Fasting Buddha
The icon for extreme concentration
The Fasting Buddha icon-cum-sculpture is a copy of
a 1st century AD stone icon (called ‘the ascetic Bodhisattva’)
robbed by British archaeologists in the 19th century from an
ancient Buddhist pilgrimage site in Taxila, Pakistan. The original, created
in the Gandhara Period in Greco-Roman style (note
the dramatic, wholly un-Buddhist appearance + the Roman toga + the typically
Roman hairdo and beard), is approx. 60 centimetres high and made of Schist
stone. It’s on view in Lahore Museum. The Victor’s Way replica is
about 3.5metres high and made of bronze. It’s the largest reproduction in the
world. The Fasting Buddha icon represents the
concentration sub-program (i.e. executed in the extreme….’Do not try this at
home!) of the overall problem solving program so crucial to survival. During
concentration the brain (i.e. as blind biological navigation system, or Bio-Nav) is induced to reduce (i.e.
narrow) or restrict its data processing range to a single datum (or point or
problem), i.e. as in Yoga. In other words, reducing (≈ concentrating or
condensing) mental processing to a single datum/point (or problem) is akin to
extreme fasting (≈ asceticism).* The problem solving (or diagnostic) program, and
which includes the concentration (as elimination of redundant data)
sub-program, is an integral part of the basic survival operating system with
which every living thing is born. Which means that, depending on the
importance of the problem to be solved, every human being at some time
replicates the Fasting Buddha phase. *… If and when
one-pointed (let’s say, @100%) concentration is achieved the focus is
processed as ‘perfect’ (≈ done as a fact), meaning that the bio-system’s
perfection response is triggered. That in turn means that subsequent (single)
foci (cleansed of non-focus data) are experienced as perfect (and beautiful
too). Achieving the perfection status (i.e. as gear or speed or purity) in
which all the world is reflected as perfect was and is the goal of extreme
concentration (i.e. as in Hindu, Buddhist and Christian Samadhi (contemplation)). The pay-off for engaging the perfection gear (or mental state)
is the honeymoon affect and which
as it subsides releases into Nirvana. (See the Nirvana
Man) |
