Hello all, it’s been a while since I was here. I need the guidance and help of our esteemed venerables and lay friends.
As mentioned in the title, I wanted to ask the Buddhist view on keeping paintings of portraits of the Buddha as wall decorations at the home, since we are redecorating and wanted to put up a nice wall painting.
As for me, I am hesitant at the idea since I believe it’s not good to keep Buddha’s figures and portraits as mere artistic depictions without any sense of faith or respect.
I find it disrespectful that due to globalization of Buddhism, the Buddha has been made just a commodity who’s pictures can be put up as paintings, sculptures or tattoos without any sense of reverence.
If one is possessing a portrait/sculpture of him, it needs to be accorded the due respect, which, according to me, at least includes paying obeisance and perhaps offering of flowers/incense, not as dogmatic ritual but just as our way of showing our faith and appreciation of his teachings.
There is also a question of kamma, because there seems to be a way of talking about the Buddha, addressing him, depicting him respectfully even though he’s long left this world, which can possibly affect oneself kammically.
The rest of my family isn’t that inclined towards Buddhism spiritually, although they have genuine respect for him as an accomplished teacher and sage.
They really want a portrait of him in the drawing room, saying his face exudes calm and serenity.
So, my question is, is keeping such works of art morally unblamable? Blamable? Ambiguous?
Please let me know your thoughts.
I’ve attached some “Dos and Don’ts on Buddha” that I gathered a while back. It’s a simple visual guide that clearly explains what’s considered appropriate in both a practical and traditional way. I thought you might find this helpful!
It is even more strict in Tibetan tradition. The commentary said that, if you take refuge in the Buddha, then you must regard any physical representation of Him (the statue, the picture, etc) as the real Buddha in person. You don’t treat them as dead object, but as a living, breathing Teacher.
Imagine your teacher is sitting on a place in your living room. You must be mindful at all times and not doing anything that may displease him, or inappropriate act, or immoral act, etc.
There is no fault in placing Buddha’s picture on the wall. But then, the problem is how a buddhist act in front of that picture…
Thank you @AnapanaMichael for this visual guide!!
These pictures look helpful.
So, according to the #3 heading under ‘Don’ts’, it appears that keeping the Buddha’s painting or sculpture in the living room as a furniture or decorative object, epecially the right image depicting the Buddha’s painting (or is it a sculpture?) behind the sofa, isn’t to be done.
I would like to know, however, if these guides were made by the lay disciples based on their own understanding or that of the wisdom of the monastics with perhaps a solid textual foundation.
Because, I need to be sure from my side to be able to convince my family. And that would require either a strong textual support and/or the comments from the venerables here since these would give a lot of weight and authenticity to my side of the argument.
Venerables @sujato@Brahmali@Dhammanando and the rest, I request your kind guidance if possible from your busy schedule
The prescriptive precepts
There are three prescriptive precepts. The first is to treat images of
the Buddha as objects of reverence—as though they were the
Teacher himself—not pointing out their faults regardless of their
quality, and not disrespecting them or treating them with contempt
by putting them in dishonorable places, pawning them, etc. The
Friendly Letter:
Just as the learned worship an image of the Sugata, Whatever it is made of, even wood
(Tsongkhapa, Great Treatise on the Stages of Path to Enlightenment, 13th century)
What we should practice is, while recalling the qualities of Buddha, viewing a statue as the actual Buddha even if it is broken or made of clay. It should be placed in a clean, high place, not thrown in the garbage or stepped over, regardless of what material it is made of, even if it is broken.
I say this is a good enough reason. Buddha’s smile inspired me long before his words. Personally, I would rather see more of Buddha around non-upasaka’s decorative art for such reasons. If people are inspired by the image, why get in the way?
Also, Buddha forbade his disciples to sleep in high places, and he likewise observed that rule. He’s slept on the floor. He dressed in leftover rags and stained robes. I think he would’ve viewed any rules laid out by his followers to keep him in high places, a sad irony. He also ate his own feces and drank his urine as a Bodhisatva trying out austerities. I don’t think he viewed toilets as beneath him. In fact he encourages meditative practices to see body as full of piss and feces. He wanted us to remember that at all times. Personally, I used to have nice Buddha fountain in my toilet before I gave it away. It put a smile on my face.
Buddhists might find certain placement of Buddha’s image disrespectful. It might even be wise to play along with some of those guidelines, for not getting into trouble with the community. But let us not confuse that with actual disrespect towards Buddha. For all we know, Buddha was already against any human depictions, whether of himself or others. The image we have is very likely a greek invention. If we really want to be faithful followers of Buddha, we should throw away any images of him depicted as a human to begin with, probably.
