PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Willams: Seeing through Images 35
PROLOGUE: SOME EARLY ISSUES IN
MEDITATIVE VISUALIZATION
In the centuries after the Buddha Śākyamuni’s death an important
theme that became increasingly prominent was the question of whether
the Buddha was accessible after death, and, if so, how and “where.” A linguistic
example of this debate occurs with one of the so-called ten epithets
of the Buddha, the word Tathāgata. It may be parsed as either “tathā+gata,”
or “Thus Gone,” or as “tathā+āgata,” or Thus Come. K. R. Norman has
argued persuasively that the original sense was “Thus Gone.” 4 For most
early Buddhists, and later for most non-Mahāyāna Buddhists, the Buddha
was only accessible, and could only be venerated, through his Dharma, or
teaching. One avenue pursued by some of those Buddhists who felt access
was in some way possible was to collect, and venerate, the Buddha’s relics
at stūpas, large mounded or tower-like edifices. While for some honoring
the Buddha’s relics may have been a way to show respect for the tradition’s
revered teacher and founder, for others it was much more: through the relic
one was in the presence of the Buddha; through his physical remains he was
somehow “connected” to this world. Yet, while a bodily relic constituted a
Buddha presence, it was largely not a communicative one. The Buddha’s
presence was, by and large, a mute one, a frustrating legacy, perhaps, for
the teacher of gods and men. 5
With the shift from aniconic to iconic representation of the Buddha in
art and the creation of Buddha images in the round by the beginning of
the second century CE, whole new options were not only created but also
exploited with amazing rapidity. 6 In a series of eight similes on the voice and
body of the Buddha found only in the Chinese translation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā
Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, or Scripture on the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines,
translated by Lokakṣema in 179 CE, one simile, the third, raises the issue of
Buddha images. There the teacher Dharmodgata says: 7
“It is like the images of the Buddha’s form that people make after
the parinirvāṇa of the Buddha. When people see these images of the
Buddha’s form there are none who do not kneel down and make
offerings. His images are upright and handsome and their fine
features perfectly resemble the Buddha’s. When people see them
there are none who do not praise them, sigh in admiration, take up
flowers, incense, and colorful silks and make offerings [to them].
O Worthy One, is the Buddha’s spirit in the image?”
The Bodhisattva Sadāprarudita said, “It is not in it. The reason
why the Buddha image is made is, however, to desire to have people
obtain merit from it….”