The Meaning Behind the Fasting Buddha Statue
The original Fasting Buddha statue from the ancient Gandhara period. Click to enlarge.
The “Fasting Buddha” is a masterpiece from ancient Gandhara that was excavated in Sikri, Pakistan, in the 19th century. It probably dates to the 2nd century CE. The sculpture was donated to the Lahore Museum of Pakistan in 1894, where it is still displayed. Strictly speaking, the statue should be called the “Fasting Bodhisattva” or the “Fasting Siddhartha,” since it portrays an event that took place before the Buddha’s enlightenment. On his spiritual quest, Siddhartha Gautama tried many ascetic practices, including starving himself until he resembled a living skeleton. Eventually, he realised that mental cultivation and insight, not bodily deprivation, would lead to enlightenment.
The Buddha’s spiritual awakening is related to fasting. The young prince Siddhartha left his palace in search of enlightenment and practised for six years under severe austerities and intense mental concentration that his beautiful body withered away to skin and bones. Towards the end of this period, he was surviving only on a single grain of rice a day. Buddha wanted to cut the attachment to the senses starting with excess indulgence in food and so on. This stage of Buddha’s practice is known as Fasting Buddha and the depictions in images or statues are usually called Emaciated or Fasting Buddha.
This holy form or image of the Fasting Buddha reminds and inspires us how much difficulties Buddha went through to become fully enlightened. His compassion to benefit others is so strong he put his body through so much to attain enlightenment. Although his body went through so much pain, difficulties and weakness due to fasting so intensely, he never gave up. He never quit. He never found the difficulties a reason not to pursue his spiritual practice. It inspires us to or do the same.
Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni. Click on image to enlarge or for more high resolution thangka downloads click here.
Difficulties build mental strength, purify negative karma, instills self respect, and helps us to appreciate everything much more. Nothing is to be taken for granted. Seeing this holy image blesses us to remember that difficulties on the road to enlightenment is not negative but part and parcel of our journey. To be experienced, to learned from it, to understand from it and to ultimately grow from the difficulties we experience. What success in life was not earned by difficulties. When we see this image and make affinity we create the karma to be able to have endurance, tolerance and develop a high degree of diligence. To have great fortitude. For anything to be successful we need fortitude and diligence.
As Siddharta realised that desire was the root of samsara, he thought that one of the methods he could end desire was by fasting. At one point, he no longer had the strength to meditate and he realised he would die before he gains liberation due to the ‘abuse’ he put on his body.
It was then that a local Brahmin’s daughter, Sujata, approached and offered him a golden bowl filled with rice prepared in the essence of the milk of one thousand cows. He regained his strength, renewed his meditation, and realised Buddhahood. Siddharta reached enlightenment only after accepting nourishment from Sujata, hence preaching a “middle way”, a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, the central tenet of Buddhist practice.
It is wonderful to understand and see this image of the Fasting Buddha as it has so much significance for all of us on the spiritual path. To have an image of this Fasting Buddha, make offerings and to pray to Buddha in this form blesses us with fortitude, diligence and mental strength to absorb difficulties and continue until success. It is one the most favorite images of Enlightened Beings for me. Clear here to read more.
More pictures of the Fasting Buddha
Another angle of the original Fasting Buddha statue
The original Fasting Buddha statue from the Gandhara period
A replica of the Fasting Buddha statue
A replica of the Fasting Buddha statue
A replica of the Fasting Buddha statue
A replica of the Fasting Buddha statue
H.E. Tsem Rinpoche’s personal Fasting Buddha statue with abundant offerings in front
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i a sri lankan a buddhist a sinhalese by race . happy to see these buddha statue
why not pakistan govt gift them to sri lanka as we a buddhist country
sarath dassanaike of sri lanka
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing with us the images of the fasting Buddha.
Buddha Shakyamuni went through a lot of hardships before gaining enlightenment. Fast Buddha reminds us of the hardship we have to go through in our spiritual journey. For me, the hardship comes from my delusional mind trying to reject the truth and not wanting to face the root cause that prevents me from progressing. Understanding the hardships are part and parcel of the spiritual practice, it reminds me not give up, be brave to face the truth and continue to walk on the path to improve myself. Eventually, we will see a positive result from our determination and perseverance.
The practice of asceticism was a common practice of Hinduism and Jainism, which were said to annihilate past karmas and stop new karmas from being created. The Buddha in turn, found the “Middle Way” to enlightenment, the Noble Eightfold Path of moderation between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification.
This reminded me of the danger of “spiritual materialism”, the process by which the ego grasps at the accomplishments and progress of the self upon the spiritual path. Perceiving the body to be the cause of bondage in samsara is not the view that will lead to liberation as the real source of our problem lies in the mind that is afflicted with the three poisons of hatred, desire and ignorance.
Having said that, ascetic practices help to develop discipline, fortitude and mental strength on our spiritual path. These practices reduce our needs to the minimum and spare us more time and focus on the real practice of Buddhism. Seeing this image is a good reminder for me that perseverance is very important, and we are fortunate that Lord Buddha has laid out the path for all of us to follow in his footsteps.
Thank you for sharing many beautiful images of the Fasting Buddha.
