LIFE AS MYTH
A FEMININE MYTH
Hsi Wang Mu, goddess of immortality
The girl with the peaches: portrait of Vera Mamontova (Valentin Serov)
Carnation Lily, Lily Rose (John Singer Sargent)
The mermaid at Clonfert Cathedral
Olympia (Édouard Manet)
SPRING 2008
THE BUDDHA
Buddha in his youth. Odilon Redon. 1904. Private Collection.
He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.
Siddhartha Buddha (563 - 483 BCE), spiritual teacher, founder of BuddhismProphecies at the birth of Prince Siddhārtha foretold his becoming either a great king or a great holy man. Throughout his childhood and even until he was a young adult, his father successfully sheltered him from all knowledge of the suffering of the world. However, at the age of twenty-nine, a pivotal encounter changed the course of his life. Siddhārtha went out to meet with his subjects and although his father usually barred the sick, aged and suffering from these audiences, on this occasion Prince Siddhārtha beheld the face of an old man for the first time. This was the beginning of his consciousness of old age, illness and death. It was also the beginning of a personal pilgrimage which eventually led to his enlightenment at the age of thirty-five.
Buddha walking among the flowers. Odilon Redon. 1905. Private Collection.
If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.
Siddhārtha Buddha (circa 563 BCE to 400 BCE), spiritual teacher, founder of BuddhismTHE TEACHING OF THE FLOWER
The Buddha was on a mountain teaching when he picked a flower and held it up silently. All the disciples watched with bewilderment until one, Mahākāśyapa, began smiling.
Then the Buddha said, I have the true Dharma eye, the mind of Nirvana, the true form of no-form, and the flawless Dharma gate of the teaching. It is not established upon words and phrases. It is a special transmission outside tradition. I now entrust this to Mahākāśyapa.
In this famous teaching of the flower, the Buddha teaches that enlightenment is beyond theories and teachings, and is possible through the immediate experience of Life.
The Buddha. Odilon Redon. 1905. Musée D'Orsay, Paris.
Notes
After the turn of the century, Redon painted portraits of the Buddha five times: Buddha in his youth (1904), Buddha walking among the flowers (1905), Buddha (1906, 1908), and The Buddha (1905).Related reading: Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse (1922)
