Images on the altar,
Or imagined within:
We pray to them,
But do they answer?

The wise tell us how important adoration is.  So we kneel before altars, give offerings, and make sacrifices.  In our meditations, we are taught to see gods within ourselves and to make supplications to receive power and knowledge.  This we do with great sincerity, until the masters say that there are no gods.  Then we are confused.

The statue on the altar is mere wood and gold leaf, but our need to be reverent is real.  The god within may be nothing but visualization, but our need for concentration is real.  The attributes of heaven are utopian conjectures, but the essence of these parables is real.  The gods, then, represent certain philosophies and extraordinary facets of the human mind.  when we devote ourselves to gods, we establish communion with these deeper aspects.

The thought that we are worshiping symbolism may make us uncomfortable.  We are educated to accept only the tangible, the scientific, and the material.  We doubt the efficacy of adoring the merely symbolic, and we are confused when such reference brings about genuine person transformation.  But worship does affect our feelings and thoughts.  When the wise say that there are no gods, they mean that the key to understanding all things is within ourselves.  External worship is merely a means to point within to the true source of salvation.

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Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future
9th­10th century Nepal
Copper alloy with gilding and color
H. 26 (66 cm), W. 8 1/4 in. (20.9 cm)
 
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Throughout most of its early history, Nepal seems to have maintained close cultural relations with India. This is reflected in Nepalese art styles. In this sculpture the elegance of the Pala style at Nalanda is apparent, but it is combined with a wholly  Nepalese aesthetic. Maitreya, the messianic bodhisattva, stands in a pronounced "tribhanga" (triple-bend) posture.

The sensual exaggeration of the pose is most unusual for Nepalese art of this early period. In his lowered left hand Maitreya holds a  vessel; in his raised right hand he may originally have held a rosary. He is dressed in a long skirt with simple incised decoration; a sash is slung diagonally from his right hip to left thigh. He wears the sacred thread across his chest and is adorned with the jewelry typical for the period. This representation of Maitreya is an extraordinarily radiant, elegant, and sensuous sculpture.

Not only is this among the largest early Nepalese bronzes in the West, it is the only example of such refined elegance combined with an almost austere economy of surface decoration. A master sculptor with a highly developed aesthetic sensibility produced an image combining a deep spiritual presence with a most beautifully arranged system of volumes.

Maitreya achieved a wide popular following throughout the Buddhist world. His devotees aspired to be reborn in his paradise or to be present when he descended to earth to become the Buddha of the next  great "kalpa," or world-age.