[Buddha-l] Meditating Buddha

[curt]

I think a lot of the responses that have been given already are good - 
especially Richard Nance's. But there are two side-issues that I think 
are important:

(1) Many seated depictions of the Buddha are actually "teaching" Buddhas 
as much as or even more than they are "meditating" Buddhas. And at least 
in the Zen tradition this distinction is completely obliterated because 
teachers often teach while seated in zazen - if one were to look at them 
you couldn't tell if they were teaching or "just" meditating.

(2) Originally there were no depictions of the Buddha at all. These only 
came later - I believe the first Buddha sculptures are associated with 
early Mahayana at the furthest reaches of Buddhism's early Western 
expansion (Bactria/Afghanistan). This would associate the origin of 
Buddhist sculpture with a much broader phenomenon - the rapid changes in 
the visual arts and especially sculpture that were going on in that time 
and place.

- Curt

Stefan Detrez wrote:

> Archetypical for Buddhist art is a meditating Buddha. However, one can 
> wonder WHY a Buddha has to meditate, assuming the he/she is 
> enlightened, and enlightenment excludes the necessity of (further) 
> meditation.
> This question popped in my mind rereading some suttas where brahmins 
> want to go and see the Buddha, but then are informed that 'it's not 
> the proper time' to pay the Buddha a visit, because he's meditating.
>
> And then I thought of the reasons for the Sanghabeda, where Mahadeva 
> advanced characteristics of an Arhat, whose acceptance ran counter to 
> the stable and point-of-no-returnesque quality of a Buddha, as 
> advanced by the Theras.
>
> You start to wonder whether a Buddha can relapse into humanity, when 
> you see him meditate.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Stefan
>
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