Rubin museum Nina

Rubin museum project

18th century stone named crowned Buddha is being displayed in the Rubin Museum. The sculpture definitely captured my attention. First of all the parents of self this just a very beautiful to me. The sculpture was made with grayish stone, in a way it seemed as though a portion of "crowned Buddha" was missing.

Sculpted on the stone was The image of Buddha. He was an incredibly skinny but he was a bit then, what I like to most was a Buddhist seem to have a crown on his head yet he didn't have any fancy clothing on. This was a bit strange because were used to seeing paintings, sculptures etc. where if someone has a crown on we immediately know they must be wealthy or have power and along with the crown usually comes fancy clothing and/or accessories. However this wasn't the case with the sculpture; The Buddha had a crown but he wore tight plain clothing. Tracing the Buddhist head are several dots which create a circle. This surprised me a bit because usually in the Christian religion particularly the Catholic churches in images of saints A halo appears over their head. This can literally be a golden or silver circle or it can be dots. This gave me the impression that he was in the way superior or you could say enlightened.

According to the description provided by the Rubin Museum, the sculpture "crowned Buddha"  was originally from  Northeastern India and belonged to the Pala period, that being from 750 all the way until 1174. The Pala period (Pala meaning protector) was a time where Buddhist people, (that being students and monks) would come mainly from Asia and gather in holy places (located in Northeastern India) and promote Philosophy, literature and art which consisted of paintings and sculpture. Furthermore the description also stated that "For early Tibetan Buddhist The holy sites of north eastern India where important pilgrimage sites." In addition the description also says that the sculpture was modeled after images of Buddha in Bodhgaya. This is said to be the place were Buddha was first enlightened or where he reached nirvana. It's documentary on the Buddha explains how was the son of the king. He had everything he wanted yet he wanted wisdom. That's when "Buddha abandoned his pleasures to seek enlightenment" it was once said that "in order to gain anything you must lose everything" this can be connected to how the Buddha (who was the son of the king) left everything he knew in order to begin his spiritual journey, to seek enlightenment and reach Nirvana. 

 the sculpture crowned Buddha can definitely be connected/related to the doctrine nirvana. This because nirvana is the ultimate goal in Buddhism. "Nirvana is liberation enlightenment and knowledge"

It is also said that nirvana is "beyond cause and effect" this is stated in "living religions, a brief introduction" on the fourth chapter which is Buddhism. In fact in Buddhism want to miss school there a spiritual journey. In Buddhism it is believed that everyone goes through the endless cycle of samsara. Samsara is basically the curse of being immortal. Many believe that the idea itself of one being immortal is just fantastic. However in Buddhism that is definitely not the case. The cycle of samsara is the endless cycle of rebirth that everyone goes through until they are in lightened/reach nirvana. When someone dies they are reborn and reborn again and again. Liberation or excepting emptiness is key in order to reach nirvana, supreme and knowledge and the only way to stop The cycle of samsara. Excepting emptiness is when a person realizes that they don't need anything materialistic in their life, when one can appreciate everything and understands that in the end certain degrees of reality don't last forever. Why be angry or obsessed with money when you should be meditating and excepting emptiness in order to be enlightened, one should be putting aside and their desires.

This Buddhist ideology and the doctrine of Nirvana shares similarities to a certain extent with the religion of Hinduism and their doctrine of reincarnation. As previously stated the goal for Buddhist is to reach nirvana because it is the only way to stop the cycle of samsara, the cycle of rebirth. Well, and Hinduism similar to the cycle of samsara there is a doctrine called reincarnation. In the third chapter of "living religions, a brief introduction" we learn about reincarnation and of "the wheel of a birth death and rebirth" both religions share the common theme of rebirth and being stuck in the cycle of it. However there are differences. In Buddhism every time you are reborn you are reborn into a different version of yourself, most likely a human version. On the other hand in Hinduism when one is reborn, or reincarnated, the persons soul may come back in a human, animal, plant etc. each time person is reincarnated they work their way up. In Buddhism one must to reach nirvana in order to end the cycle of samsara answer when does this by excepting emptiness and reaching enlightenment.in Hinduism a person miss not except emptiness but except everything. One must except that their soul and everything around them is one. Everything is Brahman. Everything is a part of them on and everything comes from Brahman. Once a person realizes that they are one with everything they will be free from the cycle of rebirth. Those are only a few similarities and differences between both hinduism and Buddhism.

Buddhism falls under the category of religion. But that's depends on your definition of religion. This being said due to the fact that in Buddhism there is no

god. Buddha is not a god. In fact from a Catholic point of you you could say that Buddha is similar to a saint. In the Catholic religion there are saints; people who are close to God (preachers, Priest, profits) but they are not God. Buddha was not a God but he reached nirvana and shared his teachings and ideology.People spend their whole lives trying to reach nirvana and are dedicated to the teachings of Buddha dedicated to spreading his ideology. Some people may consider Buddhism to be more of a philosophy than a religion. For example, A person may have a different religion but also call themselves Buddhist because they agree with some of  Buddhas ideology and see the philosophy behind it and appreciate that.

I myself have learned a lot from Buddhism and I would say that I understand the religion. Of course I wouldn't understand it to the level that monks do and people who have studied and practiced  it for years. But I really do find it intriguing and I respect people of this religion and I feel better knowing a little bit about it