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Mar 20, 2012
The Resting Buddha
As I glanced around my living room, hallway and bedroom, it became exceedingly clear to me that my abiding love for Buddha statues might have reached an all-time high.
It’s not for design purposes that I feel drawn to these statues—as beautiful as I think they are—or to any kind of religious art (I collect rosaries as well), to me it’s the peace and tranquility that seems to emerge from these sculptures. They render me calm and they inspire me.
I really have to show you my latest addition to the collection: a resting Buddha. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I had never seen this pose before. Makes me wonder what other atypical Buddha poses I don’t know anything about.
What do you collect and why?
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Hi Kay!
Yes there are few other poses. As a Sri Lankan I live in a budhist country. But Kay I have to tell you this, I know your intention is not to disrespect the Budhist’s among us, but we normaly do not display any kind of budha statue or picture in our homes. I think any asian will agree with me if you ask.
Yes, but I’m a non-buddhist and I like to place them in my home. Also I’m not Asian. To each their own, right?
Neither do I. I’m a catholic too. But we have to respect other
religions too. You don;t have to be a asian and you have a right to keep
anything in your home. We do not keep jesus statues in our living room. There’s a special place for that.
Think you’ll understand what I ment.
Buddhism is not a religion, that first. Where it comes to Buddha statues there are no hard and fast rules. It could be considered disrespectful to place one in your home strictly for decorating purposes (emphasis on could), and ignore the meaning of the statue.
It would be disrespectful to place a Buddha statue on the floor. It would also be disrespectful to point the soles of your feet towards a Buddha statue, so it cannot be placed at the footside of your bed.
But a Buddha statue in ones home in and of itself, no, there’s nothing disrespectful about that. I also have a beautiful Jesus crucifix in my living room. In my opinion, you don’t need a special place for anything that deals with religion or reflection. It should be everywhere.
Hi Kay!
Budism is a religion and a philosophy too. As you said there’s no hard and fast rules. I looked at it as a sri lankan. B’casue I live in a budhist country. Here we keep budha in a mantle or a shelf high up above everything. I’ve never seen keeping budha statues in anyone;s living room.
So, as you said it is your right to keep what you like anyware in your home. So I thought it is my right to tell you that it is not the way to keep budha like that, becasue I thought you don’t know about it.
I’m sure this is not the way a Buddhist keeps a Buddha statue, but that Buddhist would be offended by a non-Buddhist who do place one in their home is something I don’t really believe.
Wanted to know more about it, so I contacted the Sri Lankan international Buddhist academy to see if they agree with you.
I also collect rosary beads and have them around the neck of an old Madonna statue I found on a Belgian flea market. I imagine my Catholic upbringing makes them special to me….
I also have a pretty impressive English tea cup and saucer collection (as in Royal Albert). My mom and aunt began collecting them in the 50′s where it was normal that a man would bring one to his beloved while courting (like roses are given today). I brought their collections over to the Netherlands with me when i immigrated 12yrs ago and it’s grown to way over 200! I’ve also added cake plates and side plates (also vintage English) to this lot….and display my favorites in an antique china cabinet…the rest, helas are stacked in my kitchen cabinets, rarely seeing the light of day. We’re getting married in May and I’m thrilled to be having our reception here at home, using all my vintage china for our guests…our theme? High tea!
Kay,
I have a slight problem with an ever expanding collection of depression era dishes. I cobalt blue, pink, green , yellow, plates, bowls, glasses. You name it and it’s probably in my house just waiting for that special party. I love your newest statue !
You don’t happen to have a photo of them, do you? :)
I have to agree, this is a different pose, and she looks so peaceful. Very beautiful.
xo
kristin nicole
We have a collection of Buddha statues and Ganesha statues. They each represent something to me. I’ve seen plenty of Buddhas on Asian home’s shrines.
Ganesha, being the remover of obstacles, is very important to me. The Buddha is a reminder of compassion.
When I was a girl, I had a May altar every year, with a statue of the Blessed Virgin.
I think that people can get judgmental when what they consider to be “THEIR” religious iconography is used by others who espouse a different religion. That is the root of discord though, isn’t it? Why not be happy that people are touched by the imagery of what the god, goddess, or bodhisattva represents? Of course now maybe *I* am judging.
I love your reclining Buddha.
I think there’s always someone going to be offended by something someone else does. So I really can’t live my life wondering about that. There are far better things to be offended by than someone displaying a Buddha statue in their home, I think.
I don’t have much space for collections but my father, an otherwise practical, straightforward and non-nonsense man, has an adoration for anything chicken. He has chicken soft toys, chicken sculptures, chicken crockery, chicken decanters, chicken bedlinen, chicken paintings…he even had a trembling handy-man climb to the top of my parents’ four story house to perch a chicken windvane ontop. And yet he manages to keep this collection classy. I don’t know anyone else who could take such a tacky subject with SO MANY incarnations all around the house and make it look beautiful.
We have no idea why he became obsessed with Chickens about thirty five years ago. He doesn’t know either. He just really likes chickens.
Not the real thing though. He’s had numerous excitable friends think they’ve got him an amazing present in the form of a real chicken and had to tell them no, sorry, I just don’t have the resources or attention to deal with another pet. Besides we have cats.
I have 2 statues of Buddha and one of Buddha’s face carved on wood…I totally agree with you that the peace and serenity it brings it really something else…
I also collect little bronze statues, mostly Hindu Gods, so far, they are about an inch tall and beautifully carved…
Kay, I´m just in my way to look for a similar statue…I really loved his face so peacefull…I just can imagine myself looking at him in a special and strategic place of my living-room where i can see it every time.
When I adopted The Buddhism as my religious faith I asked my goodparents( 35 years following the Buddhism) about my Angels collection and they told me: “Don´t take them away, they are adorable…Just don´t put them on the Gohonzon…It is your Altar and it is your attitude which determines your respect for all of them…keep on enjoying them.”
Hi your Buddha is beautiful would you share where you bought it? Thanks
Interesting dialogue about the Buddhas.
I have started to collect sea glass. It transports me to the ocean when I get a glance of it. :)
Stick to your guns, Kay. You intend no disprespect. I think she only meant to share how Asian Buddhists feel. But this sort of thing is why Guatam never set out to make it a religion. Man turned it into religion and perverted it with words and rules and sects, etc. Now there are leaders and who gets the biggest chair, and there are temples and monks and so forth. I found it interesting that Nirmala didn’t mention that all Buddha statues must face the east! But I will say that, unless you rub meat all over the statues and use them as target practice, you aren’t doing anything “wrong”. I have an estate buddha statue in his own Buddha House, facing East, outside of my Japanese house in the mountains, in a conifer forrest. I have Ganesh inside the house. But the decor is not Japanese! These things aren’t important. Reverence for God is. One needs not statues for that, as it is a non-material matter. As an aside, I love God and I, too, love Christ, but I wouldn’t have Christian art in my house because it is ugly to me. The cross is not only the ugliest thing in representing the murder of Jesus, it is the worst energy according to Feng Shui masters…. On and on and on….