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Buddha

Buddha (b¡´de, b¢d´e)
Originally Siddhartha Gautama.
563?-483? B.C.
Indian mystic and founder of Buddhism. He began preaching after achieving supreme enlightenment at the age of 35.

Buddha

Buddha (b¡´de, b¢d´e) noun
1. One who has achieved a state of perfect spiritual enlightenment in accordance with the teachings of Buddha.
2. A representation or likeness of Buddha.
[Sanskrit buddha-, enlightened, past participle of bodhati, he awakes.]

Buddha

Buddha (b¡´de), [Skt., = the enlightened one], title given to the founder of BUDDHISM, Siddhartha Gautama, c.563-c.483 B.C.; b. S Nepal. A soothsayer is said to have predicted at Siddhartha's birth that he would become a world ruler or a world teacher. His father, King Suddhodana, of the warrior caste, raised him in great luxury, but at the age of 29 Siddhartha renounced the world to become a wandering ascetic and search for a solution to the problems of death and human suffering. After six years of spiritual discipline, he achieved supreme enlightenment at the age of 35 while meditating under a pipal tree at Bodh Gaya. He spent the rest of his life teaching his doctrines and establishing a community of monks, the sangha, to continue his work.

Hotei

Hotei or Pu-Tai (literally cloth sack) is better known as the obese Laughing Buddha. In China, he is called Pu-Tai and dubbed the Loving or Friendly One. He has become incorporated into Buddhist & Shinto culture and is based on an eccentric Chinese Ch'an (Zen) monk. His image graces many temples, restaurants, and amulets. Hotei has become a deity of contentment and abundance, Taoist in origin.

History & Art

The Laughing Buddha derived its beginnings from a mix in Buddhist, Taoist, and Shinto religions and can be traced back to the time of the Liang Dynasty in China. Hotei is theorized to have begun as a real Buddhist monk in China over 1,000 years ago. He was considered a man of good and loving character. It was said of Hotei's benevolent nature, that he was to be regarded as an incarnation of the bodhisattva soon to be Maitreya (the Future Buddha), but this claim was only allegorical and due to his large protruding stomach & smile, he was caricatured as the "Laughing Buddha."

The image of Hotei is almost always seen carrying a cloth or linen sack (that which never empties) which is filled with many precious items, including rice plants (indicating wealth), candy for children, food, or the woes of the world. Sometimes it can be filled with children as they are seen as some of those precious items of this world. His duty is patron of the weak, poor and children. In some scenes he may be found sitting on a cart drawn by boys, or wielding a fan called an oogi (said to be a "wish giving" fan -- in the distant past, this type of fan was used by the aristocracy to indicate to vassals that their requests would be granted).

The statue depicts a stout, smiling or laughing bald man in robes with a largely exposed pot belly stomach symbolic for happiness, good luck, and plenitude. Some sculpture has small children at his feet. Another item that is usually seen with the Hotei figure, is a begging bowl; to represent his Buddhist nature. All of these images display Hotei as a wandering monk who goes around and takes the sadness from people of this world. He most certainly is a loving and cheerful character, strikingly similar to Santa Clause in the West and is a common statuette found in homes and businesses in China and Japan.

Religion

The basis of belief in the Laughing Buddha is mainly superstitious legend. As it goes, if a person is to rub his belly, it brings forth wealth, good luck, and prosperity. He is often admired for his happiness, plenitude, and supposedly wisdom of contentment.

Chinese Buddhists have superstitiously adopted Hotei as the Laughing Buddha into the Mahayana Buddhist pantheon and his image may be found in the first hall of a Buddhist monastery. Ch'an temples will usually have Hotei located at their entrances & courtyards but unfortunately, he became the object of worship as a god of good luck and prosperity. Later enthusiasts made the unsubstantiated claim of divinity to the figure and gave the already appointed title of Maitreya Buddha to him.

In Japan, Hotei is also seen as a one of the Shichi Fukujin, the Seven Japanese Shinto-gods of Luck. He is supposedly the only member of the seven based on an actual person. Back when Buddhist missionary monks were delivering the message & way of Gautama Buddha onto the islands of Japan, they devised a method to more efficiently reach the local Shinto inhabitants. By manifesting Buddhist principles, with Shinto Kami, the monks were successful. Kami are seen as Shinto gods and were worshiped as such. The Buddhist monastics were able to better communicate their ideology to Japanese natives by using the Kami's as examples in common Buddhist practice. Thus, Buddhism became very widely accepted in Japan and from one of these manifestations, came Hotei.

604 entity Laughing Buddha
Member: Jez (ex-Cosmosis, aka Jeremy Van Kampen)

Waveforms and Releases:

• _If You Think You're Psykik MP3 (192k)/Swinging London_ 12" (highlighter yellow vinyl) on Transient

• sample: "if you think you're psychic... maybe you are..."  from the film _Starship Troopers_ (the recruitment commercials)

• _Swinging London_ samples from the film _Austin Powers_
• _Infinite Depth_ MP3 (160k) off of _Goa Vibes 3_ compilation on Trust In Trance
• _Megamorphosis_ off of _Goa Raume II_
• _Earth Medicine_ off of _Pulse IV_
• _Karma_ MP3 off of  Singles II_ compilation on TIP
• _Tapu_ MP3 off of _Sacred Sites_ compilation on Return To The Source
• _Acid Rain_ off of _Another Taste Of Transient_ compilation on Transient
• _Astral Traveller_ off of _Dream Creation_ compilation
• sample: "That's the real use of music. It's not for listening, it's for travelling."
• Medicine Drum vs. Laughing Buddha
• _Written In Stone/Written In Stone (Floorplay Remix)_ MP3 (160k) 12" on Transient (1999)

Usenet: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy

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