# Thai Buddha or Chinese Buddha?



## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

Do you prefer the meditative, moderate Thai Buddha or the fat, laughing Chinese Buddha?

Thai:










Chinese:










I picked two larger outdoor versions, but I'm sure you get the idea in general, even if you've only seen smaller indoor representations.


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## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

I personally prefer the Thai Buddha. I did not even realize it was Buddha but felt strongly compelled toward it, after seeing multiple religious icons in various yoga studios and in retreat centers, but the symbolism of it called to me, and I recently purchased a small-ish one for my room.

Not as an idol to worship. As a symbolic reminder of bigger ideas.

I also looked just now into the different asanas or mudras of Buddha statues, and I happened to pick the one that is the Wheel of Dharma or the teaching Buddha: wisdom, understanding, and fulfilling destiny. I think that's very appropriate to have as a first personal "reminder" symbol for me.


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## All in Twilight (Oct 12, 2012)

I don't care about statues and neither did Siddhartha. I think he is vomiting in his grave. If there is one thing he didn't want is for people to become conditioned. Buddhism with all its silly traditions and cultural nonsense became a form of entertainment, vanity, and a false form of spirituality. We go to our stupid job day in and day out and at night we become so called spiritual and go to our meditation class. And as soon as that class ends, we become our old stupid us again. There is nothing sacred about all these statues and meditation temples.

I remember I went to a meditation class when I was very young and these so called gurus demanded that I had to bow for the Buddha. Now I refused of course because I had no idea who or what the Buddha was and I still have to believe in it? When I look back at it, I was right and I think the Buddha smiled at me when I refused.


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## RandomNote (Apr 10, 2013)

The thai one looks more tranquil.


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## Dragearen (Feb 2, 2012)

All in Twilight said:


> I don't care about statues and neither did Siddhartha. I think he is vomiting in his grave. If there is one thing he didn't want is for people to become conditioned. Buddhism with all its silly traditions and cultural nonsense became a form of entertainment, vanity, and a false form of spirituality. We go to our stupid job day in and day out and at night we become so called spiritual and go to our meditation class. And as soon as that class ends, we become our old stupid us again. There is nothing sacred about all these statues and meditation temples.
> 
> I remember I went to a meditation class when I was very young and these so called gurus demanded that I had to bow for the Buddha. Now I refused of course because I had no idea who or what the Buddha was and I still have to believe in it? When I look back at it, I was right and I think the Buddha smiled at me when I refused.


I think this is very true. Buddhism has turned into another mainstream, organized religion, which is not at all what Siddhartha seems to have intended. That said, I do think that Theravadan (Thai) Buddhism is much closer to what Siddhartha originally intended. I never understood the worship of Buddha as a god.

I prefer the Theravadan Buddha much more, and I also prefer the Theravadan school (with exception of Zen, which is also intriguing and makes so much sense).


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## All in Twilight (Oct 12, 2012)

Dragearen said:


> I think this is very true. Buddhism has turned into another mainstream, organized religion, which is not at all what Siddhartha seems to have intended. That said, I do think that Theravadan (Thai) Buddhism is much closer to what Siddhartha originally intended. I never understood the worship of Buddha as a god.
> 
> I prefer the Theravadan Buddha much more, and I also prefer the Theravadan school (with exception of Zen, which is also intriguing and makes so much sense).


I tend to go a bit further. No school at all and no method of meditation. Meditation is the mastering of no-mind. If there are no words, concept and images in the no mind, then how can we teach this? Buddha said that we have to discard everything we know (conditioning and cultivation) but Buddhism became knowledge, a method with silly traditions and cultures invented by human thought. So if every method, every school is thought and invented by humans, then this has nothing to do with going beyond thought. I think Taoism, although difficult to capture at first despite the simple language, has a better approach to this but never pins you down. There is no path to truth they say, it's pathless.


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## Mammon (Jul 12, 2012)

The fat one. He looks like a chill dude. Not too serious.

I'd put him next my front door so that everytime I would walk in I would be reminded by the fact that life should be taken lightly and ignore everyone telling me otherwise.

Hmmm, that's a rather good idea for a tattoo o.o


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## Nekomata (May 26, 2012)

I prefer Ganesha or other such deities.


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## Chesire Tower (Jan 19, 2013)

Unfortunately, there was no option for me to vote on. As a Nichiren Buddhist I have no need of statues; however, they do make great art - as do any other religious symbols of worship. It's the "Buddha" in your heart which matters the most; although an extensive art collection never hurt anyone either.


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## lib (Sep 18, 2010)

Considering that Buddha went through some serious fasting/dieting, the fat Buddha somehow seems out of place.


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## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

All in Twilight said:


> I don't care about statues and neither did Siddhartha. I think he is vomiting in his grave. If there is one thing he didn't want is for people to become conditioned. Buddhism with all its silly traditions and cultural nonsense became a form of entertainment, vanity, and a false form of spirituality. We go to our stupid job day in and day out and at night we become so called spiritual and go to our meditation class. And as soon as that class ends, we become our old stupid us again. There is nothing sacred about all these statues and meditation temples.
> 
> I remember I went to a meditation class when I was very young and these so called gurus demanded that I had to bow for the Buddha. Now I refused of course because I had no idea who or what the Buddha was and I still have to believe in it? When I look back at it, I was right and I think the Buddha smiled at me when I refused.


