Ywama Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar/BURMA
Dating 12th-18th Century
One of the oldest buddha sculptures there is at the end of an ancient stupa on the banks of Inle Lake, a floating village in Myanmar. A teacher once shared with me Buddha’s teachings on non-attachment, especially as it relates to the stories you create in your head. When you look at an image, or a photograph, it tells a story and you follow that story to its end in your mind. However, it’s important to find images that remind you NOT to think, AND NOT to create stories, and that’s exactly what this Buddha image does for me. When viewing I think of nothing, but its simplicity and a sense of non-attachment. There is no story created in my mind. It simply evokes a feeling of an ancient grounded peace.