Buddha - More Than Meets The Eye

Buddha once said, "Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts," but he could have never imagined the thoughts that came to mind of a 350-year-old statue of him.

Buddha's statue was admitted to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida after a mass had been detected inside his head and another in his stomach. Appropriately, the patient's admission chart said: Name: Buddha. Date of Birth: 1662.

Curators were dumfounded by the dark blotches found in routine X-rays and wanted them removed if at all possible. The first step was to identify the composition of the mass. A CAT scan was ordered but the results were inconclusive. Finally, an endoscopy was conducted and the secret revealed itself.

Doctors, with the help of Buddha's caretakers, found that the mysterious masses were actually previously unknown religious texts. No one knew that they were sealed inside the statue shortly after it was carved. One of the documents was in Korean, the other in Ranjana, which is a combination of Chinese and Nepalese. Part of the text was the Lotus Sutra, one of the most sacred of all Buddhist texts.

Today, the wooden statue of Buddha is part of the University of Florida's Cofrin Asian Art wing at the Harn Museum. The statue represents the refrains for achieving enlightenment through compassion and a desire to help others on their own journey to Nirvana.

Visit all of Buddha's quotes.