Short Stuff: Laughing Buddha

not going to talk about. There's going to be terms that we don't necessarily bring into it. The point is, everybody, it's not wrong. Okay, we're talking about a major religion on a short stuff episode that's supposed to be fifteen minutes or less. So just go into it. Giving us a break. Yeah, because this is not about Buddhism as a whole. Uh. This is about because we've we've talked

about it here and there. I believe we did one on Nirvana yep, correct, Um, so we know a little bit about it in Karma, right, Yeah, we did that one too. We danced around Buddhism, which is a bee from what I understand. But specifically, this is about a bit of a chotchkey. This is about the little, happy, jolly, chubby, usually shirtless, laughing Buddha. He looks like Rick Ross that

you see kind of does that you see? And uh, you know, if you go to Chinatown and go to a little tourist trap shop there, you might see these. You might see him at a Asian restaurant by the cash register if your chuck. You might have seen one on his desk for many years. Oh yeah, you do have that one. Yeah, that someone gave it to me years and years and years ago, a little bank and uh, I don't know, he's just got a happy little face. So I liked it. He definitely does. And he's just smiling.

You can't even see his eyeballs, he's smiling so much. And everybody knows that that's the laughing Buddha. But here's the thing that's not Buddha. Nope, not technically Buddha in in the very Buddhist way. Yes, he counts as Buddha in some way, shape or form, and we'll kind of explain that. But when you're talking about Buddha, when most people who are not Buddhists point to that and say, oh, that's Buddha. You're wrong. That's not Buddha that you're thinking.

There is one Buddha who is the Buddha, the teaching Buddha for our era that we live in right now. Capital t e Buddha exactly and not just capitalized, Chuck italicized as well. So the Buddha his He was an actual man who lived in the eighth century in India, and his name was Siddartha Gautama, and he became a He was actually born a wealthy prince, had a great wife, had a kid, was just living the life, but found that he was still unsatisfied, unfulfilled. He needed to know

what the meaning of life was. So he went on basically a vision quest and figured it out and achieved nirvana, and in doing so he became the the Buddha. And I believe his name changed to um what is his name O? Shakyamuni. So we went from Siddartha Gautama, the man, the prince, to Shakyamuni Buddha, the teaching Buddha of our age, the Buddha. That's right. Buddha means awakened one. And like you said, during this vision quest, he meditated for forty nine days under a Bodhi tree, and I imagine that

was a wonderful, peaceful experience. Dude. I'll bet his legs had such pins and needles. At the end of it, came out the other side, uh, enlightened. And this religion has since grown, of course, to the point where I mean, they're they're approaching like four hundred million followers at this point right somewhere there, which is pretty respectable. Yes, very much. So for sure, it's got more than mine does. Uh how many it's just me, just you. I usually keep

it secret. You need still, like, give me a pamphlet and I'll take a look at it. She's thinking about it. I'm working on her. So Uh. Over the years, Buddhism has really expanded, uh, to to the point where there's just not uh Gautama Buddha. Is that the pronunciation you used? Yeah, Gautama's everything I saw, Yeah, Gautama Buddha to where there

are many, many, many deities, including a bunch of Bodhisattva's Yeah. Yeah, which by the way, I was like, oh yes, steely Dan and ended up listening to every major dude because I saw that word in print. Oh man, let me some steely dan. It's good stuff. So these are it's it's sort of a term for these individuals who work for enlightenment for everyone. Yeah. I was like, okay, so

but what is it really? And it depends on who us. So, if you're a practicing Buddha Buddhist who has really dedicated yourself to living the Buddhist life, to following the Buddhist path, you are technically a bodhisatva. But in certain traditions, like the one that's practiced largely in Japan and Korea and China, bodhisatva is actually somebody who's living walking the earth who

is so Buddhist that they could achieve nirvana. They're actually putting off achieving nirvana so they can stay here on earth to make it a better place, which makes them like Mr. Rogers would have been a bodhisatva basically. So there's there's bodhisatva's there's the Buddha. But then there's also some traditions that say, um, well, you realize the Buddha has been born and reborn and reborn multiple times. So this this um the um Gautama was just the us

recent in a line of twenty eight so far. Apparently every time the world gets destroyed, the Buddha is reborn, um and right now, in this incarnation of the world, Gautama was the became the the teaching Buddha of our age. And then those those reincarnated versions of the Buddha are called avatars. So you've got all of them being revered

