Boy Buddha found on Australian beach

EssaNews.com, Jan. 11, 2024; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Shark Bay’s natural wonders that turn one snap happy | So Perth

The baby boy Buddha (actually Bodhisattva) being ceremonially bathed on Vesak

Boy Buddha on Bimaran

What is a baby boy Buddha? It should not be confused with the Buddha Boy (Ram Bahadur Bomjon) now steeped in the quagmire of controversy. It is a figurine, usually ceramic and golden, of Prince Siddhartha Gautama just after he was born, raising his finger, speaking a declaration of his impending great enlightenment and final rebirth, and taking seven steps as the earth quakes, surrounded by devas and his mother's female attendants. It is used in a popular bathing ceremony usually performed during Mahayana Buddha Day and Theravada Vesak celebrations.

Buddha from the beach, two friends find $100K Ming Dynasty artifact in Australia

The statuette is worth a fortune. Images source: © YouTube ABA 10:47 AM EST, Jan. 11, 2024

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Shark Bay’s Monkey Mia Reserve dolphins

[Buy a metal detector, and hit the beach. There's no telling what treasures abound.] In 2018, Leon Dechamps and Shayne Thomson visited Shark Bay's coast in Australia.

Equipped with a metal detector, they serendipitously discovered a small Buddha figure, oblivious to the fact that they had unearthed a genuine treasure.

Vesak (Buddha Jayanti) is Buddhist Xmas

• [WHAT IS IT? The figurine represents the baby Bodhisattva, Prince Siddhartha before he became the Buddha Gautama, celebrating his birth in Lumbini garden as his mother, Maya Devi (iconically represented as a salabhanjika), gave birth standing up holding the branch of a sal tree, and it was twin sal trees the Buddha chose to lie down between when he passed into final nirvana, a statue commonly used in bathing ceremonies, commemorating how when he was born, the sky devas rained down to rinse him off, a ritual that is performed every Vesak, the thrice blessed day of his birth, great awakening, and reclining into final nirvana. Although it might be tempting to think Theravada Buddhism is just trying to be efficient by lumping all three events into one celebration day, the ancient texts say these three occurrences took place on the same month (Vaisakha) under the full moon.]
• Mahayana Buddhism does not recognize Buddhism, instead dividing the three events of the Buddha's life into three events (birth, awakening, passing): Buddha Day, Bodhi Day, and Parinirvana Day.
• The Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA) with British Thai Theravada Abbot Ajahn Brahm
• Monkey Mia dolphins (not only sharks) | Australia's Coral Coast (australiascoralcoast.com)

Beachside fortune

The red and white sand beaches of the coast Shark Bay, Western Australia | Roadtrippers

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I wish I were on a beach all alone meditating.

Following five years and numerous expert analyses, it was determined that the Buddha figure hailing from the beach of the Indian Ocean has its origins in China from the Ming Dynasty period.

The petite Buddha statue made from bronze dates most likely back to the 15th century. A specialist in Asian art validated that the item could fetch a price of up to $100,000.

"I was astounded when I discovered it was from the Ming Dynasty. This makes it the oldest Chinese artifact in Australian history," Dechamps stated on the Antiques Roadshow program.

Baby Buddha (Bodhisattva) being bathed

• Around the Buddhist world (such as Maui, Hawaii, USA) the community celebrates Vesak Day. Vesak celebrates the birthday, enlightenment day, and final nirvana day of the Buddha (Shakyamuni), all three events having happened on the full moon of the ancient Indian month of Vaisakha. In addition to guided sitting meditation and Dharma talks, there is usually a bathing ceremony of the baby Buddha and a joyful vegetarian meal. In the Chinese Mahayana Buddhist tradition, April 8 of each year is "Buddha Day," which celebrates the birth of Gautama Buddha.

