Tag Archives: buddha statue
The Buddha’s Journey to Enlightenment
More than 2,500 years ago, Prince Siddharta Gautama was given birth in what is presently called Lumbini in Nepal. He was born a prince and his birth was received with a lot of special signals that indicated a destiny of greatness. The prince’s father went to a wiseman that resided inside the kingdom for advice about his boy. The sage man theorized that the prince, Siddharta Gautama, might either follow in his father’s footsteps and become a great king or he might become a spiritual leader. Praying that his son should grow to be his heir, the king managed his best to separate the prince from those things that could motivate him toward a spiritual life. The prince was surrounded by extravagance and excess, all the advantages that his royal placement could offer. Siddharta Gautama turned out to be to be a brilliant student and excellent sportsman. He wed a
Meaning of the Buddha’s Earth Touching Pose
Known by many names, the ‘earth touching’ pose of the Buddha is the Bhumisparsha mudra, translates from Sanskrit to mean ‘touching the earth.’ A mudra is a motion or gesture of the hands and body to express a feeling or thought. Buddhist meditation rituals are based on the many different mudras. The earth touching pose is most often seen in statues of Buddha and is also referred to as the ‘earth witness’ mudra. To perform this mudra, the hand is placed on the ground with all fingers touching. The palm faces inward. It is a symbol of the moment when Buddha summoned the Earth goddess to witness the moment in which he achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Occassionally, you may see this mudra referred to as ‘Summoning the Earth Goddess to Witness.’ In the earth touching pose, the right arm rests on the right knee with the fingers extended
