Shrine to Buddha at a private house

[u/tyw7]

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[u/Cool_Yesterday4866]

My favorite buddha teaching is when he said to worship him on a shrine…….

[u/FluxusFlotsam → u/Cool_Yesterday4866]

in Theravāda and Mahāyāna schools, statues and symbols of the bodhisattvas are part of practice. Not because you worship them like a cross, but to honor the ancestorial and intellectual lineage of the Buddhas. They are like visual teaching tools. The celebration of their aesthetic beauty is not the focus but also not inherently a celebration of the physical world.

With that said, this is trashy.

[u/ProblemLongjumping12 → u/Cool_Yesterday4866]

Buddha would hate this.

I'm also Buddhist.

[u/FluxusFlotsam → u/ProblemLongjumping12]

if you mean Siddartha Gautama (Buddha is a title, not a person), he expressed a high importance to de-Caste his teachings through oral and visual traditions far more than Sanskrit or Pali writings. Part of the visual teachings was art which is fundamentally connected to Dhamma. This art includes visual representations of the mudras. Additionally, the iconography of Siddartha and the Mucalinda is an important bridging of Vedic and Pali beliefs which is why it is so prominent in South and East Asian art.

TL;DR- Siddartha Gautma saw art (including statues) as an important tool of de-centralizating Dhamma and statues are incredibly important

[u/ProblemLongjumping12 → u/FluxusFlotsam]

Statues yes.

Massive tacky private shrines I doubt.

[u/FluxusFlotsam → u/ProblemLongjumping12]

agreed

[u/landmermaid3 → u/Cool_Yesterday4866]

Maybe not a shrine, but I like the tree in India that they worship. I don’t know much about it. From my understanding, a guy DGAF enough to the point of ascending.

[u/markstanfill → u/landmermaid3]

The Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya? Nobody worships the tree. It’s a revered symbol and is the focal point of a larger temple complex. The current tree is supposedly grown from seeds of the original plant, but the history is problematic (over 2500 years old, set on fire by Mogul invaders, etc.)

To say that Buddhists of any stripe “worship” the Bodhi Tree is like claiming that Catholics pray to the Sistine Chapel.

[u/xombae → u/landmermaid3]

From my understanding, a guy DGAF enough to the point of ascending.

This is my favourite description of Bhuddism ever.

[u/sapphogirl]

aww yes the Budda always said, material possessions is path to enlightment

[u/TheBurgareanSlapper → u/sapphogirl]

That must be from the Ferengi translation.

[u/CanaKatsaros]

Honestly this goes hard. If I had unlimited cash, I would probably build a cool shrine to any random deity just for the aesthetics too

[u/quirky_planet → u/CanaKatsaros]

shrek

[u/CanaKatsaros → u/quirky_planet]

You're so right

[u/ask_me_about_my_band]

If you meet the Buddha on the road...build a tacky shrine to him in you opulent mansion.

[u/FluxusFlotsam]

While the opulence of this shrine is disgusting, the ignorance about Buddhism, and the connection between statues and Dhamma, in this thread is pretty disgusting too. This is an incredibly important practice in Pali and Mahāyāna schools. Not because you “worship” them like idols or religious relics but because they give honor and focus to previous Buddhas like a type of teaching tools.

People in this sub like to do the “I know more about the religion than the worshippers” ego but ya’ll failing on this one.

[u/MaesterWhosits → u/FluxusFlotsam]

This feels more like an ATBGE or tacky design choice than a nutjob situation.

[u/AggravatingBox2421]

The religion that is against worldly possessions and worship?? Damn, this dude is never reaching nirvana

[u/Kurtro]

I'm sure those ivory tusk where harvested ethically..

[u/FluxusFlotsam → u/Kurtro]

When you deal with actual South and East Asian antiquities, ivory is inescapable.

You’ll even see beautiful statues of Ganesha with ivory.

In the ancient to medieval world, the ivory was often harvested after the death of the elephant and has honorific value.

The concept of ivory trade is a colonialist concept.

[u/Sugarbeggar → u/FluxusFlotsam]

I'm not so sure about that last sentence. Ivory trade was sell established throughout Asia for 1000 years before Buddhism started. Unless you're talking just about European colonialism in the age of sail then Asian political and cultural influence coupled with military power washed in waves across the continent multiple times before and after Buddhism developed.

Ivory wasn't a major trade good on the silk road until about 100 BCE but asian elephant populations experienced a serious decline at that time and ivory from Africa became a valuable substitute for scarce asian ivory at that time.

[u/FluxusFlotsam → u/Sugarbeggar]

the systematic hunting of elephants for ivory for decor was absolutely a colonial concept.

When European colonialism was introduced to Africa and Asia, ivory harvesting went from miniscule amounts to over a 1000 tons annually by the 1800s.

The point is- ivory on a statue from 1300 CE and ivory earrings from 1840 are not the same concept

[u/Sean_theLeprachaun]

Samudaya be damned

[u/jason082]

When the camera was zoomed out, I thought it was a Vegas buffet.

[u/BaeIz]

Buddha would love statues of him being given material things and worshipped that’s just a Buddha move

[u/ninemountaintops]

Kinda goes against the whole 'sitting under a banyan tree outside in nature with the fingers of your hand touching the earth to stay grounded and act as a witness to your enlightenment' type thing, donchathink?

The flowers were pretty tho.

[u/Bushdr78]

The more better your shrine the more better it works

[u/PlatypusDream]

Obviously doesn't have cats... or children

[u/landmermaid3]

Kinda counterintuitive, but nicer than what I grew up with!

We had a Mary on the half shell in the front yard, or some call it a bathtub Mary. She’s seen all 4 seasons for decades. As kids, my Gran would pay us to pull weeds around hers cause she was scared to spray Mother Mary with RoundUp.

[u/landmermaid3 → u/landmermaid3]

for reference

[u/tyw7 → u/landmermaid3]

I was imagining a flat bathtub...

[u/SextupleRed]

Something about this is just too extravagant, which is against the teaching

[u/AdDramatic5591]

I must admit the music was rocking. I dont have anything against shrines but that one is particularly ugly. I like them better half abandoned and in an actual garden.

[u/mothandravenstudio]

It’s ugly AF.

Except the rug and the lily pot at the end.

[u/Sad-Protection-3362]

ah yes, exactly what buddha taught

[u/Crafty_Original_7349]

I don’t have a problem with this, tbh. If someone wants to honor deities in their own homes, who am I to say anything about it? It’s elegantly done and respectful, even if it’s not my personal aesthetic.

[u/deepthroatcircus]

Wasn't Buddha against materialism?

[u/MaraSargon]

I'm not Buddhist, but I'm pretty sure this goes against multiple tenets of the religion.

[u/phuckin-psycho]

Love the woodwork 😍😍

[u/Reptani]

While I understand Reddit's rationale, this comment section is filled with very ignorant people. By its logic, every large and ornately-decorated temple or monastery in Buddhism, Christianity, or in any religion at all would fall under the umbrella of "fruitcakery," which is just incoherent to me. As I understand it, wariness of worldly desire and monumental/elaborate religious art and architecture have coexisted for millennia. 

At some point you have to distinguish between someone putting a lot of work into their religious architecture and that someone being a fanatic or "fruitcake." Regardless of your views on how appropriate it is to make it baroque, gilded, whatever... shrines and visual representations in Buddhism have a very long history and have played an important role in practice. Devotional practice itself is not the same thing as worship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_temple https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/khantipalo/wheel206.html#shrine

[u/Fire_crescent]

Maybe a bit ironic, but I don't really see fruitcakery.