Who are Buddha's attendants here?

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Caoimhghín
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Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by Caoimhghín »

This is a depiction of what is called the "Shaka triad". The centre figure, I believe, is Shakyamuni.

Image

My question is, does anyone know who his attendants are supposed to be? This is a Japanese depiction by Tori Busshi (止利仏師), if that helps determine who the two figures on the side are.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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Losal Samten
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by Losal Samten »

Meido wrote:Shaka Sanzon, i.e. Shakyamuni, Monju (Manjusri) Fugen (Samantabhadra).
Lacking mindfulness, we commit every wrong. - Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔
ཨོཾ་ཧ་ནུ་པྷ་ཤ་བྷ་ར་ཧེ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།།
ཨཱོཾ་མ་ཏྲི་མུ་ཡེ་སལེ་འདུ།།
shaunc
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by shaunc »

I could be wrong but if it's Japanese I tend to think that it's Amida buddha with kannon and Seishi.
Meido
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by Meido »

That's the Shaka Sanzon from Horyu-ji.

I don't know the details of that particular grouping. Shaka Nyorai with Monju and Fugen is a very common sanzon, but there are others (e.g. with Ananda and Mahakasyapa). However, since that one in Horyu-ji is a very famous national treasure I would think it could be easily confirmed.

~ Meido
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eijo
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by eijo »

It is Śākyamuni, with Mañjuśrī on the buddha’s left (your right) side and Samantabhadra of the buddha’s right (your left) side. They are depicted as bodhisattvas so they cannot be śrāvakas or devas in this case. It is indeed the one in Horyu-ji.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%88 ... 9%E5%B0%8A
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B3%95 ... A%E5%83%8F
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by White Lotus »

Samantabhadra is the embodiment of karuna (love) and whilst sometimes exhalted lives in the world of form and is known to become a courtesan with all the sin that involves. All for the sake of love. Samantabhadra rides an elephant. Manjushri also takes female form sometimes. Manjushri is the embodiment of prajna: the wisdom that sees into emptiness. Manjushri is the teacher of seven buddhas and rides on a great lion. The three figures comprise the sakyan trinity.
in any matters of importance. dont rely on me. i may not know what i am talking about. take what i say as mere speculation. i am not ordained. nor do i have a formal training. i do believe though that if i am wrong on any point. there are those on this site who i hope will quickly point out my mistakes.
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Since most here seem to be sure that it's Shakyamuni flanked by Manjushri (Monju) and Samantabhadra (Fugen Bosatsu), any idea why Wikipedia says the figures to the Buddha's left and right are Amitabha and Medicine Buddha?
Shaka Triad

Tori Busshi is credited with the casting of this massive Buddhist statue. It is a triad and so Sakyamuni, the center Buddha, is attended by two other figures, Bhaisajyaguru to its right and Amitābha to its left. The statues are dated to 623 and the style originates in Northern Wei art. The style of the statue is also known as Tori style and is characterized by the two-dimensionality of the figure and the repetitive pattern-like depictions of the cloth the triad sits upon. At each corner of the triad stand four wooden Shitennō statues from the end of the Asuka period. They are the oldest examples of Shitennō statues in Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hōryū-ji#Treasures

Unfortunately, the sources cited as references are only available in print, and not able to be sifted through online, hence my inability to check the actual texts.

Is Shakyamuni paired with Medicine Buddha (Yakushi, Kusurishi Nyorai) and Amitabha (Amida Butsu) elsewhere, in other sanzon? Is that common, uncommon, or even unheard of? Or is this simply an obvious case of mistaken identity?
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by DGA »

Karma Jinpa wrote:
Is Shakyamuni paired with Medicine Buddha (Yakushi, Kusurishi Nyorai) and Amitabha (Amida Butsu) elsewhere, in other sanzon? Is that common, uncommon, or even unheard of?
https://dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=24330

affirmative
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eijo
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by eijo »

Karma Jinpa wrote:Since most here seem to be sure that it's Shakyamuni flanked by Manjushri (Monju) and Samantabhadra (Fugen Bosatsu), any idea why Wikipedia says the figures to the Buddha's left and right are Amitabha and Medicine Buddha?
Shaka Triad

Tori Busshi is credited with the casting of this massive Buddhist statue. It is a triad and so Sakyamuni, the center Buddha, is attended by two other figures, Bhaisajyaguru to its right and Amitābha to its left. The statues are dated to 623 and the style originates in Northern Wei art. The style of the statue is also known as Tori style and is characterized by the two-dimensionality of the figure and the repetitive pattern-like depictions of the cloth the triad sits upon. At each corner of the triad stand four wooden Shitennō statues from the end of the Asuka period. They are the oldest examples of Shitennō statues in Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hōryū-ji#Treasures

Unfortunately, the sources cited as references are only available in print, and not able to be sifted through online, hence my inability to check the actual texts.

Is Shakyamuni paired with Medicine Buddha (Yakushi, Kusurishi Nyorai) and Amitabha (Amida Butsu) elsewhere, in other sanzon? Is that common, uncommon, or even unheard of? Or is this simply an obvious case of mistaken identity?
The English WIkipedia is confusing. Inside the Kondo of Horyuji is the Sakyamuni triad, and that triad with two standing bodhisattvas is flanked by an Asuka period Medicine Buddha and a Kamakura period Amida, both seated. In the four corners around the whole are the Shitenno (Hakuho period). The two standing figures right next to Sakyamuni are not the two buddhas, they are the two bodhisattvas as I mentioned.

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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Who are Buddha's attendants here?

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Thank you for the clarification, eijo. Your words and the full photo put it into much clearer context. Perhaps you should edit the Wikipedia page!
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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