Golden Buddha
I recently heard a story about a golden Buddha and could not believe to find out that it was not just a beautiful way of illustrating one of our biggest struggles we face, but a true memory of the past.
In Bangkok there is a golden statue of the Buddha that is almost three meters tall, weighs 5.5 tons, and is worth around 250 million Dollars.
The statue was considered to be built in 1403 and has since been in possession by Buddhist monks for many centuries. In 1757 the Burmese Army was invading Thailand. Facing destruction, the Buddhist monks at the monastery began covering their Golden Buddha with clay to make it look of no value. During the invasion, all the Buddhist monks were murdered, but the Golden Buddha was left undiscovered.
In 1957, a group of monks relocated an entire Monastery in Thailand. One day they were moving a giant clay Buddha when one of the monks noticed a large crack in the clay. On closer investigation, he saw there was a golden light emanating from the crack. The monks used a hammer and a chisel to chip away at the clay exterior until they revealed that the statue was actually made out of solid gold.
What can we learn from this story? In Buddhism, a person who has reached enlightenment is called a Buddha. What makes this story a story about ourself. In our quest to answer the central question of ‘Who am I’, we are constantly in the process of chipping away layers. If we don´t search for an answer we run in great danger that other people will answer for us and determine our value, but then leave us, and soon even we will forget our true value. It is a reminder that there is often more than meets the eye. We walk around the world meeting each other in our clay covers being scared of being seen for who and what we really are. There is a golden Buddha within all of us waiting to be discovered. It remains up to us to begin to chip away the layers of clay.
Inspiration: Gywen Williams