Western Australia Marine Park is full of sharks

Upon discovering the figure, the friends endeavored to uncover how it ended up on the beach. Various services and institutions were consulted, including the Maritime Museum of Western Australia, the ambassador in China, antique dealers, art historians, various Chinese associations, and independent archaeologists.

The statue likely arrived in Australia in the 15th century during Admiral Zheng He's global voyages, which included the Indian Ocean basin.

Another theory posits that it was brought to Australia by Chinese traders in the 19th century. Similar statues were fairly popular and were crafted to commemorate the Buddha's birthdays [Vesak].

Great white sharks of Australia love the Bay

According to Australian law, the statue belongs to the finders. The figure is flawed, missing several elements, which were possibly deliberately removed and replaced with a more prestigious material such as ivory.

No other Chinese or Ming Dynasty-related items were discovered on the beach. However, Dechamps and Thompson are hopeful that they will find the missing portions of the Buddha statue in the future [and will likely spend $100,001 or die doing so because something else must be on that beach after six centuries]. More

• Australian beaches littered with cocaine; concerned police call for vigilant residents [to keep the sharks away from this human treasure]

Tibet treasury: 84,000 new manuscripts found

Lilly Ravenwood, History Enhanced; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Tibet used to be a Himalayan empire with many treasures, spiritual/temporal (Richard Mortel)

Just Beyond the Wall of the Buddhist monastery (©Source: Richard Mortel/flickr.com)

Unseen: 84,000 unread manuscripts discovered in Tibetan lamasery (©Richard Mortel/flickr)

The Dalai Lama finishes a sand yantra

In the heart of Tibet stands the Sakya Monastery, a silent witness to centuries gone by. This special place held a secret.

For years, behind old walls, lay a library filled with ancient manuscripts. These papers tell tales from long ago, and they waited patiently, hidden from the world, to share their stories, until now.

Many had walked the Buddhist monastery's halls, unaware of the treasures that lay just out of sight.

JUST BEYOND THE WALLS: The old books and scrolls have seen empires rise and fall. They've captured the wisdom and adventures of people from ages past.

They know about ancient kingdoms and great adventures. When discovered, it was like finding a map to another time.

• More: Unveiling the Unseen: 84,000 unread manuscripts discovered at Tibetan Buddhist monastery

The Seven Treasures of the Noble

Soma Thera (Buddhist Publication Society); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.) Wisdom Quarterly

(theinteriorgallery.com)

The treasures (dhana) of the noble disciples [enlightened, accomplished] of the Buddha are not precious stones and pearls, silver and gold, or fields and houses.

Nor are the noble treasures connected with the power and glory of earthly sovereignty. These are the seven treasures of the noble:

Confidence,* virtue, a sense of circumspection-and-dread
[of wrongdoing], learning, generosity, and right understanding.

Not poor is the person endowed with these,

Not empty is a life of worthy things.

Therefore should one who is in understanding fixed
[one who has entered the first stage of enlightenment]

Be diligent striving to gain [more] confidence,

Virtue, clarity, and vision of the Truth,

Mindful of the Dharma of the Enlightened One who understood.

 

(Buddha-eyefetch-com)

On a certain occasion Ugga, the chief minister of the king of Kosala, came to the Buddha, saluted him, sat respectfully to one side, and said: "Wonderful, venerable sir, marvelous, venerable sir, is the amount of riches, wealth, and possessions of Migara Rohaneyya!"

 

"What is the extent of his vast treasures, his vast wealth, Ugga?"

 

"Of gold alone he has 100,000. What should one say of silver?"
 

"Ugga, I do not deny that there is treasure of that kind. But, Ugga, such treasure is the common victim of fire, water, kings, robbers, and greedy heirs. There are seven kinds of treasure that are not the common victim of fire, water, kings, robbers, and greedy heirs. What are the seven?

"The treasure of confidence, virtue, circumspection-and-dread

[about wrongdoing], learning, generosity,

and of right understanding,

These are the seven treasures the noble have.

Confidence, virtue, the sense of shame and fear,

Learning, bounty, and understanding right.