Um I think you're missing the point entirely. Seriously wow you miss the mark so much it astounds me.

Temples, retreat centers, meditation, etc. create a sacred place for people to re-center so that they take that out HOLISTICALLY into the rest of their lives...including their home and their work.

Anyone, regardless of religion, who is only practicing for show or entertainment and doesn't incorporate what they're getting at the temple, retreat center, church, or yoga studio into the rest of their lives aren't "getting it"...it's what some people would call a cultural Christian, for example, someone who goes to church out of habit or cultural expectation, but does not follow the teachings of Christ in their daily lives.

I did not buy a statue of the Buddha so that I could bow to an inanimate object. I bought it as a symbol to remind me of higher ideas.

I think you should probably chill out.


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## LadyO.W.BernieBro (Sep 4, 2010)

Always instinctively drawn to fat Buddha. lt's not so much that l'm put off by the thinness of the Thai Buddha, l just don't like the way they usually look.


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## All in Twilight (Oct 12, 2012)

fourtines said:


> Um I think you're missing the point entirely. Seriously wow you miss the mark so much it astounds me.
> 
> Temples, retreat centers, meditation, etc. create a sacred place for people to re-center so that they take that out HOLISTICALLY into the rest of their lives...including their home and their work.
> 
> ...


Meditation is a word that represents freedom from the known. The known is the images and thought we create in our heads. Thoughts and images are values and judgments and we become those things in life - ego. When you tell me about a god I don't know, I create an image of that god in my head. That image is something I have seen before or that image is a description of a person, object or concept or resembles a person that I have seen in my life. So it is related to memory. Apparently memory and thought go together. Now if I start to worship that image, I am actually worshiping myself or the creator of that image. I worship the known.

Death is the cessation of consciousness and our body functions. If we can empty our consciousness, then we die during life and we become totally and completely free. So when there is an attachment to your temple, your guru, your this or that that is all thought, then you are no longer free, whatever that concept represents. There is no truth to be found in the temples and in the churches, these things became important when we lost contact with nature. 

There is no path to truth, no temple, no guru can tell you what the path is. Because if they can, then they become the authority and it becomes conceptualized thinking. That is why the Buddha said that you have to let go of your entire conditioning and cultivation. Temples with all its silly traditions that were all invented by human thought is nothing more than a cultivation. That is not truth, it's thought and memory, that something you try to overcome so hard.

I have never visited a temple, I did sit down a lot underneath a nice tree however. The tree never fought back no matter how much I insulted her and judged her. Eventually I gave up because it gave me nothing to oppose (she turned the other cheek) so I lost the need to fight with her and I became aware of how miserable I felt when I was judging her so harshly. Now we are best friends. She loves me unconditionally. She forgave me because I didn't know any better.


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## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

All in Twilight said:


> Meditation is a word that represents freedom from the known. The known is the images and thought we create in our heads. Thoughts and images are values and judgments and we become those things in life - ego. When you tell me about a god I don't know, I create an image of that god in my head. That image is something I have seen before or that image is a description of a person, object or concept or resembles a person that I have seen in my life. So it is related to memory. Apparently memory and thought go together. Now if I start to worship that image, I am actually worshiping myself or the creator of that image. I worship the known.
> 
> Death is the cessation of consciousness and our body functions. If we can empty our consciousness, then we die during life and we become totally and completely free. So when there is an attachment to your temple, your guru, your this or that that is all thought, then you are no longer free, whatever that concept represents. There is no truth to be found in the temples and in the churches, these things became important when we lost contact with nature.
> 
> ...


I'm glad you think you're so enlightened but these temples and traditions do help people to grow spiritually and connects them to their inner teacher, higher selves, the all that is, and helps them to distance from the chatter of modern life.

Yes, there will be people who miss the point, who get too caught up in appearances, who miss the underlying meanings or just don't care, but that doesn't make all of it invalid; I would rather people go to temples than worship McDonald's and Nike.

It's interesting to meet someone who has this kind of strict personal judgment of Buddhism, knowing very well that there are 10,000 doors to the dharma. Your door isn't everyone else's door and vice versa.

I do agree that people should be more in touch with nature, but often temples and retreat centers, and even some churches (for example the St. Francis Catholic Church in Big Sur) are built into sync with nature with a reverence for being at one with the natural order. 

You have to think of it as a middle man between the man-made world and the subtle which exists in, under, beyond, and all around it.

I also find it strange that on a web site influenced by Jungian psychology that you don't appreciate man's need for archetypes and symbolism in order to connect to something higher or bigger than ourselves.

We will agree to disagree. I understand your frustration with people who 'go through the motions' or get too caught up in the symbols and not the underlying meaning, but on the other hand I think you're making much too much of a sweeping judgment and that you may be missing something yourself.

