Jon Ortner made his first trip to India and Nepal at age 20 and was awed by what he saw there. This breathtakingly beautiful collection of photographs of the Buddha is the harvest of 25 years of travel throughout Asia. In 155 images of statues, frescos, carvings, relics, temples, shrines, and pagodas; he has conveyed the great respect for the World Honored One. Ortner notes: "Each encounter with the Buddha is a privilege." As you page through this volume, pay special attention to the various positions of Buddha's body, his attire, his hands, and his facial expressions.
Along with the photographs of the Buddha are some of his sayings chosen and introduced by Jack Kornfield, a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and of the Spirit Rock Center in northern California. He writes:
"In these images, the Buddha — some recent, some a thousand years old — smiles at us and offers with his hands a gesture of peace. Or he looks at our sufferings with the awakened vision of his third eye of wisdom and offers a symbol of fearlessness. In the shapes of these pagodas, every element — earth, air, fire, and water — is represented in balance and every tier of the spire symbolizes a higher and more subtle state of consciousness. Each of these stupas and gestures and mudras, each of the Buddha's varied postures, each illuminated temple and pagoda is filled with the symbolism of awakening. More than that — each is filled with hope. Hope for the awakening of the great heart of compassion in very being who gazes upon them. Hope that we who see them will be inspired to live our days with the unshakable peace of a Buddha."
