I am in Spain right now; I have been on holidays for two weeks, presenting my two books and giving some talks. I brought my Nikon D90 and Canon S90 and took the opportunity to take some photos with them. These pictures are from Barcelona, Girona and my hometown Calpe. I love Japan but it’s always great to be back home.
In Buddhist temples you can usually find Buddhist bells that are played by striking them with a tree trunk that hangs horizontally from ropes. In New Year’s eve the bells are played 108 times. According to Buddhist tradition humans only have 108 desires and passions, and each bell stroke helps us release the burden of one of those desires. Some Buddhist temples have stairs with 108 steps; those steps represent the 108 human passions that we can’t escape from.
In the TV show lost the button in the Dharma hatch had to be pressed every 108 minutes.
In the west a big-eared person is not considered to be attractive or lucky; but in Japan to have huge ears is a symbol of good luck and wealth. Legend has it that those with big ears, specially those with long earlobes will have lots of luck and wealth during their life.
Buddha (Siddhartha) was born with big ears. During his childhood and youth he lived surrounded by wealth within a noble family. Siddhartha wore expensive clothes and gold jewelry. One of the pieces of jewelry that he used the most were some heavy earrings made of gold that deformed his ears over the years making them even bigger. At some point Siddhartha renounced his world of wealth and materialism and left his big golden earrings behind.
According to the legend, his ears ended up like this:
Notice the elongated ears and how big the earring holes are.
Siddhartha, was able to reach enlightenment through mediation and “became Buddha”. Since then, big-eared people have been considered to be good at listening to the nature around them and be able to listen to the advice of the gods. I guess that being able to listen to gods makes it easier for them to make money and have luck in their life.
The primer minister of Japan during 2007 and 2008, Yasuo Fukuda, has pretty big ears. Were the big ears what made him become the prime minister of Japan? or maybe were they a factor that influenced the subconscious of the Japanese people to vote for him?
Yasuo Fukuda was the prime minister of Japan from September 2007 until September 2008.