The Center for the New Age
Walk the streets and gaze up at the mystical formations towering above you. Feel the strident energy of the healing vortexes. Walk into most any shop and exclaim over the New Age collections. Where are you? Of course you are in Sedona, home of the red rocks, spiritual vortexes, and the center of the New Age movement.
At the heart of Sedona, is the Center for the New Age located on Oak Creek directly across from Tlaquepaque. Here you will find the most prominent psychic readers and healers in Sedona. These psychic personalities will help you to discover your life path. Here also are the most talented Vortex tour leaders to make your vortex tours a most memorable experience.
The Center for the New Age has the largest collection of New Age goods in Sedona. Considered the metaphysical super store in Sedona, the New Age Center hosts the largest collection of New Age music, New Age books, New Age crystal and jewelry, as well as a significant collection of deities important in New Age practices.
Open seven days a week, the Center for the New Age can satisfy your interest in the psychic experience, vortex tours and every phase of the New Age movement.
Hotai Buddha
You know that big-bellied Buddha you usually see in the entranceway to Chinese restaurants? The same one you see lined up at souvenir shops in Chinatown, or as amulets? Well, this is not “the” Buddha, but it is “a” Buddha.
Here’s the story. After the wave of persecutions during the latter half of the T’ang dynasty in the 9th century, Buddhism in China declined as a state protected religion demonstrating the ruler’s greatness. Until then, some Chinese emperors had even claimed to be the Buddha incarnate.
Buddhism became a religion of the common people. Among the monks who traveled the land, carrying all their worldly possessions in hemp bags, was an eccentric monk who lived more than a thousand years ago and who went by the name of Hotai. Because of this monk’s benevolent nature, Hotei went around taking the sadness from people and became known as the Laughing Buddha.
The Laughing Buddha has become a deity of contentment and abundance and is considered the patron saint of restauranteurs, fortune tellers and bartenders, as well as the weak, the poor and children. His name means “The Merciful.”
The fan in his hand is seen as the ultimate symbol of happiness and joy. The gourd that this Buddha carries on his staff is said to be filled with an elixir for eternal youth while the staff he carries over his shoulder supports a bag of infinite wealth. The cloth or sack (which never empties) is filled with many precious items including rice plants (indicating wealth), candy for children and food for the needy of the world.
The begging bowl, often seen with him, represents his Buddhist nature but he is not Gautama Buddha, the historical founder of Buddhism. However, he is identified as a “future” Buddha and a Boddhisatva.
The term Bodhisattva was used by the Buddha referring to himself both in his previous lives and as a young man in his current life, prior to his enlightenment, in the period during which he was working towards his own liberation from the cycle of birth and death. When, during his discourses, he recounts his experiences as a young aspirant, he regularly uses the phrase "When I was an unenlightened Bodhisatta...". The term therefore connotes a being who is 'bound for enlightenment', in other words, a person whose destiny it is to become fully enlightened.
In Chinese Buddhist temples, Hotai’s statue is traditionally placed in the front part of the entrance hall. He is depicted in the familiar likeness of the Laughing Buddha – a stout, smiling or laughing shaved man in robes with a largely exposed pot belly stomach symbolic for happiness, good luck and plenitude. The stomach is also considered the seat of the soul in Chinese mythology and so the large stomach can be taken as an allegory for Hotai’s open heartedness.
One belief surrounding the figure of Hotai in popular folklore is that if a person is to rub his belly, it brings forth wealth, good luck and prosperity. This belief does not form part of any Buddhist doctrine, but it is certainly a very popular practice in China and even in the West so
We have 17 Readers and Healers at the Center for the New Age. You can’t rub their bellies for good luck, but they are available for personal consultations or phone readings seven days a week.
Please call our concierge at 888-881-6651 to book an appointment or for more information.