At the end of May, I was listening to WBUR when I heard this story about a large Jade Buddha statue that was touring the world and had made a stop in Worcester, MA. (Interestingly enough, WBUR's Morning Edition had piece this morning on Worcester, too.) I went to the site for the Jade Buddha after I got to work and read up on it. How strange that on the world tour of this amazing statue, it was being presented at such cities as Toronto, Melbourne, Taipei, Berlin...and the illustrious Worcester, MA. That said: I felt so lucky that I had the wonderfully introspective / meditative and reverent opportunity to go see it so close to home (though I wouldn't have minded a trip to some of those other cities, either).
I listened to the music replayed from the event website that entire day. Two friends and I visited the statue on June 3rd. I expected this large, expensive rock-turned-artistic-and-religious-masterpiece to be enshrined in some beautiful building. In fact, it was set up in a parking lot next in a run-down neighborhood, next to a tiny temple and across the street from a doughnut shop. Talk about focusing on the philosophy instead of the pretense! We parked down the street (cars were lined up from people flocking to visit), and walked up to the tarp-covered parking lot serving as the statue's 'home' for the week or so. There were people sitting, praying, meditating, chatting and selling candles / momentos.
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| The tiny temple next to which the Buddha was set up |
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| The view of the Buddha from the street |
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| The promotional poster for the Jade Buddha |
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| Part of the list of places the Jade Buddha statue would visit on the US portion of its world tour |
We kneeled and stood around for a bit. The place was quite odd...but peaceful. I found myself jealous of the people who had visiting at night and spent dark hours in front of the statue with time to really sit and reflect in the calm (and essentially on the sidewalk). After a few pictures, we left.
My second summer Buddha experience was on my trip to Hawaii in July. I visited with friends (more about that trip to come), and one day at the start of the trip we walked through a flea market. One of the vendors was selling this:
I didn't buy him, but I wanted to. (Not sure that would work as "carry-on" baggage.)
Later in the trip, as we drove up the western coast of the "big island" of Hawai'i, we stopped at a pottery studio called the "Kona Potters Guild" that had open studio hours.
Of the 6-8 artists who call the workspace 'home' for their clay crafts, only one was there at the time. We got to see her work, then walk around and see the work of many of the others, as well. I saw a bunch of things that really interested me. I'll have to share some pics and descriptions of those another time - I have plans in my head to incorporate some of the shapes (or see if I can recreate some of the glaze colors). You should have seen me 'guiding' my friends around the studio. I was like a proud puppy looking at pieces in progress and trying to explain what I recognized (and what I was seeing for the first time). Good thing my insides didn't burst like I thought they were going to...I can only imagine what that kind of contaimination would do if it made it into the kiln!
Although I could hardly call it "stunning", I found this little guy sitting on Alysia Samaru's shelf.
He was for sale for about $1.00, I think. He's about as big as a nickel, and the hole in the top is just big enough to thread through something that could serve as a 'chain' to make him a necklace or charm.
I plunked down my money, and we left the studio. I didn't want to lose him, so I put him into the change pouch of my wallet. It's been over a month and he's been there the whole time. Part of me just likes that I'm carrying around a little Buddha head. Another part of me wants to try to make some tiny, little things (not necessarily just like it) that I could give to friends and family as momento-gifts. I haven't decided what yet, exactly. That's a topic for a next post. Until then, I'll just keep rubbing him between my fingers as I think. Om....
