Poetry Forum

Hi all. I've got a poem in Pulsebeat this month:

https://pulsebeatpoetry.com/pulsebeat-0 ... y-murdock/

I looked down the list of poets, and I think I'm the only one from this group in Pulsebeat, but I might be wrong given that I don't know everyone's real name. Here is the index for that issue:

https://pulsebeatpoetry.com/pulsebeat-07/

Very nice! Interesting that one so often encounters chubby laughing Buddhas. I tend to think of him as slim, but not gaunt - he had tried asceticism and renounced it.

Cheers,
John

I'm not very familiar with the structure of the Buddhist religion, but I know that the chubby "laughing buddha" was not the actual Buddha who founded the religion. The word "buddha" means something like "evolved one" or "enlightened one", and any highly evolved practitioner can become a buddha. The Buddha himself almost starved himself to death in his quest for enlightenment, and he is portrayed as slender in all depictions of him (although no one really knows).

I suspect you know all this, though. Your knowledge of the various religions is impressive.

Thank you, Caleb! Yes, the Buddha, in becoming enlightened (and thus a Buddha), tried various routes, notably the way of asceticism. He was not fat, as you note, but it is right to show him not gaunt - he had renounced the way of the fakir and found another path out of samsara. To Buddhists, it is the only path.

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Buddha-gi ... asceticism

I also don't think of him as laughing. Smiling, yes. I think of the laughing,chubby Buddha as popular in Chinese culture for some reason. Oh - this is why: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budai#:~: ... 20patterns.

Cheers,
John

Congratulations Caleb