People might find reasons to be offended for all sorts of things. It really does depend on your mentality. If the sight of a man smiling in meditation brings peace and serenity in any quarter of living space, I say there’s no blame for it.
It would also be wise to consider whether Buddha himself would’ve found any of our treatment of his image (not in the toilets, only in high places, not letting it keep dust etc.) disrespectful personally, or are we being “More Royalist than King himself” as the french would say. It is important to review why we view things as beneath the image of Buddha, for things Buddha evidently didn’t see beneath himself in the suttas.
Well, that’s good to hear! If they want the image out of respect, that’s a good motivation.
I think that that’s a decapitated Buddha head. I don’t think I need to explain why a decapitated head is considered disrespectful!
I believe they were published by the (lay) organization Knowing Buddha.
My personal guidelines are:
Buddha images in homes would ideally be placed in their own shrine room or similar. A drawing room should be fine though as long as it’s just a room for sitting and chatting politely. Just don’t put a Buddha image in a bar, a bathroom, etc.
Buddha images should be placed high. A good level to aim for is to have the Buddha’s eyes higher than human eye level.
The image itself should be respectful. No severed heads, symbols painted over the Buddha, uninspiring poses, etc. Here you kinda have to use some common sense. If in doubt feel free to ask some Asian Buddhist friends!
Best, though not required, is to have a shelf or table in front of the Buddha which can serve as an alter for offerings. In a Western household, this can be “disguised” as a console table with some tasteful flowers in a vase, for example. As a layman in America, this is what I did and it was lovely to have an excuse to buy fresh flowers every few days. (It’s not selfish if they’re for the Buddha! ) Obviously, you can adjust this as makes sense.
Every so often, put your hands in Anjali and bow to the Buddha. If you use the image religiously, to inspire yourself to better conduct, then it’s fulfilling its purpose and wasn’t placed in vain. (And if it’s arranged in such a way that bowing to it is awkward, that’s a good sign you need to rearrange something!)
One thing that is certain is that respect for the Buddha and the Noble Ones is an important dhamma. This is seen repeatedly in the suttas and from venerated Buddhist masters. Reflecting on this, IMO it seems that if your Buddhist art and its placement could give rise to any question of lack of respect, it should be avoided. The fact that you’re expressing doubts here indicates that if you hang a portrait of the Buddha in your drawing room, it might chafe at you every time you see it. An alternative is a soft painting of something in the natural world: landscape, river, clouds, etc.
[The Buddha] It’s unpleasant to live without respect and reverence.
Thank you @Dogen for your insights!
I agree when you say there’s a distinction between things the Buddhist community might find disrespectful and things which actually show disrespect.
However, I feel both of these run parallel most of the time and would diverge less frequently than expected. The reason I believe is that fundamentalism is relatively rare in Buddhist communities, and most of the reasons for being careful about treatment of Buddha’s art depictions are well-thought.
I hope that makes sense (I’m typing in the middle of work )
Thank you Venerable @Khemarato.bhikkhu for your guidelines! These are super helpful!!
Indeed, this was the very reason for my hesitation!
To be honest, I wanted to be sure I’m not being a bit too rigid and fundamentalist subconsciously as a faithful layman and was actively trying to avoid, as @Dogen mentioned, “being more Royalist than King himself”.
Hence, wanted a more objective view from the wise members of this forum.
I would say the main reason for having any depiction of the Buddha is to be reminded of the Dhamma and so be inspired to practice accordingly. An ideal image should reflect the spiritual qualities of the Buddha, thus being a direct reminder of what one should aim for in one’s own life. As such, I would say it useful to have depictions of the Buddha in one’s home, even if one does not pay it respect in a traditional way by bowing, etc.
Still, it is best if the painting is put in a place that confers it a degree of dignity. It is by respecting the painting that you also respect the qualities it represents.
looks fine to me! Balancing emptiness on the left with compassion on the right… A reminder to contemplate the constructed nature of phenomena and yet to face the impermanent world with dignity. I could gasho to that!
Thank you Bhante for your guidance
I agree with all your points and will convey these to my family as to what constitutes our responsibility towards the Buddha’s image if we indeed want one in our home.
Thank you Bhante for clearing out my doubt
I’ll keep in mind the guidelines shared by you and Ven. Brahmali and follow them to the best of my capacity.
)
Balancing emptiness on the left with compassion on the right… A reminder to contemplate the constructed nature of phenomena and yet to face the impermanent world with dignity. I could gasho to that! 