As I rummage through thrift stores and antique malls, I am drawn to specific types of pieces. Or perhaps they are drawn to me. Guanyin, or Kuan Yin, or Kannon is one of those things I am drawn to. She is a bodhisattva. associated with compassion and and mercy. A bodhisattva is a being who has attained enlightenment but delays entering Nirvana to help others achieve liberation.
As you can see I have begun accumulating several images of Guanyin in her various manifestations. Almost all of them are white, which surprised me when I found the figurine at the top of the page at an antique mall over the weekend. The tag said it was a figure of a Geisha, but I knew the way she was sitting that she was and incarnation of Buddha.
My desk is full of Buddha figurines. There are weeping Buddhas, reclining Buddhas, laughing Buddhas and simply seated Buddhas. They all give me peace. I believe I have written before about my brief stint as a Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist. Nichiren Daishonin was a 13th-century Japanese Buddhist monk. The practice centers around chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and studying the Lotus Sutra.
I hate to admit it, but the only reason I became a Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist was because I was dating an artist who was a Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist. It was during a period of my relative youth that I was searching. I studied Astrology, Quantum Physics and crystals. I dabbled with Tarot cards and went to psychic fairs. Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo didn't seem that far fetched to me at first.
But unlike other Buddhist teachings, Nichiren Shoshu was a bit controlling and demanding. There were lots of meetings and of course daily chanting. It triggered my rebellious side. I hate being controlled and trapped in anything that reeks of organized religion (or organized anything). I don't like clubs or meetings. I don't like uniforms or standards. And as I've stated many times over the years, I don't even like making beds or mowing lawns just because you are supposed to.
I prefer purpose in my rote repetition.
So Buddhism, or at least the way I understand it, doesn't really fall into any standard path to enlightenment. What put me off about Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is that people would chant for things. The woman I was seeing when I became a Buddhist, chanted for a car. And there were people in the groups I was pressured into attending that chanted for drugs and money. So basically when I stopped dating the artist, I stopped being a Niciren Shoshu Buddhist. I just didn't stop being drawn to Buddhism.
Funny how things come full circle in our lives some times.
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