Who'da Laughing Buddha?

I've been quite busy writing papers for classes recently, so apologies for not posting in a while. Fortunately for Pickles to Pipes, one of the assignments was for a "popular audience" in the style of a blogpost. The following paper discusses a common misconception about the Buddha, and I hope you'll find it enlightening! 

Who’da Laughing Buddha?

            Americans love food. We love Asian food. And we especially love our sesame chicken, pad Thai, and egg drop soup. However, it’s the restaurants that serve this food—whether Chinese takeout, upscale Indian, Japanese Steakhouse, or Asian Fusion—where we primarily with Asian culture, and sadly our knowledge of Eastern culture probably matches the faded Chinese calligraphies adorning the walls, the splintery chopsticks, and the chubby smiling Buddha beside the register.

There’s a chubby smiling Buddha located in my favorite Japanese restaurant Kiha of Japan in Greensboro, North Carolina. Somewhere I heard it was good luck to rub his belly, so after paying for my #3 combination dinner, I am always certain to give his protruding belly a pat. However, prior to enrolling in a course on Buddhism, that was extent of my knowledge of the religion; it was just people patting the bellies of chubby Buddha statues for good luck, and frankly, I believe that’s probably on par with about 90% of Americans’ knowledge of Buddhism. Unfortunately for the majority, the little Buddha statue is actually laughing at them because he’s really not the Buddha. The statue is a bodhisattva whose real name is Budai. Thinking about, this oversight would be similar to a non-Christian rubbing an icon of the Virgin calling her Jesus, which would sound be just as absurd to any Christian as patting Budai and calling him Buddha would to a Mahayana Buddhist. It’s that egregious, and just shows how little westerners know about Eastern culture and religion.

Unless you’re a practicing Buddhist or scholar, you’re likely puzzled at the fact that the chubby smiling man, the person you’d always known and recognized as the Buddha, is really not the Buddha at all. Who was he then? And who is the actual Buddha? Answering these questions requires a crash course on the fundamentals of Buddhism and the religion’s conception of the universe and its origin, also known as cosmology. Buddhism is an Indic religion that traces it roots to an ancient Vedic religion, Brahmanism, and from this developed a philosophy based on cycles. According to this tradition, there are infinite cycles of the universe (the universe is believed to has been born, grown, and dissipated an infinite number of times) and what’s referred to as the cycle of samsara, more commonly known as reincarnation. People sought to escape the continual rebirth and death of reincarnation, and the current Buddha, named Siddhartha Gautama, taught people the way to escape it known as the path to enlightenment. This knowledge is known as the Dharma.  However, because the universe is cyclical, experiencing its own death and rebirth, the Dharma must be discovered again with each new universe. This suggests there will be and has been an infinite number of Buddhas.

Here’s where the smiling Budai standing beside Kiha of Japan’s cash register enters the scene. With later generations of Buddhism, followers became more interested in becoming a Buddha than simply escaping reincarnation. The people on the path to discover the Dharma for a future universe became known as bodhisattvas, which was the precise goal of Budai. He is believed to be a reincarnation of the future Buddha, whose name is Maitreya. So eventually calling him the Buddha will be correct…just not quite yet.

Interestingly, the Laughing Buddha probably receives more attention in American restaurants than Buddhist temples across the globe. Of all the bodhisattvas, Budai is among the least revered in Buddhism. Bodhisattvas possess special transient powers that can help other human being reach enlightenment, and followers of Mahayana Buddhism, the largest school of Buddhism, can interact with these beings through various mantras and prayers. For example, Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, is among the most widely revered bodhisattvas in Buddhism because he appears in nearly every school, albeit with variations in name or form. Avalokiteshvara also has a famous mantra oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ that Mahayana Buddhists chant to receive help, which practitioners will often chant regularly. Budai has no similar mantra, unless you count the unofficial tradition of rubbing his belly. Character is also important for bodhisattvas because with each reincarnation they perfect character traits, which are important in learning and teaching the Dharma. Budai was especially revered for the traits happiness, wisdom, plentitude, and contentment, making him the perfect companion for a restaurant. However, reverence for Buddai is mainly restricted to China because he was also a real person, an actual Chinese monk, who lived over a thousand years ago and was reputed as eccentric with a good and loving character.

So the next time you encounter Budai in your favorite Chinese restaurant, it won’t hurt your karma to give his belly a rub. But at least this time, be assured his laughing won’t be at you!