Buddha in my garden by laineybugger on Flickr.
Buddha, Thailand
Photo: Stuart UpdegraveInextricably joined with a bodhi tree—the same type of tree under which Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, achieved enlightenment—a Buddha head greets visitors to the ruins of Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya. The temple is part of Ayutthaya Historical Park.
Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing to steal.
Ryokan returned and caught him. “You have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.”
The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.
Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow,” he mused, “I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon.”
Photo by Maureen Mills.
(via kokopuff)