I made a brief visit to the National Museum of Scotland yesterday to do a little research for an article for our Cathedral magazine and was saddened to see the closure of my favourite space in that gallery - the 'Looking East' gallery, formerly known as the Lady Ivy Wu Gallery. This is to make way for a new configuration of gallery spaces and I hope the treasures from that former space all find their ways to good homes in the new layout. It will be sad, however, not to see them all together with their lovely presentation of East Asian history, religion and culture. If the museum is looking for a home for its Japanese tea house, I'll happily find space for it!
The reason I was looking there was to track down as many representations of the Buddha as I could find in the gallery. The one I was most interested in is a sitting figure of the Buddha Amida which lives in the main hall of the gallery on the ground floor. It is Japanese and dates from the 18th century.
On the top floor, there is another representation of the same Buddha, also Japanese and of similar age, in a slightly simpler form and with a halo.
There are also many representations of the Buddha Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, including a magnificent stone carving from 4th century CE India which shows striking similarities to European classical sculpture.
The Buddha Amida, or Amitabha, is particularly venerated in the Pure Land school of Buddhism and especially in Japan. He is known for his compassion and his vow to save all mortals, irrespective of their status, allowing their rebirth in the pure and happy land. He is characteristically shown in this meditation posture with the accompanying meditation mudra (hand gesture). There is a deep stillness about this image and it represents the intimate connection between stillness, meditation and compassion. The one who is truly recollected in meditation has an open heart towards others. This practice is not at all a matter of introspection, but of love.
For the Christian viewing these images, it is very tempting to make comparisons with the iconography of the saints. Images of saints can serve both as a focus for prayer and a depiction of virtue and many images from the Christian tradition possess a similar stillness to the Buddha Amida, and this is perhaps seen most clearly in Orthodox iconography. The drama of the baroque in the West stands as an interesting contrast.
And an encounter with images like these invites us to consider other differences. I wonder how possible it is for a Western Christian to appreciate the full depth of spirituality present in such a statue. Even if we have an acquaintance with the subtleties of iconography and a knowledge of Buddhist doctrine, can we ever truly have the same spiritual engagement with an image that is not part of our own tradition? I imagine that its very difficult to know whether or not we are having the same experience as a Japanese Buddhist when we stand before the Buddha Amida and I am sure that to do so in a museum is a very different matter from doing so in a temple.
Nonetheless, I do find myself moved by this image. Even before I had any background knowledge of its origins, I found something of stillness, something of compassion there.
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