as deities as well. So it's kind of understandable how you could say, well that that guy technically qualifies as the Laughing Buddha, but he's actually another individual, another historical figure from what we understand. That's right, And you know, that's a great place for a little quick break, and we're gonna come back and reveal who the Laughing Buddha is once and for all, right after this. M alright, So you said that the laughing Buddha was one of

these avatars, a real human being who walked the earth. Uh. And tenth century I like tith like you just said. It's weirdly sounded like when I didn't have teeth up front. It did, but they're all they're chucking, they're looking sharp. Uh. Tenth century Chinese monk whose name was not Buddha but Buddha I. Okay, so that was his nickname. His real name was Zoo. Yeah, I think that was my attempted it. So Buddha I spelled b U d a I. And he's he's this guy that you see. He was pot bellied.

He was happy and gregarious. Uh. He would go around from village to village with sort of like Santa Claus with a big sack over his shoulder. Uh. And in fact, his very name means cloth, sack and Chinese. And he was a very beloved figure. He helped the poor children loved him. He would give out sweet treats and rice and uh was generally like what you would imagine that that that character is, except it was a real human right.

So it's a weird way to say that, right. But he because of this this sack um of like goodies that he would give the children and the poor. Uh. And like you said, he was very Santa Claus like. He started to become kind of associated as a Buddha that represented like abundance and plenty and contentment and fulfillment um kind of materially but not necessarily, but in a

very Buddhist way. And so the laughing Buddhai just became a very lovable, well liked figure, like he was just the kind of Buddha or Buddhist avatar that anybody could get into. But the thing that really kind of cemented his position in the pantheon of Buddhist deities was that he basically was a self proclaimed incarnation of Buddha. He left, he wrote a polem on is deathbed in which he said basically like, hey, guys, just want to let you know the truth. I'm actually the incarnation of the next

teaching Buddha. Remember we live in a certain era right now, and Shakyamuni is the teaching Buddha. Well, the next time the world destroys itself, after it's reborn, the incarnation of the Buddha that I am, my trea is going to come back, and then that Buddha will be the teaching Buddha for the next era. I was just coming by to say what up y'all, Um, have some stuff out of my goody sack and and just call me future Buddha, right, So they did. So that that cemented buddhis position in

the pantheon of deities. But the reason why you see um Buddhai next to a cash register. Is because over time he became associated with restaurants and bartenders. Yeah, which is really, uh, really interesting and the only thing that sort of makes sense is and you know, people have researched this, but uh, it became this imagery of this particular future Buddha became very popular in art and sculpture, and this started kind of cropping up in about the

fifteenth century. And then global trade starts starts expanding sixteenth and seventeenth century. Porcelain becomes a big thing, Ceramics becomes a big thing, and somehow and all this trade and moving, you know, kind of spreading, spreading the word West, that the image of this guy, this little happy Buddha, future Buddha that is that everyone knows and loves just sort of got picked up into the West and it became

sort of like a souvenir. Yeah, like a spoon if you're going to St. Louis, if you go to like like Beijing, you get a laughing Buddha instead. That's right. But that's how likable this guy was. Yeah, And to me, the most likable thing about Buddhism period is you know, if you rub on the Buddhai's belly for good luck that had nothing to do with them, And I thought, man, just a bunch of dumb white Westerners rubbing on this thing. It's probably sacrilegious, but not to Buddhists. They're like, you

know what, it's all good, rub on that belly. I don't blame you. It's highly rubbable, calling calum laughing Buddha. We don't care. Yeah, it's fine because you know why, because we're Buddhists. Yeah, and we're not worried about stuff like that. And then to button the whole thing up. The reason why you see him and why you can rub his belly at a restaurants because he became the patron saint of restaurant tours and bartenders because of his

association with contentment and fulfillment and that cool. Yeah, I love it. And it's just I really can't stress enough how like what a charming welcoming the thing that is for Buddhist to be Like, you know what, any inequality that represents Buddha nature is great. It's all good with us. I think that's pretty cool, very very cool. Well, that's it, that's the laughing Buddha. Now you can point that out to everybody the next time you go to a Chinese restaurant,

and they will love you for it. Um. If you want to get in touch with us, you can go onto our website, stuff you Should Know dot com. You can check out our social links there and then you can also send us an email to stuff podcast at how Stuff Works dot com