Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No 105 Laughing Buddha

LAUGHING BUDDHA

 

Budai or Pu-Tai (Chinese) or Hotei in Japanese, Bố Đại in Vietnamese, is a Chinese folkloric figure. His name means "Cloth Sack,"and comes from the bag that he is often depicted as carrying.

He is traditionally shown as a fat, bald man wearing a robe and wearing or otherwise carrying prayer beads. He carries his few possessions in the cloth sack, being poor but content. He is often depicted entertaining or being followed by adoring children. 

According to Chinese history, Budai or Hotei was an eccentric Chán (Chinese version of Zen) monk who lived in China during the Later Liang (907–923 AD). His Buddhist name was Qieci - "Promise This". Later he was also regarded as a Taoist immortal who brings luck and good fortune. He is also sometimes called the "Santa Claus of the East". Statues of the little, fat "Buddha" are sometimes confused with the Buddha ( Gautama, who was in fact tall and slender). The poem follows a Zen story about the Laughing Buddha. 

 

                           LAUGHING BUDDHA

Strolling through the market streets,

Hotei goes,

linen sack on back.

Stirring dust

with his bare feet

Hotei's calmly stepping onward,

bearing his fat belly.

With a smile he sees day-bringing dawn,

with a smile he views departing dusk.

Where does he take his nightly rest?

He has no home but all the world.

Above the world

or of the world?

Now does he care to tell?

If any ask of him a teaching

he answers merely:

"Give me a penny!"

In the sack he bears his gifts,

candy, fruit, and fried dough cakes.

These he hands out to street children,

to rings of eager faces.

And thereupon he holds

his kindergarten in the careless street.

One simple day

another master corners him.

"What is

enlightenment? What is

its actual significance?

With firm politeness

the question is pursued.

Yet Hotei speaks but by a smile,

the answer shrugs,

the heavy load's slipped from

his shoulder's hold.

And in a sparkle of silence

the laughing Buddha drops

his sack down on the dusty ground.

Further query comes:

" Then what is

enlightenment's reality?"

The heavy load is hoisted back.

Smiling silence

Hotei takes

his sack back on his willing shoulder

and goes at once

upon the way. . .