For the Love of Buddha statues…

Last Saturday, Kechara Paradise had a stock party of all the Buddha images and stuff that they have brought back from a recent trip overseas. It was held at the new Kechara House Gompa. It was really exciting and beautiful collection of sacred statues. Here are some of my favourite statues that I wished I could invite back home. 

A small 7 inch antique Manjushri statue…. Just beautiful! 

Manjushri is the Buddha of Wisdom and if we pray to Manjushri, we will be blessed with excellent memory, sharp mind, creativity and empowering speech that is clear and precise in its meaning. I love Manjushri and my lack of these qualities is perhaps why I love him so much…

This is a 3-feet handsome Maitreya that is plated with silver and comes at a extremely powerful merit increasing price of RM108,000. I don't normally admire Maitreya but this image is rather unique and regal. Maitreya's name literally means Great Love and he is the future Buddha-to-be hence, his unusual sitting position, which is reminiscent of a reigning king instead of Bodhisattva. (Actually, he is depicted as the reigning Bodhisattva on the divine throne of Tushita) Having the statue of him and praying to him creates the cause for us to be reborn within his very circle of disciples when his time to descend on to earth comes. 

I love these Vajrayogini statues, especially the Sukhasiddhi form of Vajrayogini on the right. She is the amazing divine mother who kills our ego along with its negative karma and habituations and gives birth to us as fully enlightened Buddhas from her sacred womb. I have a similar statue at home that I invited many years ago from Kechara Paradise.

Vajrayogini in mid-flight. She totally transcends over the ego and takes us to inner and outer Kechara Paradise. What a beautiful object of refuge and prayer!

This is Arya Amoghapasa Lokeshvara and he is a multi-armed form of Avalokiteshvara that seems to have been popular in Nepal, China, Tibet and Japan since the middle ages. The name suggests that he is the Lord of the world with infallible noose which leads suffering beings to enlightenment.

Amoghapasa has one face and wears a saffron skirt. Amoghapasa Lokeshvara has eight hands with the right hands showing the gesture of fearlessness, the boon granting gesture, the noose and holding the string of beads while the left hands holding a trident, a scripture, a white lotus and a water pot.

Amoghapasa Lokeshvara has three divine eyes looking into the 3 major realms of existence of form, formless and desire realms. His first right hand in Abhaya Mudra symbolizes that one who practices the Dharma sincerely is protected from falling into lower realms. The second right hand displaying Varada Mudra shows that those who practice and generate compassion and Bodhichitta receive all desirable objects and conditions. The third hand holding Amoghapasa or infallible noose symbolizes that he has infallible skill and means to convert ignorant sentient beings onto the path of liberation. The fourth right hand holding a rosary signifies that by the recitation of the six syllable mantras of Avalokiteshvara, one frees oneself from the bondage of samsara.

Again among four left hands, one holding a water pot signifies that he has the capacity of empowering all the sentient beings into Buddhahood. The second left hand holding a lotus signifies that he frees the sentient beings residing in hell realms from the suffering of intense heat and cold just like a lotus emerges from muddy water. The third left hand holding a trident signifies that he purifies three poisons of sentient beings i.e. desire, hatred and ignorance. The fourth left hand holding a scripture signifies that he imparts wisdom to the devotees and thereby they attain liberation from cyclic existence.

Lokeshvara Amoghapasa's description taken from http://www.shakyastatues.com/statue/amoghapasalokeshvara

and most of the pictures are courtesy of Peter Hoh