"The mind is burning, ideas are burning, mind-consciousness is burning ..." Buddhas at the National Museum of Korea

The National Museum of Korea has an amazing collection of nearly complete Buddha statues in a number of different media. There is also a large collection of Buddha heads.

I was particularly struck by the display of the larger Buddhas. In a dramatically lit room, the Buddhas lined the walls, each in it's own island of light.

Also worth noting is the "Pensive Bodhisattva" sculpture. A National Treasure of Korea, it is a beautiful depiction of Siddhartha.

The title of this post is, of course, from the Buddha's "Fire Sermon":

"The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs." (Fire Sermon Text)

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