This story of how Buddha Sakyamuni gain his realization from starving himself and then receiving the offering of rice in milk by Sujata, shows how realizations can be gained by just a simple shift of the mind, at the right time and in the right conditions. Also, it seems that all beings who gained enlightenment needed to go through such hardship before finding that mind-shift necessary for realizations. Difficulties are able to push us to break the barrier of our comfort zones, our ignorance and our ego to become capable, to be wiser, to gain greater confidence and to actually gain realization on the impermanence of things. In that, we are able to let go and start again without fear or self-made boundaries.
It had always been said that we have the Buddha nature in us and yet it is so hard to really realize this said nature due to our ignorance and karmic barriers. Buddha had 3 eons of virtuous practice before he gained enlightenment and yet he still has to go through such sufferings to gain enlightenment. It is scary that we are so comfortable in our lives thinking we are okay when we are so subjective to karma which may just strike without notice. And this is not only for this lifetime but in all our future lives. It is so important to continuously collect merits to counter the karma that we gather so easily. We are so ‘lucky’ that we have our Guru to teach and guide us. We must realize that his compassion is such that he is constantly providing ways for us to gain merits to sustain our spiritual practice and he never gives up on us before we give up on ourselves. Thank you Rinpoche for your kindness in sharing all these articles that serves to help us in the transformation of our minds.
As the saying goes, “no pain, no gain”.
It is very true that the difficulties we experienced in life help build our strength and will to survive and to succeed in life. Hence, the Buddha’s struggles, pains and difficulties is a testament that whatever difficulties we encounter we should never give up, especially if it is for something so important and beneficial for us – enlightenment.
We need to realise that every single hardship and difficulties that come our way are actually teachings for us. Without them, without the challenges and problems, we will not learn to think differently, out of the norm and find out new possibilities to overcome the obstacles. We will not be problem solvers and instead, end up becoming depressed as we wallow in self-pity. Now I realise that when we do that, it is a clear sign that we have not experienced many hardships and taken responsibility for our actions. Hence we have a very low tolerance level and to “giving up” is always something that comes to mind.
Buddha learnt from his extreme action of fasting is not going to get him anywhere near his goal to achieve enlightenment. And in fact, he would end up killing himself before he could reach his goal. Realising this, he stopped starving himself, and this is why Buddhism is a religion that practices the middle way.
“Difficulties build mental strength, purify negative karma, instils self-respect, and helps us to appreciate everything much more.” This is definitely is very true because without difficulties, we will not learn anything new, and hence we will not be able to grow further. So instead of avoiding difficulties, we should embrace it especially if it for a great goal such as liberation! This is the message here. Thank you, Rinpoche for this reminder and teaching on the significance of the Fasting Buddha image.
Fasting is said to be good for our body and should be done at least once a week for the body to rest and detox. It is not something to be done daily, not for 6 years as it became an extreme act that has proven to be ineffective for our quest to enlightenment. Fasting Siddharta is a very good example of it.
The fasting Siddharta is a clear reminder of the following:
1) not to give up easily until we reach the goal
2) put all efforts into our endeavour until we are successful
3) determination of a strong mind can take us through all odds when we focus on achieving the goal
4) desire for comfort should be minimised, if not completely eliminated, in order to reach the desired result
5) put others’ needs before ours even if we have to take on all hardships.
Enlightenment comes from a complete transformation of the mind. The mind can only be transformed when it is being trained consistently with enlightening activities. Consistency is, therefore, one of the core elements for us to reach enlightenment. This is demonstrated in the form of the fasting Siddharta.
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you for this post about the Fasting Buddha. I have read Prince Siddharta’s ascetic lifestyle that strained him physically prior to achieving enlightenment many years ago. Whenever I saw the image of the fasting Buddha, I remember about struggle before achieving success. I also remember that when Rinpoche was building KFR phase I, Rinpoche has a shrine for the fasting Buddha in front of Rinpoche’s cabin. This article reminds me of those days.
I also learned about something new from this post that making offerings and praying to Buddha in this form blesses us with fortitude, diligence and mental strength to absorb difficulties and continue until success.
Thank you Rinpoche for the opportunity to learn about something new everyday.
Thank you, Rinpoche for sharing this meaningful holy statue of Buddha Shakyamuni. This form of Buddha Shakyamuni is very intriguing because it is unusual and it bears a very important message to us who had embarked on our own spiritual journey.
Spiritual journey is not an easy journey at all because we have to face the truth and our own true self. We are used to the way that we are being raised and sometimes the truth is different than what we are taught. Hence, when we embark on the spiritual journey to unlearn and relearn everything, it will not be pleasant at all. There will be alot of hardships when we are in the period of having “withdrawal” symptoms from our old habits.
Rinpoche also shared with us on one of his YouTube videos that it is a good sign when we have battles and struggles on our spiritual journey. When we have these, it means that we know what is wrong with us but somehow we are resisting it. That is where the battle comes from.
It will not be easy to be on a spiritual journey and Buddha Shakyamuni had shown us that with tenacity, we will get results eventually provided we going in the correct direction. The best way will be relying on a qualified spiritual guide for us.