The difference between Buddhist and Chrstian iconography
There is a notable difference between the way the Buddha
is represented in paintings and statues,
with his benevolently peaceful gaze ,and the way Christian saints are
usually represented, with an intense, almost paranoiac, ecstatically
transfixed gaze.
This “Buddha’s gaze” is often evoked as a possible
antidote to the Western aggressive-paranoiac gaze, a gaze which aims at
total control, and is always alert, on the lookout for some
lurking threat:
I n the Buddha,we find a benevolently withdrawn gaze
which simply lets things be, abandoning the urge to control them.
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