Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Buddhist monks on the fashion runway, NY?

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Buddhist monks on the fashion runway, NY?

Associated Press (ap.org, 9-14-15); CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Vajrayana Buddhist monks perform before the Prabal Gurung Spring 2016 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, Sunday, September 13, 2015 in New York, New York, USA (AP).

But I'm still the "Miss World," Beauty Queen of the Universe, right? They're just monks.

Ah, what the hell are they doing on stage!!?

Prabal Gurung brings Buddhist monks onto his fashion runway.

NEW YORK, USA - It was an incongruous sight, even for New York Fashion Week, but a very moving one.

Living by the patimokkha (ATI)

With a who's who of A-list Hollywood actresses in the front row, Prabal Gurung opened his runway show with 30 Buddhist monks.

They had traveled to New York to chant a prayer of gratitude for the world's help during the devastating earthquake that killed thousands in Gurung's native Nepal in April.

Monks in sexy fashion show?

Vajrayana Buddhism (Tibet, Bhutan, Russia, Nepal...) loves the future Buddha Maitreya.

Wait. What's happening here? We've been bumped for those guys in robes?

"When the earthquake happened [in Nepal, Tibet, and China], the first people that came to our rescue in Nepal was the fashion industry here, and I wanted to show some kind of gratitude to them," Gurung said after Sunday evening's show.

Robes or dresses? Both can be nice.

"I go and visit the monastery (in Nepal) all the time, and I had this idea, and they wanted to do it."

The entire runway show was dedicated to Nepal, with garments in shades of lemon, saffron, peach, tea rose, and other variations of orange and yellow. There was barely a dark color in the mix.

I may be a Bag of Bones full of urine, blood, fecal matter, sweat, and stuff, but I'm hot!

My body's full of excrement.

Especially effective were lovely white dresses embroidered in orange and yellow, and filmy chiffon evening gowns that floated down the runway. There was also some fringe and sparkle in the mix.

Gurung had a lot of celebrity support: His front row included actresses Jennifer Hudson, Hailee Steinfeld, Laverne Cox from "Orange is the New Black," Kylie Jenner, and Solange Knowles. Cox was wearing a bright blue Gurung creation. "I've just started working with Prabal," she said. "It's pretty cool. All of a sudden I am here, wearing his stuff at his show."

I'd rather be pretty than smart or a feminist or anything like that. I'm Miss USA!

Gurung said he hoped the world would learn a little bit about Nepal. "All I wanted to do is show a little of where I'm from," he said, "and show it to the rest if the world. I hope they'll be enticed to go visit, because that's what Nepal needs right now."

Arts & Entertainment, Lifestyle, Celebrity, Fashion, Nepal, South Asia, Asia

The Thirty-two Parts of the Body

Ven. Piyadasi (trans.); alternate translation Ven. Thanissaro

There are in this body head-hairs, body-hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, pleura, spleen, lungs, intestines, intestinal tract, stomach, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, nasal mucus, synovium (oil lubricating the joints), urine, and brain in the skull.

SUTRA: Instructions to a King

Maurice O'Connell Walshe, Bharadvajo Sutra (SN 35.127) edited by Amber Larson

Theravada Buddhist monks in Thailand in front of beautiful gold Buddha (flickr.com).

The Buddha points to the Path.

[King Udena of Kosambi consults Ven. Pindola Bharadvaja:]

"Bharadvaja, how can it come about and depending on what is it that these young monks, youthful, black-haired, [handsome] with the bloom of youth, in the prime of life, never having enjoyed the pleasure of the senses [like sex], can practice the [celibate] holy life fully and perfectly [from their youth] to the end of their days?"

"Sire, it has been said by the Blessed One who knows and sees, the [Buddha], the fully Enlightened One:

"'Come, monks, whatever woman is a mother, think of her only as a mother [as your own mother]; whatever woman is a sister, think of her only as a sister [as your sister]; whatever woman is a daughter, think of her only as a daughter [as your daughter].

[Similar instructions were given to female Buddhist monastics so they could guard their senses and preserve their self-discipline in order that sensuality would not overwhelm them and derail them from the path to the realization of enlightenment and nirvana.]

The Buddha walking (Nippon_newfie)

"That is how these young monks...can practice the [celibate] holy life...[from their youth] to the end of their days.'"

"But, Bharadvaja, the heart is fickle! It may well be that at times thoughts of desire arise towards those they think of just as mothers, just as sisters, just as daughters.

"Is there any other cause, any other reason whereby these young monks, youthful and black-haired [and full of raging hormones like other youths]...can practice the [celibate] holy life to the end of their days?"

But it looks so pretty on surface!

"Sire, it has [also] been said by the Blessed One...:'Come, monks, contemplate this body [as it truly is], upwards from the soles of the feet, downwards from the top of the head, bounded by the skin, full of manifold [repulsive] things:

"There are in this body: head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, pleura, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery [stomach contents], bowels, feces, bile, mucus, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, tallow, saliva, synovic fluid, urine.

This is the standard set of "parts of the body" for meditation purposes given in the Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutra, DN 22, MN 10) and elsewhere in the Pali canon. See also the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga, VIII, 83ff.) for full details. Traditionally newly-ordained novices are given the first five of these body parts to meditate on.

"That is how these young monks...can practice the [chaste] holy life...[from their youth] to the end of their days.'" More