Buddhism and Film: Early Buddhist Symbolism

One major takeaway I have had so far throughout the course is how much symbolism goes along with Buddhism. Piggy-backing off of some of the former posts I wanted to take a look at some more symbolism in Buddhism. When I first began looking at the statues and figures of Buddha I found that these were not as popular in the early Buddhist practice. I found this very interesting because whenever I think of Buddhism I think of the statue that I have seen a lot over the years. When I really started looking into early Buddhist symbols I found the images mostly consisted of Buddhist art that more so “symbolized” the Buddha as well as what he taught. These symbols include things like the lotus, as mentioned before, the wheel of law, and even the footprints of Buddha. The Eight Auspicious Symbols include some of these but offered a little more insight into the Buddha’s teachings. I found there were many meanings for each symbol out there so I just picked the ones I liked best.