Quietly he sat between the folds of a tree trunk.

Rawr! I'm so furious, I was in the midst of finishing my second entry when my internet server decides to crash! F U Mozilla, and F U too Yahoo images because it was your fault. Anywho, I'm just going to have to rewrite everything, because I feel like an evil scientist who won't stop until they get shit done!

So my second entry is going to be a contrast to my first entry and be about Buddhism. My family is Buddhist, but I really didn't know much about the religion growing up. All I knew was that I went to the temple on occasions, and attended Buddhist ceremonies with chanting monks at my grandma's house. However, at a young age I always enjoyed the images of Buddhist art. I remember my grandma having a print of the Buddha meditating under the Mahabodhi tree. I guess since I didn't connect to the religion mentally or spiritually, I compensated by connecting with it physically. This is the image:

I didn't really learn about Buddhism until I was in high school. One of my friends was murdered so I was in a downward spiral and was searching and needing peace. Somehow I decided to read the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and absolutely loved it. It's about the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama and his journey into enlightenment. I don't know if every detail is historically accurate, but some true parallels include him being a prince who left his palace to find enlightenment his own way after realizing the limitations of following the teachings of others. Some other themes include having experiences for oneself(the good and the bad), the song of life, and how every thing and being is connected.

To break away from my vague introduction of Buddhism, my blog is really concerned with my newly found interest in the "Buddha Boy," which is why I decided to do some sketches of him. There wasn't much of a thought process as I was sketching, the inspiration was more from how I discovered him. I'm going to break down step by step all the different networks that lead me to him.

It started when I was on a YouTube binge looking up a bunch of video updates from the band Of Mice & Men. I saw their Decade of Destruction Video Update #1 and loved the song in the background. I found out that it was called "Wide Eyes" by Local Natives, and found their video on HibOO d'Live where they perform an acoustic version. Seriously, check it out it sounds so amazing! So I knew that the song sounded awesome, but then I was like what the hell is it even about? So I go to SongMeanings to look up the lyrics and read any interpretations that users left. One user quoted a band member:

"HAHN: I wrote the lyrics after seeing this TV special about a boy in Nepal who allegedly meditated in the jungle for 10 months straight, without eating or drinking or even moving. I already had the chorus line, “Oh to see it with my own eyes,” but the verses came about after watching these thousands of people swarming to witness and study this seemingly miraculous event. It got me thinking about our collective fascination with extraordinary events, both good and bad.

The line “Oh some evil spirit, oh some evil this way comes/They told me how they fear it, now they’re placing it on their tongues” is about phenomena like disaster tourism or rubberneckers on the freeway. It’s interesting to me that we have such a desire to witness out-of-the-ordinary things for ourselves. "

So I YouTube this "Buddha Boy," and become fascinated with him. The documentary is by Discovery Channel and they basically try to prove whether this Buddha Boy has legitimately been meditating in the jungle of Nepal for ten months straight without sustenance or whether it's an elaborate hoax to make money off of the many visitors who believe that he is Buddha or the reincarnate of Buddha. The documentary shows scientific disbelievers continuously saying that it is physically impossible to live without water for 4 days. However, the followers of Ram Bahadur Bomjon(the Buddha Boy) have claimed that he has lived without any food and water for ten months. Their were also claims that he was bit my a poisonous snake and survived without any medical care, had a beam of light radiating from his head, and even spontaneously combusted. He was 15 at the time of the documentary and his vow was to meditate for 6 years without any sustenance to reach enlightenment. He has already completed it, and is now referred to Dharma Sangha.

I have more to say about Buddhism, reincarnation, and enlightenment, but I'll leave that for another entry. I honestly believe that he is legit! Sure I believe in science, but I guess I like spirituality much more than science. Plus as one of the lamas in the video states "Buddhists believe that you can do anything if you put your mind to it." Dharma Sangha has mastered the psychic techniques to have great control over his mind and body. I'll close this on a quirky note. I was already a vegetarian before watching this documentary, but I was reaching that wall where I seriously hated eating the same, old, boring vegetables and just wanted to eat some FRIED CHICKEN, but after believing that Dharma Sangha could live without any sustenance for six years, I quit complaining. Just kidding I still complain, but not as much.

Bloody Freaking Christ.

I made this goal for myself a while back telling myself that I would sketch at least one drawing a day. At first I was pretty good about achieving that goal, sketching a lot of t-shirt design, and tattoo design type art. However, I think I got bored with those themes, since I slowly stopped sketching each day like I told myself to. So recently I decided since I have always been interested in using people as art subjects, that I'd practice portraits instead.

