Clay, Master Peng Yu
Tea Pet “Skull II”
This piece found its owner. Subscribe to hear about similar items.
Handcrafted by Master Peng Yu and wood-fired over several days, these figurines may seem repulsive at first glance. Nevertheless, they hold deep conceptual and symbolic meaning in Buddhist philosophy.
Mindfulness of death permeates all Buddhist teachings. It lies at the very core of the insight that all phenomena bear the mark of impermanence (anicca).
Cultivating a mature relationship with the truth of death means touching the very heart of the Dharma; and just like loving-kindness, equanimity, or mindfulness itself, it is not merely an idea, but a living practice. Mindfulness of death, or maraṇasati meditation, is central to cultivating insight, belonging among the most ancient disciplines and, at the same time, the most liberating paths of practice.
Decomposing bodies—usually in burial grounds or other spaces set aside for the dead—were a visible reality for practitioners during the time of the Buddha. And they remain so to this day. In many spiritual traditions, practitioners deliberately meditated in cemeteries and among bones precisely because of the potent, raw energy present there, and for the opportunity to confront face-to-face the deep-seated fear and confusion surrounding death that we naturally carry within ourselves.
In the famous teaching “In the Dead of Night”, Ajahn Chah describes meditating in a burial ground to confront his fear directly—not running away from it, but passing through it into clarity.
“Bones bleached white, the color of shells…
Old bones heaped together…
Bones rotted and crumbled into dust.”
Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, Middle-length Discourses 10
Specifications
- Category
- Accessories
- Type
- Tea figurines
- Material
- Clay
- Producer
- Master Peng Yu
- Origin
- Nanbang City, Sichuan Province
- Locality
- Sichuan
- Packaging
- Basic
Description
Handcrafted by Master Peng Yu and wood-fired over several days, these figurines may seem repulsive at first glance. Nevertheless, they hold deep conceptual and symbolic meaning in Buddhist philosophy.
Mindfulness of death permeates all Buddhist teachings. It lies at the very core of the insight that all phenomena bear the mark of impermanence (anicca).
Cultivating a mature relationship with the truth of death means touching the very heart of the Dharma; and just like loving-kindness, equanimity, or mindfulness itself, it is not merely an idea, but a living practice. Mindfulness of death, or maraṇasati meditation, is central to cultivating insight, belonging among the most ancient disciplines and, at the same time, the most liberating paths of practice.
Decomposing bodies—usually in burial grounds or other spaces set aside for the dead—were a visible reality for practitioners during the time of the Buddha. And they remain so to this day. In many spiritual traditions, practitioners deliberately meditated in cemeteries and among bones precisely because of the potent, raw energy present there, and for the opportunity to confront face-to-face the deep-seated fear and confusion surrounding death that we naturally carry within ourselves.
In the famous teaching “In the Dead of Night”, Ajahn Chah describes meditating in a burial ground to confront his fear directly—not running away from it, but passing through it into clarity.
“Bones bleached white, the color of shells…
Old bones heaped together…
Bones rotted and crumbled into dust.”
Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, Middle-length Discourses 10