When deciding what to place in your garden there are many things to consider as you will want it to be a peaceful and relaxing placing to go? Gardens are an ideal place to sit at the end of the day and rewind from all of your stresses and worries. Doing this in the right surroundings can make all of the difference to how you feel. Buddha garden statues are a great garden ornament to have as they look amazing and help you to create your perfect place.

Buddha means enlightened one and although many people have now earned this title as there is a huge following for the Buddhist faith. You do need to follow the faith to have Buddha garden statues and many people have them throughout their gardens. They are often bought simply because they are calming to sit and look at. You can choose to make a statement with your Buddha statues as they can be very large, these will look very impressive in your garden.

Buddha statues can represent many different things and you will need to know what each of them mean before purchasing them. There are many different sizes, styles and even colors of Buddha garden statues to choose from. The most common pose for your Buddha is the sitting position with its legs crossed, left hand in the lap and right hand on the right knee. The fingers are often pointing towards the earth on the Buddha statues. This is to represent the Buddha’s enlightenment and shows the Buddha touching the earth.

How you choose to design your garden is entirely your choice and you may choose to have different areas. Having your garden zoned is ideal if you have a family and then you can have an area for the children to play and a more relaxing are for the adults. Buddha garden statues look great in these areas as they can help you to get the relaxed feel you want. They are ideal with water features and fountains as these are also very relaxing. The whole are can be transformed into your tranquil area to retreat to at the end of the day.

If you want a genuine Buddha statue then you may need to go to a reputable dealer although often you can find very nice Buddha statues at your local garden centre. Many people purchase them because of the way they look and not for the meaning behind them. You will need to think about the material that your Buddha garden statues are made from as they will be outside in all weathers. Stone, copper or bronze ones are ideal as they will remain in good conditions even in the bad weather. Wooden Buddha statues are more designed for indoor use as they will rot if left outside.

Siddhartha Gautama was the founder of Buddhism and is the figure represented by the Buddha statue. He was an Indian prince who lived from 563 to 483 B.C. Buddhism is a religious philosophy that, unlike many other traditional religions does not believe in a personal God that punishes our wrong-doings and rewards our good deeds individually. It was originally begun as an atheistic philosophy. It is based on the Noble Eightfold path and the Four Truths. The Buddha statue represents the “Enlightened One.” The Four Noble Truths are: that suffering is part of life, craving is what causes suffering, the suffering stops when the craving stops, and that the only way to conquer the cravings and suffering is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Noble Eightfold Path Is:

Right views, right aspiration, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation. As the Enlightened One the Buddha statue represents other values as well. The individual is not recognized in Buddhism. All that happens to individuals is based on an impersonal moral “karma.” Once an individual follows all of the steps on the Noble Eightfold path they reach an enlightened pure non-existent state called “nirvana.”

The First Statue

It is believed that the first Buddha statue was not created until four or five hundred years after the death of Buddha out of respect. Therefore, the statues are not an exact replication of the person and there is no “right way” to represent him. The artist had artistic freedom of expression in that area. But, there are certain characteristics and symbolic elements that you will find at least one of in every Buddha statue.

o If the hands are resting in the lap this represents meditation.

o The hands crossing over the chest are a symbol of Dharma-or a state of “being.”

o In the earliest Buddha statue, the figure has both hands raised with the ring finger on the left hand touching the thumb and the index finger on the right hand is touching the thumb to make a circle with the three other fingers held aright. It is not certain what this symbolizes.

Buddhism Exists In Three Forms Today

The first is Mahayana, which reveres Buddha as a God like figure and still uses the Buddha statue to represent him. It is called “the Greater Vehicle” and is the most practiced form of Buddhism in the world today. The second is practiced by just over a third of the Buddhists in the world and is called Theravada, or the “Doctrine of the Elders.” It is atheistic in nature and philosophy but still reveres the Buddha statue. Vajrayana is the least common type of Buddhism and uses the occult and shamanism. It is practiced by just 6 percent of the Buddhists.

Many people looking on the Buddha statue find it a source of happiness and serenity. It is a symbol of the end of suffering and true peace. The Buddhist philosophy that we must strive for perfection and control over our personal cravings to work for the good of all is not a bad philosophy. If society as a whole would adopt at least some of these concepts there would be much more peace and tolerance in the world-we could begin to come to a state of nirvana.