手印=mudra=finger-prints=seals=signet-rings=mystic positions of the hand; 佛教人物=Buddhist; 慈悲心=Compassion=Metta=Loving Kindness=Maitri; authors; bodhisattvas; epithets; honor; natural disasters; Buddhist goddesses
摘要
This article focuses on the Buddhist goddesses. As the author write, it is a little statue that the author found in Seoul that gathers him. It is a figure of the female boddhisattva of compassion seated in lotus posture upon a great fish. Mustaches and fins curling upward in harmony with the waves, this Asian Leviathan grins with the honor of carrying his serene passenger. Her smile faint, strong, and kind, her hands dancing a mudra of blessing. Her eyes remain closed, mercifully: she does not confront me but grants me immense space. At this moment, it is her peaceful relationship to the sea that rivets the author's attention: as the author write, the shock of the great tsunamis is ebbing into the images of fathomless loss, the incalculable aftermath of horror.