The Buddha

Last week, Heather brought this little guy home from work with her. As many of you know, Heather is currently working in a charity shop (a thrift store of sorts where all of the proceeds go to a charity, in this case, the British Heart Foundation). As you might imagine, this leads to her bringing home all kinds of unusual things.

I immediately liked the little effigy, with his big smile and even bigger round belly, but at the same time I was not sure I wanted this "graven image" in my house. But rather than follow my knee-jerk reaction to throw him out as an idol, I decided to look into what the figure represented and then decide if it would be "inappropriate" for it to be displayed in my house.

I assumed he was a "Buddha" (which isn't exactly true); so I started by doing a little reading about Buddhism. I have to admit my ignorance on this topic because up until now I have never read anything about Buddhism. I know I can't get a full understanding of an ancient religion by reading a couple of articles, but I wanted to get a feel for where it came from and what the major tenents of the faith are. I won't go into everything that I learned, but I now feel I could carry on a half way intelligent conversation about spirituality with a Buddhist. I found this article to be quite informative.

Of course I found Buddhism to be very different from Christianity in many important ways, but at the same time, they have a moral framework very much like "the ten commandments" that they try to follow to help the achieve enlightenment. In short, I found nothing so offensive about their beliefs that I would deny the buddha a place in my house.

I have other objects that represent different faiths (African masks, a carved didgeridoo, Egyptian cats) and I enjoy looking at all of them. Obviously, the objects hold no power in themselves, and I believe that my household is dedicated to and blessed by God, so I certainly don't fear any evil spirits that may have been lurking within.

My research led me to another interesting find. The obese "laughing Buddha" originated in China, and is actually an image of Hotei, a Bhuddhist monk, not an actual Buddha himself. As I already knew, his image represents happiness and plentitude. In Chinese culture, people will jokingly blame Hotei's influence for eating or drinking too much, so in that respect, Hotei will fit in nicely in our household.

So for now, Hotei is sitting under the Jade plant in the bathroom, smiling happily at me whenever I sit on the toilet.

Just out of curiosity, does anybody else have a Buddha (or Hotei) in their house? Would any of you refuse to have one in your house?

JE