Just A Thought ~ THE LAUGHING BUDDHA

Most people are familiar with the figure of the so-called 'Laughing Buddha', which is supposed to represent the next Buddha, Maitreya, whose name means 'Loving-Kindness'. He is not expected to appear for eons yet. The Teachings of Gotama Buddha are still with us.

Like most people, I suppose, I could not understand how a Buddha could be portrayed so fat. I reasoned that this is what happened when the concept of the future Buddha was carried from India (where the images show him as prince-like, majestic, handsome and wellproportioned), to China where the majority of people were so poor that, of necessity, they were skinny, and where only wealthy people could be well-padded. So, out of respect, they portrayed Maitreya as fat, with a tendency to put on more weight as time passed.

Personally, I always found this portrayal rather gross until, some years ago, I heard an explanation as to why he is shown so (no-one knows what he will look like, of course; images come from our imagination, which is why they are called that). It is because he rejects no-one and nothing but accepts everything, and looks for ways to turn around and transform whatever is unpleasant or unworthy; he therefore has lots of material to work with.

With us, it is quite different. We are in the rejection-game. We don't like this, so we reject it; this is not nice, reject it; that's bad, reject this, too; and so on and so on until we have almost nothing left to work with. We want everything to be just so, to be exactly as we like it, and this is why we are so spiritually poor.

Things never will be exactly as we like them; life will never adapt to our likes and dislikes, our desires, hopes and fears. Somehow, we must find a way to adapt to life while still maintaining a balance. It is not easy ~ in fact, it's probably the hardest thing of all ~ but it can be done, and any success we might have will encourage us to go on and not give up.