Namaste.


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## All in Twilight (Oct 12, 2012)

fourtines said:


> I'm glad you think you're so enlightened but these temples and traditions do help people to grow spiritually and connects them to their inner teacher, higher selves, the all that is, and helps them to distance from the chatter of modern life.


We are here now for many millenia and if I look at the world as it is with all their misery, sorrow, violence, aggression, greed and so on, then I can't say that these temples have made a difference. Like I said, traditions have been invented by human thought, that thing we try to discard so much. Tradition and cultivations (thought) are the cause of conflict. It only led to division. If I say that I am Hindu, Indian, and capitalist and you are Buddhist and Chinese and communist, then we already have a division. And it is all invented by us, not by your god. I refuse to be part of any organization, any nation because I will only separate myself from you if I don't refuse all that.



fourtines said:


> Yes, there will be people who miss the point, who get too caught up in appearances, who miss the underlying meanings or just don't care, but that doesn't make all of it invalid; I would rather people go to temples than worship McDonald's and Nike.


I would rather go to McDonalds (I love kids) but even better, I'd rather stay home.



fourtines said:


> It's interesting to meet someone who has this kind of strict personal judgment of Buddhism, knowing very well that there are 10,000 doors to the dharma. Your door isn't everyone else's door and vice versa.


I am strict indeed. There is only one door and no path. Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity are all talking about the same door, but there is no path. Even the 8 folded path is not a method or a path, it's the outcome of insight. 



fourtines said:


> I do agree that people should be more in touch with nature, but often temples and retreat centers, and even some churches (for example the St. Francis Catholic Church in Big Sur) are built into sync with nature with a reverence for being at one with the natural order.


I have never seen a man becoming enlightened in a temple or church. I always need to laugh a bit when I hear these people going on a spiritual search all the way into Tibet. It's right here, right in front of you but can you take it? Or do you think that enlightenment is only present in Tibet and Thailand?

I am sure you know what is going with religion (it means "to reconnect" or "to connect" if we use the Latin word (original) for religion in this world. Christianity for example is not what it was as before because of all those temples and priests who speak on behalf of things they don't know. My previous post was a reference to Christianity, I used two quotes. Did you see those quotes? And if not, why did you miss them? Was it because I never mentioned the words church, Catholic, Christianity and so on?



fourtines said:


> You have to think of it as a middle man between the man-made world and the subtle which exists in, under, beyond, and all around it.


But I do not. I refuse. This sounds too much like the Gothic churches of France with the high windows so that the light of God can enter. Which is funny since Lucifer was the bringer of light and if they're talking about just God, then there is a subject-oject relationship. 



fourtines said:


> I also find it strange that on a web site influenced by Jungian psychology that you don't appreciate man's need for archetypes and symbolism in order to connect to something higher or bigger than ourselves.


When there is a need (desire), then we are no longer free. Words like higher or bigger or just concepts and judgments we invented of things we do not know but want to know. That in itself is already a flaw and can't lead you to truth. I have searched for enlightenment for years and every time when I let go of that search, I became closer and whenever I started looking again based on this desire to know what it is, it led me further away from it. Desire works in very subtle ways. Speaking of Jung, I didn't fill out my MBTI type, that thing that is based on Jung. Not because I do not know my type, but because I don't want to be something that separates me from you. You separated yourself from me however because you want to become something.



fourtines said:


> We will agree to disagree. I understand your frustration with people who 'go through the motions' or get too caught up in the symbols and not the underlying meaning, but on the other hand I think you're making much too much of a sweeping judgment and that you may be missing something yourself.


It was never about agree or disagree. We share information, that is all there is to it. I am also not frustrated, it's their lives but it makes me a little sad when I see all these people suffering for nothing really. My judgment as you call it (I prefer not to use this word) is indeed sweeping. It's truth or it is not. Temples are partial and teachers are partial so it means nothing but enlightenment is whole.

I see your post rank is Guru. I would never call myself that (it's very vain). If I am the guru, then people depend on me, an attachment. You can't have any attachments. You also can't depend on me because then you would only repeat what I am telling you. That is being stupid, that is not judgment, that is fact and it makes you no better than the ignorant Christian, Hindu, Muslim, scientist, capitalist, communist, feminist, anti-feminist who all fight over nothing because they can't think. They never learned how to think, they can only repeat because they have a monotonous thinking pattern developed over the years. Think back of my previous post - the allegory of the tree because the tree was right.


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## Thalassa (Jun 10, 2010)

@_All in Twilight_

If you'd rather go to McDonald's you must not think very clearly, I'm going to read the rest of your post later, but I have to back away from the person who would paint all religious centers with one brush and say that they prefer a fast-food corporation that monopolizes the market and contributes to the obesity epidemic with what only marginally passes for food.

Especially since you said you'd rather go to McDonald's because you love kids. That doesn't even make sense. 

I'm not even sure what to do with the non-sense of this portion of your post, let alone bother to read the rest of it yet.


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