Big Buddhas, Little Buddhas

The Temple has recently been offered a huge Buddha statue at a very reduced price. My husband and I have decided to purchase it as a gift to the Temple. (See his blog : www.rynickcoaching.blogspot.com for the full story. It's been quite "karmic" in its unfolding -- many causes and conditions -- just as the whole Temple adventure has been.) The big Buddha is five feet tall and four feet wide, and made of granite. (In case you're wondering, he's the one in the picture at the bottom of this post.) For many years, I have been collecting Buddha, Bodhisattva and monk figures, which come to me in very unusual ways -- tag sales, discount stores, Goodwill stores, gift shops and, of course, actual gifts. One of my friends called our former home the land of a thousand Buddhas. The little fellow smiling at you in the picture directly below is about 3 inches high and lives on the desk in my office. I believe he will welcome his new friend with the same calmness and sense of amusement he seems to bring to everything. He is a little walking monk -- wind him up and he walks on for quite a while. (As the old woman said to Zhao-zhou. "A good respectable monk, but he too goes on like that.") The new big Buddha figure, once he is set down by the crane (he weighs many tons) will not move again, we hope. He will sit and welcome visitors, letting anyone passing by know that something unusual is going on at the big white house on Pleasant Street.