I somehow missed the fact that tomorrow is the Buddha's birthday (Vesak) in South Korea. My coworker, and then my boss a couple hours later, reminded me of the event. So we have a three-day weekend, with Monday off. This birthday is celebrated at different times of the year in different countries, but for South Korea in 2023, Vesak is on May 27—tomorrow, a Saturday. Because Vesak is a national holiday here (Koreans don't say "Vesak"; they call this day Bucheo-nim oshin-nal—Buddha-arrival day—or Seokga tanshin-il—Shakyamuni's day of birth), Koreans are supposed to get a weekday off, so Monday has been chosen as that day.
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When you create a Dalma-dō (picture of Bodhidharma), certain traits need to appear: |
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(1) a big forehead, bushy eyebrows, and a beard; |
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(2) an expression of intense, almost constipated concentration; |
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(3) pendulous Buddha-ears with an earring; |
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(4) a big, hula-hoop halo; |
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(5) huge, glowering eyes because Bodhidharma supposedly ripped his eyelids off during his nine-year meditation so as to keep himself from falling asleep; |
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(6) a bit of hair by the ear (this is optional), and the suggestion that the robed monk is a mountain, with the halo representing the sun rising over the mountain's peak (symbolizing enlightenment). Also, very often but not always, the characters bul and shim (佛, 心), meaning Buddha and mind. |
None of the above is a picture of the Buddha, except in the Mahayana sense that we can all be Buddhas, expressive of and incarnating Buddha-nature. Specifically, these are all past attempts at depicting Dalma-daesa, a.k.a. Bodhidharma, First Patriarch of Zen Buddhism. Since I don't normally draw the Buddha himself, these images will have to do.
So! Do you have any special plans for the long weekend?
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