The idea that all things are transient is central to Buddhist teaching. Loss and impermanence are things to be accepted rather than causes of grief. The Buddha’s Parinirvana was a moment of great triumph as well as sorrow, for it marked the Buddha’s release from the cycle of rebirth. This wood statue of Buddha depicts the Parinirvana in a highly abbreviated, almost emblematic fashion. The enli

The Buddha contains multitudes. The life of a prince of the Shakya clan that could not prevent him from turning to mendicancy and asceticism; year after year of grave austerity and introspection; and, finally, enlightenment. It goes without saying that a life like this descends not into death as its natural course, but into nirvana: the elusive freedom from birth and death and rebirth that ensnare