Not poor is the woman or man with this great wealth,

Unloseable in the world of devas and humans.

Therefore should one who is in understanding fixed

Be diligent working to gain confidence,

Virtue, clarity, and vision of the truth,

Mindful of the Dharma of the one who understood.

In order to gain these treasures of the noble, a person would be devoted to the Dharma (Doctrine) of the Buddha. Therefore, persons of old said:

“Except the Doctrine of the Perfectly Enlightened One,

There is no father and no mother here.

The Doctrine is your guide and support

And in the Doctrine is your shelter true,

So hear the Doctrine, on the Doctrine reflect

And spurning other things, live up to it.”

I. Confidence (Saddhā)

A noble disciple is confident: trusts in the enlightenment of the "Perfect One" (Tathāgata): Thus, indeed, is the Blessed One: He is an arhat, fully enlightened, endowed with wisdom and perfect conduct, sublime, knower of the worlds, a guide for those wishing to be taught, a teacher of devas and human beings, liberated and blessed.

Confidence, according to a great Buddhist writer, is the entrance to the ocean of the Buddha’s Dharma, and insight-knowledge is the ship in which a person travels on that ocean.

Says the Buddha, "In three places, Ānanda, should you establish, fix, and make firm your friends, companions, and kith and kin, who think they ought to hear the Dharma. What three places? In wise confidence concerning the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha should you establish them, fix them, and make them firm.

"There may be change, Ānanda, in the four great elements [the characteristics of materiality called] earth, water, fire, and air. But the noble disciple who is endowed with wise confidence [because of stream entry] concerning the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha cannot change.

"That is to say, it is impossible for one [who has reached stream entry, which is the first stage of enlightenment] to be reborn in hells, or as an animal, or where unhappy spirits dwell." More

"Sayings of the Buddha" (Dhammapada audio)

Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Thee Refuge; Buddhanet.net

 

"Mind" is by the mind-door near the heart.

The key to great works of literature, particularly sacred texts, is the quality of translation. Quality is sacrificed here for excellence of presentation. For example, our lives are not guided or made by "thoughts." What the text actually says is that everything, in terms of perceive and are conscious of, is preceded by "mind." Mind is defined in Buddhism very technically as four processes: sensation, perception, formations, and consciousness. (The fifth factor, materiality or form, would be mind's physical base, which was not specified by the Buddha, although alluded to; it is generally believed to be in or around the heart not the skull. See all five).

Cittas+cetasikas=consciousness (UIC)

The third, sometimes translated as volition or intention, is in fact 50 processes with volition being the most salient of the grouping and therefore used to represent them all. But sensation and perception are also formations. They are so important that they are analyzed separately.

Consciousness is not a thing but a process, a stream of innumerable and nearly identical cittas (mind moments) and cetasikas (mental factors or mental concomitants). One citta is not a "thought." And we are guided and co-create our reality based on many subconscious views, not conscious thoughts. But for ease, using English, "Mind is the forerunner of all conditions," as the Dhammapada famously opens, becomes "Our thoughts create our reality" or some similar attempt to get at the original Pali, Magadhi, Sanskrit, or Prakrit the Buddha used.

What is the Dhammapada?

But the Dhamma-pada ("Dharma footprint," imprint, or path) is a collection of sayings or aphorisms from the sutras with commentaries. It is not a work with deep explanations like the sutras (discourses) or the Higher Teachings (Abhidharma), sometimes referred to as texts on Buddhist psychology. Instead, they are truisms with explanations or back stories for how each saying came to be uttered. It is not a "bible." Buddhism does not have a bible. But it is often treated as one in comparative religions courses because it is a collection of wisdom. The "bible" would be the discourse-collection, or sutta-pitaka, and perhaps the ancient commentaries (tika) that make the sutras intelligible now that the words are taken out of their original cultural and linguistic context. Here is another Dhammapada translation with illustrations: