim wrote: 29 . ??no idea??
Thanks Pilgrim!

This picture is often seen here in local Temples... any self refexions in the suttas?
Just that! *smile*
...We Buddhists must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos, and the battlefields will become our temples. We have so much work to do. ... Peace is Possible! Step by Step. - Samtach Preah Maha Ghosananda "Step by Step" http://www.ghosananda.org/bio_book.html

BUT! it is important to become a real Buddhist first. Like Punna did: Punna Sutta Nate sante baram sokham _()_
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

29. May be the Rāhula Sutta — not the better known Ambalatthika Rāhulovāda Sutta — or one would expect to see an overturned almsbowl in the picture.
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mikenz66
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by mikenz66 »

pilgrim wrote: 9. Siddhatta sees the four sights ( according to commentaries, not sutta)
Though much of it comes from these Suttas:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"I had three palaces: one for the cold season, one for the hot season, one for the rainy season. During the four months of the rainy season I was entertained in the rainy-season palace by minstrels without a single man among them, and I did not once come down from the palace. Whereas the servants, workers, & retainers in other people's homes are fed meals of lentil soup & broken rice, in my father's home the servants, workers, & retainers were fed wheat, rice, and meat.

"Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: 'When an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, himself subject to aging, not beyond aging, sees another who is aged, he is horrified, humiliated, & disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to aging, not beyond aging. If I — who am subject to aging, not beyond aging — were to be horrified, humiliated, & disgusted on seeing another person who is aged, that would not be fitting for me.' As I noticed this, the [typical] young person's intoxication with youth entirely dropped away.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"I, too, monks, before my Awakening, when I was an unawakened bodhisatta, being subject myself to birth, sought what was likewise subject to birth. Being subject myself to aging... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, I sought [happiness in] what was likewise subject to illness... death... sorrow... defilement. The thought occurred to me, 'Why do I, being subject myself to birth, seek what is likewise subject to birth? Being subject myself to aging... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, why do I seek what is likewise subject to illness... death... sorrow... defilement? What if I, being subject myself to birth, seeing the drawbacks of birth, were to seek the unborn, unexcelled rest from the yoke: Unbinding? What if I, being subject myself to aging... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, seeing the drawbacks of aging... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, were to seek the aging-less, illness-less, deathless, sorrow-less,, unexcelled rest from the yoke: Unbinding?'
pilgrim wrote: 11.He takes a last look at his wife and son Rahula before leaving the palace secretly ( according to commentaries, not sutta)
Yes, the next portion of the Sutta doesn't mention wife, son, or secrecy:
"So, at a later time, while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life — and while my parents, unwilling, were crying with tears streaming down their faces — I shaved off my hair & beard, put on the ochre robe and went forth from the home life into homelessness.
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Sylvester
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Sylvester »

The deva in pix #13 is the Ghatikara Brahma offering him the Requisites.

Odd that Sakka is not depicted in this standard depiction of the Great Renunciation from the Commentaries.

For #14, would that be Mara strumming on Beluvapanduvina?

For #16, that would be the Bodhisatta setting his bowl upstream before it was deposited on Mahakala's head and then resting on the bowls of the 3 previous Buddhas.

#20 would be Brahma Sahampati's Invitation to Teach.
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pilgrim
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by pilgrim »

:thumbsup: That leaves numbers 8, 23 and 29 unresolved. What an interesting puzzle.
Sylvester
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Sylvester »

I suspect the sequence of #22 and #23 is misplaced, and that #23 should be the scene from Tavatimsa where the Buddha teaches the Abhidhamma to the assembled devas. The stone slab the Buddha is seated on is probably the Pandukambalasilāsana, Sakka's throne (but a bit off-colour if the Commentarial account of it being yellow is correct).

The tree above the throne would be the Pāricchattaka and the stupa in the background might be the Culamani Chedi, repository of the Bodhisatta's locks from the Great Renunciation.
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texastheravadin
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by texastheravadin »

I'm not sure where you came across theses images, but here is where I found them:

http://sinhaladharmastore.blogspot.com/ ... -lord.html

There are captions under each one, although you may want to re-write some of the English...I'm not trying to insult the authors of this page by the way, just saying...

Here's the caption for the scene with the bathing women

Knowing the strong desires the monk Nanda had for his girlfriend before entering monk hood, Buddha, the Great Master accompanied him to Tawthisa heaven to show 500 goddess wives of King of Gods the "Shakra". The Thero happen to realize the difference in beauty of human and devine females. Ever since his desire changed for divine females. Buddha the Exalted promised him similar goddesses if he can maintain his monk ship right. Nanda Thero happily agreed. Later the Thero realized his low mentality after sarcastic comments from fellow monks. He later put everything he had for most purified monk ship and attained Arhath ship before long.
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"Indeed, the Blessed One is worthy and rightly self-awakened, consummate in knowledge & conduct, well-gone, an expert with regard to the world, unexcelled as a trainer for those people fit to be tamed, the Teacher of divine & human beings, awakened, blessed." — AN 11.12
Luke
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Luke »

Ben wrote: Not really to my taste.
They aren't to my taste either. To me they look like an attempt to "Krishna-ize" the Buddha. I'm surprised that they didn't try to depict him holding a flute while they were at it... These pictures look more similar to Hindu art than to Buddhist art to me.

Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings already spread the light of wisdom--no extra physical light is needed! And the Buddha wore a robe of very ordinary cloth--not one of super soft flowing silk!

These pictures also make Buddha look like a giant. I don't know the sutras ever talk about Buddha's height, but I don't think he was 8 feet tall!
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Popo
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Popo »

Could 29 be Buddha preaching to Rahula?
Theoretical approaches have their place and are, I suppose, essential but a theory must be tempered with reality.
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Ceisiwr
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Ceisiwr »

Why is the Buddha always shown as youthful. I have thought for a long time now that it would be good to see pictures and sculptures of him as an Old man with wrinkles etc
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
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bodom
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by bodom »

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One....on emerging from seclusion in the late afternoon, sat warming his back in the western sun. Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, massaged the Blessed One's limbs with his hand and said, "It's amazing, lord. It's astounding, how the Blessed One's complexion is no longer so clear & bright; his limbs are flabby & wrinkled; his back, bent forward; there's a discernible change in his faculties — the faculty of the eye, the faculty of the ear, the faculty of the nose, the faculty of the tongue, the faculty of the body.""That's the way it is, Ananda. When young, one is subject to aging; when healthy, subject to illness; when alive, subject to death. The complexion is no longer so clear & bright; the limbs are flabby & wrinkled; the back, bent forward; there's a discernible change in the faculties.


The best image we got.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
Sylvester
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Sylvester »

Just figured out #29.

It's from the Acchariyabbhutadhamma-sutta, MN 123, where baby Gotama takes seven steps and declares,
“I am supreme in the world, I am the highest in the world, I am the first in the world; this is my last birth, there will be no further existence.".
Ven Analayo has just published "Genesis of Bodhisattva Ideal" and he compares this sutta with its Chinese parallel that is missing this episode.
The Pāli version records a declaration made by the newly born bodhisattva on this occasion, in which he proclaims his superiority in the world and his transcendence of future existences, a declaration absent from the Madhyama-āgama parallel.
...

Thus the mere ability of an infant to speak at birth was in itself not necessarily seen in a positive light. Besides, according to the Pāli Jātaka collection already in two previous existences the bodhisattva was able to speak right after being born.69 Since these instances are not explicitly reckoned as marvels, in the present case the marvel would be the content of his proclamation.

The Madhyama-āgama version differs from the Acchariyabbhutadhammasutta in as much as it only records the seven steps, without any proclamation made at all.70 Nakamura (1980/1999: 18) is probably right when he concludes that “the verse claimed to have been proclaimed by the Buddha at his birth was composed very late.”71....

When considered from the perspective of the didactic function of the Acchariyabbhutadhamma-sutta, the proclamation made by the bodhisattva Gautama may at first have come into being as just another facet in the overall scheme of exalting the Buddha. Yet, this particular marvel has consequences that originally may have been neither intended nor foreseen.

The significance of this proclamation emerges once it is compared with the passages examined in the first part of the present chapter. These passages invariably indicate that the bodhisattva was not yet awakened, anabhisambuddho,
which holds true even in the case of those versions that do not employ the term bodhisattva. Thus, from the perspective of this general consensus among early Buddhist discourses, the bodhisattva would have been able to make the claim that “this is my last birth, there will be no further existence” only once he had become a Buddha. .....

On considering these formulations, it seems safe to conclude that when these descriptions of the Buddha’s awakening came into being, the idea had not yet arisen that already at his birth he knew that this was going to be his last birth. In other words, the proclamation made by the infant bodhisattva in the Acchariyabbhutadhamma-sutta involves a clear shift of a claim, originally made after awakening, to the time when the bodhisattva Gautama had just been born.77
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Kusala
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Re: Captions needed for the Pictorial Biography of Buddha

Post by Kusala »

Luke wrote:
Ben wrote: Not really to my taste.
They aren't to my taste either. To me they look like an attempt to "Krishna-ize" the Buddha. I'm surprised that they didn't try to depict him holding a flute while they were at it... These pictures look more similar to Hindu art than to Buddhist art to me.

Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings already spread the light of wisdom--no extra physical light is needed! And the Buddha wore a robe of very ordinary cloth--not one of super soft flowing silk!

These pictures also make Buddha look like a giant. I don't know the sutras ever talk about Buddha's height, but I don't think he was 8 feet tall!
Hi Luke. The Suttas did talk about the Buddha's height.
"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

--------------------------------------------
"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
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