Arcos Ricardo - Rubin Museum Project

Ricardo Arcos

Professor Dana Trusso

HUP 105

03 April 2017

Rubin Museum Artwork

            When I visited the Rubin Museum I was surprised to see that there were 2 displays of the Bhavachakra. One of them was an old and small painting on cloth piece, and the other was a much bigger and newer print. Both pieces of artwork had a large circle in the middle that was being held by a large demon. The amount of detail inside the circle the demon was holding hinted to me that there was a lot of meaning within the drawings. And I wanted to learn more.

The Bhavachakra is also known as The Wheel of Life. In an archived article in bbc.com, I found that The Bhavachakra is categorized as a “mandala”, which is an intricate representation of Buddhist view of the world. So by that logic I would argue that The Wheel of Life is the way Buddhist look at what life is. The article then goes to explain each section of the piece. “The Wheel is divided into five or six realms, or states, into which a soul can be reborn.” This would explain why the main shape of the artwork is a circle. For Buddhists, life is a cycle of rebirth, life, and death. The goal of a Buddhist is to escape said cycle (Fisher 75). The BBC article then goes to explain: “In the middle of the Wheel are the three causes of all suffering. These are known as the Three Fires: they are greed, ignorance and hatred, represented by a rooster, a pig and a snake.” It is important to note that the fact that the Three Fires are indeed at the center of the image. This implies that these “fires” are the source of what is around them, or that they are the point of origin (Fisher 76). Towards the edge of the Wheel we can see the Twelve Stages of Dependent Origination. The article tells that “Buddhism has no creator god to explain the origin of the universe […] The Buddha taught that this was a 12-stage process - a circular chain, not a straight line. Each stage gives rise to the one directly after it.” However, these philosophies are part of this mandala and not just the beings inside the Wheel. They are the outer edge of the Wheel of Life. It leads me to believe that they can be used to represent reality. Maybe the universe doesn’t have an ultimate creator; it exists as an unending chain of dependencies that always was and always will be. Coming full circle, pun intended, we get back to the demon holding the entire Wheel. “Yama symbolizes the impermanence of everything. The beings he holds are trapped in eternal suffering by their ignorance of the nature of the universe.” That’s why in the Bhavachakra we can often see Buddha sitting outside of the Wheel. He has escaped this cycle and teaches that through the eightfold path anyone can obtain liberation from the Wheel (Fisher 75).

Does one become a God if they achieve Buddhahood? Well, depends on how we define godhood within Buddhism. In the PBS documentary The Buddha, by David Grubin, there are instances were Buddha himself is shown as imperfect. Buddha made mistakes in his life before and after achieving enlightenment. There is even an interview within the film where the Dalai Lama explains that Buddha needed “hard work” to achieve his goals. Buddha wasn’t omnipotent or a perfect being. Can Buddha be considered a god? And if not, what else? Is Buddhism a religion if it doesn’t have a god? I would argue yes. Even if Buddhism doesn’t have a classical god in Buddha it is still very much so like other religions. Religions works on faith; and Buddhism is no different. Whether or not Buddha can be considered a god or otherwise, it does not change the fact that faith is the foundation of Buddhist practices. We cannot objectively claim that life is a never ending cycle; or for that matter, that any of Buddha’s teachings hold any truths. Whenever you see a monk meditation or chanting a mantra, you are witnessing an act of faith on Buddhist doctrines; just as when you see a Christian go to church or pray you can argue that said Christian is practicing religion. These doctrines and practices are meant for people to unite under a philosophy and attempt to tackle the hardships of existence. How is Buddhism any different? If anything, if we assume that religions are created by people for people, then isn’t the idea of Buddha rising from a mere human to become the leader of Buddhism not a way to imply that it is a religion even more so than others with omnipotent gods? Buddhism may not have a God like Abrahamic religions, and it even has radical philosophies that make it stand out within the world or religion, but I argue that the effects of Buddhism are very real and of similar nature to that of other big religions. There is no need for a new “tag” for Buddhism, it is very much so a religion.

Visiting the Rubin Museum helped me grasp what exactly is a religion. As a person born as a Christian, I used to think that religion was about God. Even that religion might be about the things that we are supposed to be doing and avoiding to do. Now I understand that religion can have multiple purposes but they all fall within one big purpose. Religion is about people trying to understand life. They are meant as ways to be at peace with the madness that is been thrown into existence and trying to figure it all out. Religions aren’t about gods or what is right or wrong; religions are about people trying to deal with reality. Buddhism is just a religion about imperfect people trying to deal with an imperfect and painful world.

Required selfie:

#1

Title: Buddha Shakyamuni

Date: 14^th Century

Doctrine: When the demon Mara challenged Siddhartha Guatama, the soon to be Buddha reached down and touched the earth. With his gesture, he answered Mara the very earth is his witness. Mara vanished and the Buddha came to be. Siddhartha had realized that the earth, the very universe, and he were all part of nature. There was no separation between them. By reaching Nirvana, the Buddha understood the nature of reality.

#2

Title: Stories of Previous Lives of Buddha

Date: 17^th Century

Doctrine: Buddha is the ultimate goal and being in Buddhism. Yet, he is no god. Just like us, Buddha was once trapped within Samsara. As shown in this piece of art, Buddha lived many lives as a regular living being. He even made mistakes even in his human life as a Buddha but seen this image reminds me of the non-theistic nature of Buddhism. Anyone can become a Buddha at any point. Buddhahood is within the reach of every single living being. Buddhism is not about Buddha been a God but about the process of becoming and teachings of Buddha.

#3

Title: The Great Stupa of Boudhanath

Date: 19^th Century

Doctrine: This piece of art reminds me of the effort that the path to Nirvana, the Eightfold Path, takes. This image depicts a large Stupa but with a great flight of stair. However the real Boudhanath Stupa does not have such a large set of stairs. To me this is an effort to imply that the process towards reaching liberation from Samsara is meant to be a long and hard process. This could also be reinforced by the choice of the artist of having the piece been embroidered. The same image could have been made much easily as a painting but the artist chose to work on silks as a way to communicate that a lot of effort is required to reach Buddhahood.

#4

Title: Wheel of Life

Date: 18^th Century

Doctrine: We are all trapped in Samsara, but if we want to exit this endless cycle and achieve Nirvana, then we need to learn how to grow spiritually. This piece of work helps me visualize that. It gives me a new perspective, like an outside frame of reference, to look at our lives at. We see our existence trapped inside the circles, almost as if it’s saying “Look at how small your reality is, don’t you want to break free from this cage?” We also can see both the results of good and bad Karma and this can work to encourage us towards spiritual growth.

#5

Title: Buddha Amitoyus

Date: 17^th Century

Doctrine: This artwork shows the idea of Dukkha. To give someone a Buddha Amitoyus can be understood as wishing someone a long life. But why do we wish such a thing? I believe it’s because people have to face the fact that they aren’t eternal and it causes us to experience Dukkha. But it’s not a bad thing to feel that way; we need emotions like Dukkha, desires, and “wants” to strife for happiness.

Works Cited

"Religion & Ethics - In pictures: Buddhist Wheel of Life." BBC. BBC, n.d. Web. 28 May 2017.

"Religions - Buddhism: The Buddhist universe." BBC. BBC, 23 Nov. 2009. Web. 28 May 2017.

Fisher, Mary Pat. Living Religions: A Brief Introduction, 2nd ed. Pearson, 2008.

The Buddha. Directed by David Grubin, narrated by Richard Gere, PBS, 2010.