Digging For Buddha

Stephen Hershey
buddha small.JPG

While searching for a mythical, 300-meter-long Buddha statue, archeologists have uncovered part of an equally impressive, 19-meter-long "sleeping Buddha" in central Afghanistan. The search has been inspired by a 7th Centruy Chinese pilgrim who recorded details of the legendary structure while exploring the ancient city of Bamiyan, once a thriving center of Buddhist activity.

Remains of the sleeping statue were found near the ruins of the large "Buddhas of Bamiyan," destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. A total of eighty-nine artifacts were discovered, including coins and ceramics dating over two thousand years back to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.

Comments

bring me a dream...

Submitted by 2k on Wed, 09/24/2008 - 15:11.
Aren't the sleeping Buddhas representative of some kind of dreaming meditation? Uncovering the Buddhas may be akin to revealing a terma. Symbolically, the re-appearance of the Buddha in Afghanistan would be acutely hallucinatory. Sleep when awake and wake when you sleep. ...the night-mares were pretty terrible for a while.

Still Searching

Submitted by Naugahyde_Budda on Wed, 09/24/2008 - 21:44.

The Budda of Naugahyde is still out there......

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Einstein 

Military occupation and suppression of data is cause of woe

Submitted by vivifidal on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 09:55.
The location of the sleeping Buddha is quite evident in classified military documents which are suppressed due to the technology used to obtain the data. Bad causes such as this lead directly to economic decline, this is basic Buddhist doctrine which should not be confused with the popular view of karmic retribution since the line of cause and effect is very clear. In Bhutan many wonderful stupas are being erected and peace pagodas are being built around the world by others. Contributing to these efforts can help one weather the tide of desolation brought upon us by evil policies and will eventually reveal the hidden location of great gems of wisdom such as the colossal reclining Buddha.

why so much resistance to history?

Submitted by vivifidal on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 11:05.
Much of the source of strength in western civilization is due to influence from the East on Greeks such as Euclid, Plato and Aristotle. The false views of the perpetually chaotic Middle East serve to suppress the wisdom and harmony by the arrogance of those who claim divine right without first obtaining celestial wisdom. All western history is propaganda used to instill fear and repression by those wielding undeserved power. "At that time the One worthy of global esteem awoke from his dreaming state of universal awareness and thus spoke 'The great truth all those that are enlightened grasp will blow your freaking mind!' The door to it is rather well hidden and its rather hard to find the key or jimmy the lock and get through it.None of the scientists or gurus really grok this shit!" Openning passage of  2nd chapter  "Having Game," of the Lotus Sutra, translation mine...