Buddha Posture: Bidding Farewell to Vaisali
(Thai: ปางนาคาวโลก, pronounced "Pang Nakhaolok")
Buddha is standing, eyes looking down, the left hand hanging beside the body, holding a stick, and the right hand raising up with the index finger pointing up.
Related Story: Bidding Farewell to Vaisali
The Mahaparinirvana Sutra describes the life of the Buddha during his last year—the places he travelled, the people he met, and the teachings he gave. In the sutra, it is said that the Buddha had just spent the Rains Retreat near the city of Vaishali, north of the Ganges River, and that he then decided to travel north in order to return to the town of his birth, Kapilavastu. Although he knew this was the last time he would ever see the beautiful city of Vaishali, he did not lift his hand to wave good-bye. Instead, we find this sentence in the sutra:
The Buddha, on his way, turned around, and with the eyes of an elephant queen, he surveyed the city of Vaishali for the last time and said, “Ananda, don’t you think that Vaishali is beautiful?” After having surveyed the city of Vaishali with a gentle gaze that took in all of its beauty, the Buddha turned back to the north and began to walk.
When the Buddha looks, he does so with the eyes of the elephant queen in order to look deeply and recognize what is there. We, too, have the eyes of the Buddha and of the elephant queen. If you see deeply into the beauty of nature around you, you’re looking with the eyes of the Buddha. It is extremely kind of you to look on behalf of the Buddha, to contemplate the world for the Buddha, because you are his continuation.
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