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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) redcoast | |
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Recently I got interested in Buddhism, and one thing that intrigues me is Buddhist art. Specifically, the representation of the Buddha himself, Siddhartha Gautama. Doing a Google Images search for "Buddha" will bring up a lot of versions of this fat, laughing guy, sometimes sitting on a pile of money: 
That's not the Buddha at all. That's a guy named Bodai. I can see how you would mix it up, but yeah. Bodai (or Hotei, if you're Japanese) is a good-luck statue in the Asian world, because the stomach is the center of spirituality and therefore rubbing his stomach will bring you good luck and riches or something. "Buddha" is a title that means "the Enlightened One" or actually more like "The Awakened One" or "The One Who Is Awake." The whole point of Buddhism is that anyone can achieve enlightenment and become a Buddha themselves. Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, didn't consider himself to be the first Buddha or the last, or even probably the only Buddha at that time, though I don't know that for sure. But in the West, when most people say "Buddha" they're talking about Siddhartha Gautama. Or that fat guy. You see a lot of representations of him in Buddhist paintings and sculpture, and he pretty much always looks the same:
They make you go, "Hey, that's Buddha." I mean, he's portrayed pretty consistently. You've got Buddhas sitting in a lotus position, like above. You've got standing Buddhas: And, my favorite, reclining Buddhas: That position looks really chilled out to me, even though it's Buddha dying. That's supposedly how he laid down to die after eating some curry pork that had "gone off," a detail I can't help find hilarious even though it is Buddha dying. (Yeah, he wasn't a vegatarian.) I guess he's supposed to look peaceful and like he's resting because he's entering Parinirvana, not just dying, but still. That expression does not say "dying of food poisoning."
This is my absolute favorite Buddha reclining statue:
 Look closely - the big reclining Buddha is surrounded by a bunch of tiny Buddhas. When I get famous and have a portrait of myself commissioned, this is what I want it to look like. I want a big me being worshiped by a bunch of little mes. Anyway, I was wondering if there was something written down about the Buddha's appearance. Siddhartha Gautama probably died around 400 B.C. and the Buddhist teachings didn't get written down until about 400 years later, so I don't think they'd be really accurate or anything, but I was curious to see what was considered important to how he looked. For one thing, he always has really long earlobes. It's freaky. Well, I looked it up, and did he ever: 32 main characteristic and 80 minor ones. They're really specific, too: He can touch his knees with the palms of his hands without bending.What, like ... he's a gorilla? I just checked and my palms are about a foot above my knees. He must have had really long arms. The distance from hand-to-hand and head-to-toe is equal (Pali: nigrodhaparima n dalo). Note: incidentally, these are also the ideal proportions according to Vitruvius, and depicted in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.Okay, maybe not! Incidentally, most people have a wingspan equal to their height. It's a rubric I learned in art class. Go measure your wingspan and tell me if you're proportional! I don't see how he can do the palms-to-knees thing, though. Unless he had a really short torso or something. He has an immense torso, like that of a lionOh, I give up. His sexual organs are concealed in a sheath and exudes a pleasant odor similar to vanillaBetter get that looked at, dude. His skin is the color of gold What, literally? His body hair is blue-black, and curls clockwise in ringsSee, this just proves that the Buddha was good-looking. Someone stared at him long enough to notice the direction his body hair was curling. His body hair are separate with one hair per pore... and to map his pores. Sheesh. Isn't one hair per pore what's supposed to happen anyway? He has a nice smileThis part was written by Buddha's mom. He has very blue eyesFinally. A detail I can visualize. The 80 minor details are even crazier, like number 16 "His navel is without blemish" or 22, "His skin is thick or thin as it should be," and that's where we find the detail that the earlobes should be long "like lotus blossoms" and that he should be emanating a glow "extending around him for two feet." Okay, so I'm joking around, but the truth is very little of this was meant to be taken literally. It's all symbolic. The hand gestures and position of his body all have different meanings, as do all his weird features. It's like a halo drawn around the Virgin Mary in a medeaval painting. Nobody thought that Mary actually glowed; it's a <i>representation</i> of her holiness. I'm sure everything recorded has a symbolic meaning, I just don't know what, exactly. I heard the long ear lobes represent wisdom. The thing I do get are the <i>mudras.</i> The position of the hands has a specific meaning. The seated Buddha's hands indicate that he is meditating. The standing Buddha's gesture is of charity, I guess, though it's kind of small so it's hard to see what he's doing with his hands. Another common <i>mudra</i> is that of the index finger and the thumb touching on one or both hands, palms out, and is the gesture of teaching. I think it's cool that you can pack so much meaning into an image with such little things. My favorite thing about the Buddha images are his expression, though. He always looks so kind and compassionate. I want to get a little Buddha statue for my desk now.
