Looking through the eyes of the Buddha

Once upon a time, there was a valley hidden in a faraway place no one imagined. Travelers along the Silk Road saw it from time to time and had to marvel at the great giants depicted.

When Russian psychic Madame Blavatsky saw the towering figures, she explained their antiquity and meaning. They represented the stages of humankind over millions of years of devolution, getting smaller as time went on. The Buddha, living as Ketu in the Tusita world, looked down and beheld the Earth (Bhumi), seeing that all of the necessary and sufficient conditions for his rebirth had now been met. He chose this place because of the parents and associates he would be reborn in the company of.

This is now Bamiyan, Afghanistan, but at that time it was a place called Kapilavastu in ancient Gandhara (the ancient Greeks called Scythia), Central Asia (a "middle country" or majjhimadesa like the Buddha Kondanna was reborn in or "foothold of a family clan" or mahajanapada), between East and West.

When their scion abandoned the palace in this seasonal capital and set off on a spiritual quest for seven years. (His son, Rahula or "fetter," had just been born, threatening to bind him to the mundane world when he knew he had a much higher and more pressing spiritual mission). He did not leave for himself but for the benefit of his people -- and all humans and devas ("light beings," "shining ones"). And just as he promised, having reached his goal, he came back to save everyone from suffering (dukkha).

Seasonal: Bamiyan, Kabul, Mes Aynak

Not everyone was interested in that, but everyone was glad to see him back. They celebrated him and they apparently took this ancient carving on the hillside and made it in his image. Unlike neighboring Vedic proto-India, they had no non-representation rule against depicting famous founders of a Doctrine (what we in modern times would call a "religion" but which they did not). Just as Mohammed would later do, the Buddha made a rule not to depict him in human form. He was represented by a bodhi tree, a lotus flower, a Dharma wheel and other nonanthropomorphic images, but not as a human being. When neighboring lands started to, all the stops were pulled out and Vedic (pre-Hindu) temples started depicting the gods in human terms, even if some had animal features like Ganesha and Hanuman and others had multiple faces like Maha Brahma.

He returned to save his son (Rahula, 7), his wife (Bimba Devi, known to the world as Yasodhara, 36), his cousin, as the Theravada tradition records, or his other older son from a union with a harem dancing girl named Mriga), his mother (Maha Praja Pati, the sister of his biological mother, Mahāmāyā, who passed away 7 days after the birth of Siddhartha so she could return to the Tusita world from which she could visit the Tavatimsa or World of the Thirty-Three to hear the Buddha teach and gain realization along with countless other devas), and many others, including Devadatta, Kimbila, Anuruddha, Bhagu, and other Scythian princes (nobles, khattiyas), even his charioteer Channa.

All that having happened, what must it have been like to climb up into the giant Bamiyan Buddha statue, the second largest in the world at that time (the other being the hidden reclining Buddha in the same area)? Imagine climbing up the many stories, through the cave and tunnel system behind the statue up into the head and looking out of its eyes across the Bamiyan Valley.

In another valley far, far away, along the same mountain range, the Himalayas, there is another valley, the Valley of Kathmandu. It has a famous stupa, a Buddhist burial mound, storing Buddha relics, as most stupas do or allege to do. It is famous for the Buddha Eyes painted on its side. They are the wisdom eyes at Boudhanath.

The question becomes, Why is the Buddha so famous? What is the reason for all of this adoration? Why is he remembered? What did he teach? He is remembered for his teaching, for saving those wishing to be saved. He did this by teaching only two things, suffering (dukkha) and the end of suffering (nirvana), or disappointment and liberation. Why did he teach this? He taught them because he wanted people and devas to be free. If they could see the predicament they were in, surrounded on all corners by karma, they would wish to make a final end of suffering.

If someone wanted that, the Buddha had it. Outlining his Teaching, his Doctrine (Dharma), in four ennobling (enlightening) truths, the fourth of which is the Path to Freedom summarized as the Noble Eightfold Path. He taught many things in specific, but this in general is what he taught, why he taught, and why he became so famous.

One needn't see out of his statue's eyes any more than one needs to climb into the Statue of Liberty's head to see things from her tiara or skull, looking across this Land of the Free. Are we free? We are not even close to being free. Even if we had all our right protected at every moment, we would be nowhere near being free.

Free in the Buddhist sense is about no longer being slaves to desire, no longer being in the dark of ignorance, no longer being subject to aversion. Making an end of all greed, hatred, and delusion, one experiences awakening and rests in the final peace that is nirvana.

• On killing pigs in the Midwest: karma of Cunda Sūkarika
• Major figures in ancient Buddhist history