[Tidbits] And They Climbed Upon The Bottle

Well. it’s not quite the Tower of Babel. But it can make you think.
And while you’re thinking you can wonder: Are they all speaking the
same language?

This is the story of Tripitaka. a Buddhist monk who journeyed to
India in 629 A. D. But before he left he dreamt of a beautiful
mountain adorned with various Buddhas and saints. And in his dream
was a Happy Buddha and his elephant. And the dream came true. as
dreams are often wont to do. and Tripitaka met all the Buddhas and
saints and the elephant on his trek.

And a Carver came along. a carver whose name we do not know. and this
carver took some green jadeite tinged with browns and white. and he
carved upon the shapeless chunk a bottle. and upon the bottle he
carved replicas of all who our monk met. not forgetting the elephant.

And the Carver said let he or she who gazes upon my sculpture see on
the lower left the Happy Buddha holding a pearl in one hand whilst
his arm rests upon the elephant’s back. And let them that look note
the twelve link continuous chain reaching from the elephant’s trunk up
to and connecting the Happy Monk with Guanyin–the Goddess of Mercy.
And let them look in awe at that which emanated from my wondrous
hands.

And let them also note the base of the bottle. which is embellished
with turbulent waters, two dragons, and a deer. Alas. our carver did
not have a partridge in a pear tree. But one can never hope to have
all that one desires … for that is the way of The Way. though no
one truly know which way The Way goes. Many mortals think it is
that-a-way. But they know not.

And the Carver knew that when he went from the temporary vertical to
the ultimate and eternal horizontal… his talents would go with him.
And so he advised all that would follow him to use the finest
photographic film available to immortalize his work. And that was
what he said. and that was what was done.

And he said before taking his final position. let he who is called
Benjamin present my work to others. And Benjamin did.

So. You wanna see? Go. Look. And tell me if you think the Carver done
good.

You know where. Home page: tyler-adam.com. Left hand menu. Click on
Tidbits.

And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark

I always enjoy Tidbits and look forward to it each week. I remember
the story of Tripitaka, thank you for sharing such a beautiful
carving.

Jackie