This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 8, 2011 - Ask most Americans who know little about Buddhism what the Buddha looks like and they will likely describe the same image: a smiling man with a round stomach seated cross-legged in a Nirvana state of contentment.
That image of Buddha is revered in many shrines across the world and sold on key chains, lamps, T-shirts and, yes, even on firecrackers. Sometimes called the Laughing Buddha, it is enshrined in many Chinese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese restaurants across St. Louis. Gifts of oranges, tea and flowers often are placed before him. Some rub his tummy for good luck.
Thing is, he's not really "the" Buddha, the religion's founder, but more on that later. And a Laughing Buddha is not among the 22 images in the "Reflections of the Buddha" exhibit, which opens at 5 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, 3716 Washington Blvd. in Grand Center. The show celebrates fine Buddhist art from U.S. museums and marks the foundation's 10th anniversary. It continues through March 10, and over the coming months the Pulitzer Foundation will offer meditation sessions led by Buddhist teachers.
Many in the St. Louis Buddhist community are pleased that they will have the opportunity to see fine art in their religious tradition and that their non-Buddhist colleagues and neighbors might see the show and gain more understanding of this life practice.
As in most such museum or gallery exhibits, the sacred art, was created for temples, wayside shrines and other holy places of prayer.
Respect
"When I see the Buddha at our Thai temple I respect it," said Weerut Rutngamlug a member of Wat Phrasriratanaram, the Buddhist Temple & Meditation Center of Greater St. Louis in Florissant.
On entering its sacred space, she bows before the image. Offerings of food and flowers usually have been placed before the statue. Four or Five Laotian monks in the Thai Theravada tradition lead the community. Rutngamlug and her husband, both Thai natives who have lived four decades in this country, come to meditation sessions at the temple three Saturdays a month from their home in Salem, Ill.
"It's a symbol of him as the founder, the teacher of the Dharma," said the nurse who works in an Illinois hospital business office.
The Buddha image at Wat Phrasriratanaram represents Siddhartha Gautama. He was the Northern Indian who taught followers how to achieve sublime contentment, which Buddhists call Nirvana.
Siddhartha (which means he who has achieved his goal) lived between 563 and 483 B.C. Dharma is a name for the Buddha's teachings.
"The Dharma has made me be a better person, a person to do good," she said. "I myself changed to be a more peaceful loving person with the Dharma. I know how to forget and drop things from the past. I respect him for his teaching that changed me."
History
Siddhartha was the son of a Northern India prince who rejected his family's sheltered, luxurious life of ease and walked among suffering poor peasants to find spiritual contentment. He first studied his family's Hindu religion, then he lived with members of the Jain religion nearly starving himself. Later, he sat under a tree and meditated for weeks until he found Nirvana. After some years in this contented state, he determined to share his ideas with others.
Buddhists hold four "noble truths":
- Suffering is part of life which is difficult.
- All hardship and suffering comes from inappropriate sensual pleasure, attachment or grasping.
- The contented even blissful state of Nirvana, the end of suffering, comes from avoiding selfish, sensual and material desires and inappropriate cravings.
- To stop inappropriate craving, Buddhists try to follow an eight-point Noble Path.
Siddhartha later was called Buddha, which in Sanskrit means "the enlightened one" or "one who is awake." Various streams of Buddhism in other nations call him Sakyamuni Buddha, Pali and Dorjeshang.
Buddhists don't pray to a god. Most don't believe in an exterior force such as a god. And they especially don't pray for good weather, successful harvests, medical miracles or home runs. They meditate, seeking contentment within and to let go of their selfishness.
Diversity
In August, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts invited the Mid-America Buddhist Council, leaders from many Buddhist communities, to hold its regular meeting at the museum and to hear about the exhibition. Many came back to their communities and temples, talking with awe about the tranquility of the museum's rear reflecting pool designed by the building architect Tadao Ando. It's an auspicious place to display sacred Buddhists art, several said.
It is difficult to know how many Buddhists are in St. Louis region or in any U.S. city. More than 400 people attend the Thai New Year celebration at Wat Phrasriratanaram on the weekend closest to April 13, according to Art Lee, whose Thai Restaurant The Blue Elephant in Clayton donates much of the festival food. Some who come to that celebration are mainly interested in Thai culture, said Lee, who also serves on Wat Phrasriratanaram's board of directors.
"My estimate of Buddhists is between 500 and 1,000," said Don Sloan, a clinical social worker who is a lay leader at the Mid-America Buddhist Association, a monastery and retreat house in Augusta where he is known as Don Shu Shu. He's a member of the umbrella council that met last month at the Pulitzer.
Outreach
The St. Charles center holds retreats, celebration and meditation sessions that bring in all streams of Buddhism. There are reasons for Sloan's inexactitude. "We try to be pretty open to different traditions," said Leonora Kham, a member of the Augusta Center. Sloan, a former Washington University professor, said a census of Buddhists is difficult because those who come for meditation include many people who are seriously committed to the Christian, Jewish and Hindu faiths. Some are even leaders in their faiths. At the Buddhist centers, monks help them with techniques to achieve deeper meditation.They then use the practice to contemplate their own religious traditions. Some Christians call it centering prayer.
"Even some Asians who meditate would not call themselves religious," Sloan said.
"Many people here who practice meditation don't consider meditation part of a religion. ... People are cultivating certain qualities within themselves. Buddhism has less to do with religious practice than a way to free a person from suffering. It's closer to self-therapy."
In addition to the Florissant and Augusta centers, more than a dozen other gathering places in the region draw Buddhist communities. Unlike the Augusta center, most focus on one stream of Buddhist practice, various Zen, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan or Chinese.
One of the newest Buddhist centers is Bo Kwang Zen Center, which meets in one unit of a two-family flat south of Tower Grove Park. It is affiliated with the Korean Buddhist Taego order of monks, one of the world's largest Zen Buddhist orders. It is also a member of the International Mook Rim Society. Inter-religious dialogue is part of its mission.
The Venerable Hae Won Sunim, who grew up in Collinsville as a Baptist, became attracted to Buddhism during a freshman course on religion at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. Nearly two years ago, he was ordained a Taego Buddhist monk in Korea and a few months later started the Bo Kwang Zen Center. Now three Sunday a month he leads meditation sessions and on the fourth Sunday teaches Buddhists texts,
He shaves his head and wears the grey robes of a Korean Buddhist monk when he walks his dog and goes to places in the area. People seem to enjoy talking to him, he said.
"At first, sometimes, they think I am a Hare Krishna," he said referring to a Hindu sect. "They are interested that Bo Kwang Zen Center is in our neighborhood. They like that. This is a great neighborhood, people are very friendly, they ask about the robes."
Hae Won Sunim, Rutngamlug and Sloan have no objection to images of various Buddhists holy men and a women being displayed in museums. One reason to show Buddhist art is to preserve and share it.
Patricia Rice is a freelance writer who has long covered religion.