Buddha Painting for Serenity and Peace
Buddha paintings & inspiration by annie b. ?
Welcome to my Buddha paintings page and my thoughts on how the image of the Buddha and the teachings can help us.
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, left behind his royal life to wander the countryside as a seeker of truth and peace, eventually becoming fully awakened (enlightened), some 2500 years ago, while meditating under a Bodhi tree in north India.
Buddha’s timeless wisdom and teachings have great importance to me and to many, in both East and Western cultures, as they can help us to open our hearts and minds, have compassion, kindness and understanding so that we can recognise the equality of all people and living beings and the interconnectedness of all.
We are all One. Feeling love for all, even our enemies, transforms our hearts and minds and makes our lives meaningful. I had the honour of taking teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama many years ago, and one of the things he said was;
“I have found the greatest degree of inner tranquillity comes from the development of love and compassion.”
This really inspired me and struck a home truth and lead to the
development of my positive children’s books and my practice over the
years.
The
teachings also encourage us to create a wealth of virtue and be of
service to others where we can and most importantly “tame this wild mind
of ours”, especially here in the busy West.
Many believe meditation is a key element to ‘awakening’, and I believe meditation with Buddhist images can often provide motivation for our spiritual practice.
My Buddha Paintings
I created the Buddha painting titled ‘Just be in this moment, and this moment’ with Buddha under the blossom tree, (top left, above) to aid meditation and to remind us to come back to this moment.. The blossom also represents transcendence and reminds us nothing is permanent. I also feel that an image of Buddha instils peace and tranquillity to any space and a feeling of inner calm.
My Buddha painting, ‘Peaceful mind, happy heart’, (bottom left in the images above) started as a peaceful lily pond on which to meditate, and then a white Buddha appeared (!) reminding us Buddha is omnipresent.
In
Sri Lanka I visited the huge golden Buddha statues, which are 50 feet
long, and this is because, Buddha is always bigger than any problem we
may have.
When I sit with Buddha it really helps me to just stop, and
be here right now.
Meditating on emptiness and seeing the world without
judgement, including ourselves cultivates a deep inner wisdom
unconditional love and radiant bliss.
With
the Buddha paintings I have created I wished to capture this profound
peace but also the essence of happy Buddha. Thich Nhat Hanh once said, “There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way!”
In my Buddha painting ‘Happiness is the way’,
(top right, above) I have painted Buddha leaping over the lily pond so joyously to
represent just this and the letting go. Happiness really is the way.
In the painting of ‘Happy Buddha in lotus flower’,
(bottom left, in the images above) Buddha sits in the moment in the lotus flower which reflects human
consciousness, from the muddy roots under the water deep down, (the base
of consciousness) to the higher divine realms.
The opening flower
represents the purification and development of our mind and heart
wisdom. Buddha is sitting radiating happiness.
Summary of Buddha Teaching
The Four Noble Truths Life contains suffering – suffering exists. Suffering has a cause, and the cause can be known. I have heard it stated that "suffering exists due to attachment" Suffering can be brought to an end. The path to end suffering has eight parts – the eightfold path. ?
The eightfold path
Right view or perspective
Right intention
Right speech
Right action
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right concentration
My Buddha paintings and prints are available in my online shop.