Documentary: Japanese Buddhist Sculpture

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Meido
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Documentary: Japanese Buddhist Sculpture

Post by Meido »

A fantastic and needed documentary project examining Japanese Buddhist sculpture, for those so interested:

https://www.carvingthedivine.com/

I was happy yesterday to talk with the director for a Carving the Divine TV short episode. We discussed Zen, and the ways in which Rinzai practice uses Buddhist iconography not just symbolically, but as a source of encoded information RE body, breath, and the physical and energetic transformation that come with practice fruition. That bit will be posted in the next few months; he is interviewing scholars and practitioners from other Buddhist schools as well. One may sign up to be notified when weekly episodes are released, here:

https://www.carvingthedivine.com/landin ... ail-signup
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Queequeg
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Re: Documentary: Japanese Buddhist Sculpture

Post by Queequeg »

Wonderful. Thank you for the notice!

My wife is an art historian and studies Japanese art, particularly Buddhist images, so I have the great fortune to tag along with her on research trips where I get to take in the breathtaking art in temples and other collections.

Anyone who has looked at a carving by Unkei up close, as well as all those other great works of art throughout Japan, understands that Japanese Buddhist sculpture is one of the great cultural achievements of humanity. Excellent subject for a documentary.

This documentary looks very cool and look forward to seeing your interview on the TV show!
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
Meido
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Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:50 am
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Re: Documentary: Japanese Buddhist Sculpture

Post by Meido »

My pleasure...sounds like you and your wife will definitely enjoy this.

I'm a fan of Kamakura-era sculpture. There's a Fudo Myo-o image in the Art Institute of Chicago that I've had a long "relationship" with since my early 20's. The sculptor could never have imagined that his work would end up half a world away, so far in the future, and have such a deep impact on someone. But so it happened, and I'm grateful:

Fudo.jpg
Fudo.jpg (139.61 KiB) Viewed 1356 times
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