Elements of Buddhist Iconography c5.41

c5.41

All this the Buddha refused to discuss. His business was to proclaim a Way (*mārga, pantha*), he would not speak of That, the Goal (*artha*) whereof nothing can be spoken truly or intelligibly. How indeed, as Confucius expresses it, should those who have not yet understood Life, aspire to comprehend Death? whilst we are on the way, we are not there. We can then only take the Buddha as *he is*, as manifested operative presence, and strive to realize ourself as Same, by following his or any alternatively formulated Way, taught by himself or any “other” Comprehensor. That Way is mapped, not only in spoken words, but equally in painted or sculptured iconographies. These “works of art” ¹⁴⁶ are “footprints of the Law,” “traces of the Buddha,” which we cannot say that we have really heard or seen, otherwise than by merely animal perception, unless we have seen through them at least a shadow of the form by which they are what they are. Let us not forget that the Brahmanical or Buddhist craftsman was required to *be* that which he was commissioned to *represent*, and that only in so far as we can be again the Same, can we begin to understand his operation.