Guan Yin

Guan Yin

"Royal ease"

Guan Yin seated in the "Royal ease" posture
- detail -

- hand detail -

Guan Yin 觀音, is the traditional female form of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara associated with compassion. This fine example is from the 3rd floor museum in the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

Avalokiteshvara

Avalokiteshvara
The Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion

Taken in the Museum at Buddha Tooth Temple.

Blessed by the Sun

On the temple roof
The top of the stupa aflame with the sun

The top of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum houses a quiet orchid garden, with the focal point of an enclosed Vairocana Buddha Prayer Wheel. A real oasis of calm, broken by the occasional gong of the turning wheel and the distant traffic. The morning sun was reflected as a flame at the stupa top.

From the Genjō kōan

"At the end of his Genjōkōan, Dōgen cites a dialogue between a monk and Master Pao-ch’e of Mt. Ma-ku.

As Pao-ch’e was fanning himself, a monk came by and asked, 'The wind’s nature is eternal and omnipresent. Why, reverend sir, are you still fanning yourself?'
The master replied: 'You only know that the wind’s nature is eternal, but you do not know the reason why it exists everywhere.'
The monk asked, 'Why does it exist everywhere?'

The master just fanned himself."

Translated in Francis H. Cook, Sounds of Valley Streams: Enlightenment in Dōgen’s Zen – Translation of Nine Essays from Shōbōgenzō. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.p. 69.

Cited by Miraldo in Journal of Buddhist Ethics, vol 13, 2006

Ācala

Ācala

"Destroyer of delusion and the protector of Buddhism"

Yesterday in the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum.

My Mother's Birthday

Today is my mother's 84th birthday.

Incense and turning of the great prayer wheel at the Buddha's Tooth Temple.

From the BTRTS

From an upper level at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (henceforth BTRTS as on the website).