Joshua’s Clay Emaciated Buddha
Joshua is the good friend of Jj’s… Joshua is very talented it seems. He is making a statue of the Emaciated Buddha when Buddha engaged in an intense 6-year retreat eating one rice grain a day. Hence His body really became emaciated. This statue was at my request. Although Joshua works full time, he is squeezing the time out to do this. Fantastic!
I am excited to see this image complete and will post the competed photo.
Thank You Joshua.
Tsem Rinpoche
Dear Rinpoche,
Joshua is making this Buddha statue for Rinpoche from processed clay.
I gave him the picture from the Buddha video Rinpoche showed me the other day.
Tq love,
jj
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It really is a sign of perseverance for me. Sometimes, we get lazy, but when I see this, I think “Buddha was an ordinary being, too. He experienced suffering like us. His teachings live on for 2,500 years till today to be able to benefit and help all sentient beings.
Look at how compassionate he was that he meditated and barely ate so that he could show the perfect path to all people who would have the karma to see.
Beautiful! I really wish I have the talent to make such beautiful statues! Some people like Joshua are really creative and talented. Joshua and JJ has done a few statues already and they are all amazing!! They even did a statue of Kensur Rinpoche, Tsem Rinpoche’s Guru! Amazing talent! http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/students-friends/offerings-from-jj-and-joshua.html
The picture of the clay Buddha above reminded me of the documentary I just saw the other night about Prince Siddharta’s life before he became the enlightened ONE. I was asking myself, how can someone survive on a grain of a rice accompanied with bird droppings and urine? Most of us will shudder at the thought or imaginative sight of it. But noooo, Siddharta wanted the answer to his question ” What causes SUFFERING?” after seeing the sufferings outside the palace that he was comfortably living in for so many years. Siddharta thought that through some teachings and meditation, one could gain supreme Enlightenment and find the answers but he found it the hard way. But His teachings live on for 2,500 years till today to be able to benefit and help all sentient beings. Aren’t we truly blessed!
Seeing the construction of this statue makes me think of the austerities Buddha went through in order to teach the Dharma. It really is a sign of perseverance for me. Sometimes, we get lazy, but when I see this, I think “Buddha was an ordinary being, too. He experienced suffering like us. Look at how compassionate he was that he meditated and barely ate so that he could show the perfect path to all people who would have the karma to see.” I really want to abandon my laziness and selfishness. Hopefully other people are as inspired by this blog as I am…
Thank you for sharing all of these posts, Rinpoche. You are always bring inspiration to me and many others. Please, keep it up!
With so much thanks,
Tyler
I first met Josh in person 4-5 years back in Singapore when KMP had their week long book fair in Suntec city. It was us 7-8 monsters bringing in books across the border, setting ourselves a production line attaching license stickers onto our products and setting up our booth in the famous Singapore Book Fair.
Back then he showed me many pictures of his paintings and sketches and I was really awed by his skills and painting. As we blog and post about him now, he is finishing a tangkha artwork of Lord Maitreya to be offered to Rinpoche as well. Josh has taken much time to read, study and practice is Tibetan art here and there over the past years but never got into serious painting. Overcoming his fear, he began painting and now is 80%done!
Can’t wait to see how both the tangkha and statue come out!
I admire Josh’s devotion that even though he is faraway from the Lama, he is able to show his devotion in this way.
Many prayers for the success of ur Dharma work,
JJD
Even in the early stages, this is already looking impressive. As Beng said, it’s really quite a joy to watch an artwork in progress and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for updates on this one!
So many wonderful, talented artists are brought together through Kechara to express their creativity through using the Dharma as their inspiration.
For someone who isn’t artistic in this way at all, I’m always impressed at how anyone can bring this kind of work together – I greatly admire anyone who can sculpt/paint/draw. Again echoing Beng’s sentiments, Joshua’s devotion to Rinpoche is so clear and I hope he finds great happiness and joy in his practice and also within the wonderful talents he possesses.
Kind regards,
Sandy
It sure is an art-fest this week on Tsem Rinpoche’s blog – first the stunning Vajrayogini from KSA, followed by the hand-made Amitabha by Lili Ng and now this.
I enjoy seeing photos of art in progress, witnessing each step as the artist adds each component to create a complete whole.
Perhaps Joshua is also another artist in the making – Rinpoche has attracted many students with strong artistic talent and even stronger Dharma imprints. Joshua is also a good friend of JJ’s (one of the Ladrang team) and it is wonderful to see JJ bringing his closest friends to Dharma, and seeing them enter the path, blossom and eventually flourish. I also applaud Joshua’s devotion to Rinpoche – although he is far away, he takes his teacher’s instructions to heart.