At this point in time, I am not interested in perfection(I'm hoping that just comes with practice, and that the art will get better as I keep doing more). I feel like if I become obsessed with perfection I would never feel like any piece was complete, and eventually I'd get bored working on the same piece for too long. One of the greatest things that I learned while taking an expressionistic drawing course was the idea of believing you are a great artist now. There are some artists that technically have surpassed the masters, but since they spent so much of their time practicing "perfecting" their technique, they haven't accomplished much except the art of replication. If you have an idea, express it now even if it looks like "shit." Art isn't beautiful because of how it looks physically, it is beautiful in that it owns the power to evoke emotions. So get shit crackin' people.

For my first blog entry, I posted a sketch I did of Jesus Christ, and Chris Motionless as Jesus Christ. Why did I want to do a sketch of Jesus freaking Christ? After watching the "Immaculate Misconception" video by Motionless In White where the theme of the video was to parallel how their band and other members of society who don't fit social norms face the same criticism and struggles as Christ did, I was inspired to draw Christ. I'm not a follower of Jesus Christ, and I have never drawn anything of Christ before, so it was a fun subject to draw. I also decided to sketch a video still of Chris Motionless as he played Christ in the video because he looks bloody, scary, and freaking awesome.

As I drew these sketches, I was thinking about how creepy and scary Jesus always looks in regards to art work of his crucifixion and death. I wonder what little kids think when they see this half naked, frail, bloody man, bolted, bleeding, and dying on a cross? It's pretty disturbing imagery. Then I had a flashback about how when I was a kid, I had found a cross pendant at my cousin's house(they were Catholic, I was buddhist). I held it up to get a closer look, accidentally dropped it, it landed on the tile floor, and literally broke in half. I was like "oh crap," and was too scared to say anything so I hid the broken cross in a cache of a toy desk. I don't know why I was scared; maybe because I broke it, it was jewelry, it wasn't mine, and it was a freaking cross of Jesus freaking Christ. Jesus probably hated me at that moment ha; perhaps it was symbolic for the exact moment that I lived a life that would be separate from Christ.

The sketch I did of Jesus Christ was inspired by the statue "Dead Christ" by Gregorio Fernandez. Check it out on any image search engine.

Again, the other image was inspired by Motionless In White's "Immaculate Misconception" video. Check it out on YouTube here.

The video description includes a message from Chris Motionless which I am going to copy and paste onto here because I agree with what he says regarding religion, people, and hypocrisy.

"The main idea and main concern of mine was to basically parallel the 2 time periods of our band and all the open minded people in the world's present day life and the time period of Jesus' life and show how similar they are. I wanted to highlight the hypocrisy and hold a mirror up to all the self righteous, Holier-than-thou people and show them how full of shit they are. We have our own beliefs and we aren't afraid to speak out about them, We are not satanists, We have a positive message towards finding self-worth and inner peace, We don't discriminate against ANYONE regardless of the way they look, their faith, sexuality, or race, and believe it or not, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jesus Christ. Yet despite all these very moral and positive vibes, we are still constantly ripped apart for being who we are. Sounds really similar to what happened to the man the people that criticize us put all their faith in. The difference between myself and Jesus is that he was trying to convince people to believe in him and a higher power (God) to find salvation... Whereas *I'M* trying to convince people to believe in themselves. God does not control your life, YOU do.

My band and Myself are 100% completely aware that NOT ALL Christians or followers of any religion are close minded and do the things they do in this video. I've met SO many awesome people in my travels that are Christians etc.. and regardless of whether they like Motionless In White or not, they still know how to keep an open mind and be respectful. I don't want anyone watching this video to feel like they should be angry towards every person of any faith, or that we are attacking their faith directly. The song is very plainly written about the people who abuse Gods name by using it to profit or cause harm to others emotionally or physically, but it's even more importantly written as a call to arms to ANY person in this world to come stand together to fight the ignorance that halts the progression of mankind. Hate me for that, I fucking dare you."

I'm going to conclude this post with a personal experience relating to Chris' message. I remember going to bible study once with my friends, and having a horrible experience. I was going there open minded about hearing the messages of the bible, and as support for my friends, but this preacher was turning me off. "If you're not a follower of God, what's wrong with you?" He basically was telling me I was wrong, stupid, and going to hell for not believing and following God or viewing and living as he did. I think a more appropriate, and effective way to preach would have been "If you don't know Jesus, you can get to know him." Every one has a right to practice their own religion, so I don't understand why this S.O.B found he had the right to put me or other non-followers down for thinking, and living differently. It just shows how close minded, insensitive, and judgmental some religious followers, and people in general can be. I personally don't follow any one religion, I pick and choose what I like about a certain message and try to apply it into my life. Every one needs to shape and follow their own path.