Friday 31 December 2010

Is this the most beautiful Buddha statue in the world ?

Some think it might well be - beautiful subtle features and wonderful colours it is located in Seattle, Washington State , USA.

Happy New Year from the Buddha's Face !



Has been a great year for the Buddha's Face both with our blog , You Tube Channel and merchant site. I hope you've enjoyed the journey as much as we have and hope all your wishes and hopes for the New Year come to fruition.

The picture is the Buddha statue from the Wanstead Buddhist Temple in East London at the Blake's Hall Sports Ground for the Kathina Ceremony 31st October.


Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.
Buddha

Thursday 23 December 2010

Our Unique Hand Carved Buddha Statues - SALE NOW ON




These hand carved rain tree wood Thai Buddhas are naturalistically hewn and shaped to have an earthy, heavy, organic rustic feel. Made exclusively for the Buddha's Face by our family of Northern Thailand Buddhist artists they have proved hugely popular for a Western audience. The Buddha form and shape are perfectly imagined from the piece of impressive, sustainably forested, asian hardwood. Their naturalness and hard wood construction make them ideal for use not only in the home but also the garden - where untreated they will gradually weather with the seasons and mature into a seamless component of your outdoor space and a central feature that leads the eye towards the calming and serene features of the Buddha statue.



If you so wish you can occasionally polish the Buddha with teak oil or any other suitable outdoor wood treatment suitable for use in the garden and the resultant finish will take on a deeper,darker 'polished' hue and and prove to be a stunning highlighted feature in any garden setting.



Please note owing to the unique hand-made nature of each carving your Buddha statue may differ slightly from the one illustrated - but rest assured each piece will delight and reward its owner time and time again for countless years to come. Customers tell us that their Buddha wall art and statues become not just an integral part of their home decor but a spiritual centrepiece , a calming , serene object of quiet contemplation - part of a Karma home



If Buddha and Jesus went on holiday...



In this timely festive story in the Guardian the female Japanese manga author Hikaru Nakamura writes about when the two religious founders Jesus and Buddha end up sharing a room together whilst on holiday in Japan.





Sunday 12 December 2010

Sunday 5 December 2010

Worshipping the Buddha in Second Life

The popular on line virtual reality world second life attempts to re-create all the good and bad of the real world in a virtual on -line reality. This like the real world has all types of religions that exist - here we see a short clip showing a Pure Land Buddhist practice showing devotions in the meditation room .


Chinese Buddhist 'Disneyland' - Dong Zen - Malaysia


For three weeks just after the start of the Chinese New Year the Dong Zen Chinese Buddhist temple in Malaysia transforms itself with glittering lights and decorations in to a sort of Buddhist theme park or Disneyland. It attracts thousands of visitors from far and wide.

"A lie keeps growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on your face." Pinocchio

The Buddha's Face

Hip Hop Buddhist Monk - MC Happiness

It's a light hearted morning for the Buddha's Face and I'm scouring the web looking for funny or amusing snippets to blog about. Here's a lovely short clip from Japan on the undoubted hip hop skills of this talented and life loving Buddhist monk called Kansho Tagai or MC Happiness . We got the Dalai Lama in the house !

“When I first came across rap music , it was in English so I didn't understand it ."

“I thought the same goes for Buddhist sutras because most people don't understand a word. And listening to rap music makes you feel good even though you may not understand it ".

When Bubba met Buddha


A lovely little American country song celebrating Richard Hartwell's novel when the Buddha met Bubba - I haven't read this yet but on the strength of the song I will buy the book and see if I am taken along on a "whimiscal but moving relationship between a southern redneck and his Buddhist spiritual mentor."

Saturday 4 December 2010

3D Hollow Laughing Buddha Face Optical Illusion


Buddha Bill Hicks - It's only a Ride


One of the great late Bill Hicks most famous monologues is his existential philosophy as summarised by The Ride. His view is echoed in that of the Buddha that the world is an illusion created inside our heads and once we are aware it is our illusion and not the truth then this truth sets us free. To commemorate this our companion Buddha's Face You Tube channel has commissioned a special re cut of this great speech accompanied by Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No 1.

“Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.”



Tiniest Buddha Statue in the World ?


I have had this lovely little Buddha statue in my possession for over 7 years now - I bought it in Laos in 2003 for 50 baht by a seller who appeared by the site of a beautiful waterfall outside Vang-Vien . I have treasured it ever since it is made of brass and measures 16 mm in height. I'm pretty sure it isn't the smallest in the world there is probably one carved out of a grain of rice no doubt - but I add it as my starter for 10 !

Friday 3 December 2010

K-Fee Meditating Buddha Commercial

Don't quite know what to make of this commercial for a German canned coffee drink. It's probably an example of german humour which is why I don't get it.

"Don't tell them your name , Pike !"



In the Shadow of the Buddha - Tibetan Nuns


The world of Buddhist nuns is much less well known than that of male monks. In this moving documentary of Tibetan Buddhist nuns in northern India documentary filmmaker Heather Kessinger takes us into this seldom seen world. She finds evidence of a male dominated patriarchal culture which has seen much of their work and devotion marginalised and oppressed but the female spirit emerges strong and emboldened with love.



Sunday 21 November 2010

Another 3D Magic Eye Buddha Stereogram

These Magic Eye stereograms are fun if you can get them though not everybody can.This is a particularly fine example of a Buddha. Try relaxing your eyes and stare intently from about 10cm away. When (and if !) you finally get it you will be able to quickly see the 3D image from then on. It's as if once you're brain has cracked it it remembers the patterns.

“Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
Albert Einstein

3D Buddha Image Stereogram

These were very popular about 20 years ago when they first come out - in keeping with the theme of this blog see if by staring at it the 3D Buddha image can click into view. Persevere it's worth it.

“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”

The Buddha's Face

3D Buddhist Images from Japan

3D photos work by taking two different images slightly separated from each other and when viewed through a stereoscopic viewer helps to ensure each eye sees a slightly different images which is combined to produce 3d depth of field. The effect can be recreated using animated gifs of the stereo pair images. Here are three taken of Buddhist themes from the late 19th century and early 20th century.























































The Buddha's Face

200th Post – The Best of the Buddha’s Face – Viewers Choice

“A Jug fills drop by drop” Buddha

When I started this blog just over a year ago I had no idea where it would ultimately go or what it would all mean. It started to help drive traffic to our main merchant website and then as I became more immersed in the topic of the Buddha and Buddhism and Buddhist culture it took on a life of its own slightly divorced from the original concept.

It has been guided by the Buddha's message “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting.”

In that time we have roamed far and wide and for my 200th post it would be a good opportunity for review our audience stats to be the Best of the Buddha’s Face Blog (viewers choice). I will do my own favourites in a forthcoming blog.

The blog as of today has had over 11,500 page views and along with our Buddha’s Face You Tube Channel which has had over 30,000 views we are delighted that we have an audience on the web who wants to share some of our journey and joy.

Many thanks for stopping by I hope we have made a small difference. Don't forget our Buddhism 101 project - probably the most comprehensive Buddhist resource on the web.

Click here if you want to see my own personal favourites from the Blog.

Without health life is not life; it is only a state of languor and suffering - an image of death. Buddha

The Buddha’s Face Blog Top 10

(in terms of view counts)

Buddha Hand gestures in Thailand and Laos 618

The Buddha's Enlightenment 520

Asian Buddha Wall Art Decor - Our First Blog 334

The Use of Buddhas in Gardens and Garden Design 200

The Laughing Buddha 189

Buy this Buddha Wall Art and help the UK Thai Children’s Fund 122

Maybe the best Buddha quote of all time? 112

Attributes of the Buddha in Thailand and Laos 70

Believe Nothing - Analysis of the Buddha's Words 58

The most popular Buddha image on Google 56

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true. Buddha

The most popular video on The Buddha’s You Tube channel .....

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. Buddha

Saturday 20 November 2010

The Beatles and Buddhism - John Lennon



Prior to my 200 post (the next one !) western pop music seems to be my zeitgeist when writing the blog at the moment ! There has been no greater popular music force in the 20th century than the Beatles and John Lennon was seemingly the most spiritually adventurous of the band and the leading force behind the Beatles's experiments with Eastern religions and metaphysics.

He made use of Buddhist chants in his song "Across the Universe." Buddhist hymns, saffron /orange dress and Buddhist artworks were hugely popular among hippies in this period. This culminated with the Fab 4 flying to India to meet with the Transcendental meditation Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. After the band split in 1970 the band members all went their own ways and towards the end of the 1970's John Lennon had left behind most of his new found enthusiasm for religions of whatever bent.

In their album revolver John Lennon makes references to Zen Buddhism in the track "Tomorrow Never Knows". In the first instance he had wanted Buddhist monks to chant along on the backing track. Lyrics include surrender to the void and the meaning is within.

When asked by a reporter about Bob Dylan's short lived conversion to Christianity he replied "I'm not pushing Buddhism because I'm no more a Buddhist than a Christian. But there's one thing I admire about the religion. There's no proselytizing."

"We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow's nest of that ship. "
John Lennon

More Famous Buddhists - Artist Laurie Anderson


Performance artist Laurie Anderson born June 5th 1947 in Illinois,USA was raised in a fundamentalist Christian sect called "Churches of Christ". She is an artistic polymath and some regard her as one of the most significant artists of the late 20th century.

She reached breakthrough popularity with her single "O Superman" which charted at no 2 in the UK in 1981. Despite her Christian upbringing Laurie Anderson now identifies herself as a Buddhist.

Laurie Anderson is regarded as one of the most significant artists of this century; she is a poet, writer, visual artist, sculptor and humanitarian but best known as a singer , where her technical wizardry and amazing live shows have cemented her reputation as one of the world's most eccentric and unique performers.

"In Buddhist thought, there's the thing and there's the name for the thing and that's one thing too many"

Famous Buddhists - Annie Lennox - Eurythmics

When I was researching my original Top 10 Famous Buddhists - they were mainly Hollywood stars and of course ending with the most famous of them all the Dalai Lama. Whilst browsing Spotify this morning looking for remixes I came across the Eurythmics Remix of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) and I dimly remembered seeing something at one time about her being a Buddhist. So off the web I go to confirm this hunch and she is indeed a Buddhist.

Annie Lennox was born on Christmas Day 1954 in Aberdeen,Scotland. From 1980 to 1990 her and the guitarist and former lover Dave Stewart had a string of memorable hits and were a key part of the sonic landscape of that decade. She has written the foreword to Coffee with the Buddha.

"The future hasn't happened yet and the past is gone. So I think the only moment we have is right here and no, and I try to make the best of those moments, the moments that I'm in." Annie Lennox


The Heart Sutra Revisited


We mentioned the Heart Sutra in a previous blog and featured a clip from the movie The Little Buddha.It is a Buddhist Scripture that resonates powerfully with me and got me to return to this theme. I was looking on You tube to find a different version of this sublime poem and I think I've found it. It is the chant of all as well as being the chat for all. Enjoy !

Until we achieve enlightenment, I and all beings,
Go for safety to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
Through the virtues I receive by giving and other perfect actions
May I become a Buddha for the good of all.