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arabwel | |
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So, next week at the same bat time on the same bat channel - in other words, saturday night in Dominion, I will be DJIng again. I am oing to spend the next few days plotting your early demis... errr, what I will play. :D got a suggstion, comments are screened to procvide an illusion of me actually not being totally sel f indugent/totally unoriginal delete as appropriate :P Tags: bands, clubbing, dj ara, dominion, dublin, music
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) multiplexfeed | |
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http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strips/414.php  
We're so close last night, and it's my giveaway, anyway, so I decided to extend the deadline for the Kickstarter project's $10,000 Challenge 'til tonight/Friday at midnight — exactly four weeks (28 days) from the end of the fundraising period!
Currently, I'm already going to give away five sets of the Memento parody mini-posters and buttons — but if we raise just $180 more today, I'll make it ten prize packs — doubling everyone's chances of winning. (Note: my math is bad. That might not be accurate.)
UPDATE: Well, geez, that was fast. Thank you, Mr. Clark. :)
You can still get yourself eligible to win one of the TEN prize backs by pledging before midnight tonight. I will notify the winners over the weekend. The winners have been notified!
A few people have asked me when their cards will be charged, so I wanted to reiterate this here: Your cards will be charged on December 12th at 1AM Eastern or shortly thereafter, when the funding period has ended.
Since we've got 28 days left to raise money (I cannot end it early), I may as well take advantage of that time, so I'm not eating ramen for two months straight!
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mikoandnoel | |
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Maria and Jessica came to visit me for the past two days. Maria had some time off work and went to Tallahassee to see Jessica, and since Jessica had classes off for Veteran's Day, they came to see me! They bring out such a different side of my personality. They got here around 9 pm on Tuesday night, but we dressed up and went to a swanky martini bar in the Quarter. We each had a couple of drinks and shared a fruit and imported cheeses plate. They did some exploring while I was busy in acadamia world on Wednesday. Wednesday evening we went to The Gumbo Shop for dinner, Preservation Hall for music, and Pat O'Brien's for drinks. I almost had a heart attack when the bracelet Mary made for me broke, but luckily I managed to retain all or almost all of the pieces. She should be able to put it back together when my mother goes to San Antonio before Thanksgiving.
The last issue (November 2009) of Anthropology News featured an article written by three Texas A & M graduate students on HTS. The piece argued that while the ethical concerns raised by the AAA Executive Board and other concerned anthropologist organizations are valid, it shouldn't entirely preclude anthropologists working with the military. I wrote a response (around 1000 words) and sent it to Uzi. He liked it, so I sent it in to the editor. She recommended I cut it down (400 words) to submit in the Correspondence section of the next issue (if I send it in by November 16). I'm kind of excited; it's not much, obviously, and they probably print almost everything, but both Dinah Winnick (the editor I sent it to) and Uzi wrote that they really enjoyed reading it.
Marcello is making me nervous by trying to feel out possible dissertation topics for me; I'm trying to concentrate on the here and now. These classes will be over so soon and next semester should be better. I'm planning on taking From Olmec to Maya, Archaeological Theory, Lithic Analysis, and one other class. I also want to audit Scott's glyph class. This summer I'll have two months of fieldwork as well as Mesoamerica traveling. The fieldwork might include some cave archaeology. I am planning on re-working the ethnography chapter of thesis into a paper for submission to a graduate student conference at Boston University.
This is my last calm week; after that, it all goes to hell. Two twenty-page papers, one eight to ten page paper, four final exams, travel to Houston and Philadelphia, driving home and then almost immediately getting on the plane to Thessaloniki. Hopefully I will be so stressed that I will pass out for the ten-hour plane ride.
But of course, the most exciting thing in my life right now is that JAMES BIRMINGHAM IS GOING TO BACC IN TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!
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arabwel | |
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( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )Tags: ara and her career, glee, i can stick my toes in my nose, ireland, job, random, rl, stuff, whee, work., wtf
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I Won't Be Left 
