So, let’s talk about temples and Buddhism. Temples: kinda like churches. Buddhism: the Christianity of the east. Over simplified? Oh, yes. You following me? Better be so far. I am not going to go into a rant about religion, (well….) just share a quandary I encountered and some back story to understand it.
In my youth I spent a great deal of time in churches, catholic churches to be more accurate. Certain things have been long and hard, drilled into me. NO, I am definitely not trying to say I was molested by a priest. Please, get your mind out of the gutter! As an adult, many of said drilled things I don’t agree with, and some I have desperately tried to dig out. In the digging out process, a person often turns to new things to fill the dugout space. For me that was Buddhism. Some of the ideologies really stuck and moved me, especially those related to suffering.
Through my understanding of Catholicism, I am a bad person, and you are too. Actually, we all are, because no one can live up to a standard where even thinking a bad thought is sinful. Sinners who don’t repent will go to hell when they die, and there they will spend an eternity in anguish. As the living, you have the terrible idea and vision of this hell to think about and to mentally anguish you. Actually and honestly I never feared hell, as a concept of afterlife. I more feared adults knowing that they could make this life long and suffering. It’s true, all sins can be forgiven, but let’s face it, if there is a god he or she or shim will know if you are truly sorry in your heart for thinking about smacking your boss when they ask you to stay late on a Friday night. The point being I don’t think I’m a bad person. I’ve definitely thought things that I would never do, and have done things I wish I hadn’t, still not a bad person.
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| Back home we call these here purdy flowers cempasúchil |
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| Offerings along the outer wall of a temple |
As an American teenager I was blessed with the joys of angst-y, maybe even angry feelings. The idea that a suburban kid should have anything to be angry about is neither here nor there because the feelings existed, period. The thing is no one ever explained to me that that’s normal. Suffering is a part of live, a life that is fluid. What a simple concept yet one that is so empowering and hardly ever espoused among westerners. In fact many people do everything in their power to avoid it suffering. Unfortunately for those people, it is inevitable, you cannot out run it, it will find you. If we know our suffering will pass it is easier to fight it. If we try to look at that suffering and dissect it and look at it from the perspective of our perceived cause of that suffering that too often lessens the blow. If we can gain knowledge from that suffering like learning about ourselves, our partners, our friends or life and humans in general than it’s not ultimately a loss, it has potential to be a huge win. That to me is empowering and uplifting. I bought a beautiful Buddha charm while in Thailand, and believe me this thing isn’t cliché. It’s tiny and gold and without literally picking it off my neck you would not be able to tell what it is. I wanted something to keep on my person to remind me of these ideas, and perhaps I also thought a big ol, Buddha tat might be in poor taste.
The temples all over South East Asia are ornate, and they are everywhere. Where there isn’t one, there is a shrine to hold you over. Someone told me a shrine has to be built on a property before the actual construction can begin, don’t quote that, I’m not sure of its accuracy. In any case, in Laos there is a mandatory year of “being” a monk and you can see how it deeply the ideals are ingrained in the people by just their temperaments. My sister and I could not walk a block without stopping to gasp at a beautifully painted and carved temple. The insides of these temples must be impressively decorated spaces; I however wouldn’t know. I only went into one temple the whole trip. That temple was also not so much a sacred space as a tourist attraction. Pay a dollar to have a monk put a string on your wrist as a blessing even though monks aren’t supposed to touch or even sit next to a woman.
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| Strip malls still cant take you far from a spot to stop and make an offering |
Over and over again I gasped, as I passed these splendid buildings, halfway around the world, in a place I may never see again and still could not bring myself to go inside. What are the ritual rules, the etiquette? Jesus! err I mean, damn it! I didn’t want to be the one to do something stupid or accidentally offensive in that type of a space. What would I have done once inside? I can’t kneel down in front of Buddha and pray, it would seem so forced. Maybe, if, I had gone with someone who knew exactly what to do, but even then I would feel awkward. Oh buddy, but get me in a catholic church and I’ll be your sweet dream. Serious face, up and down reciting the prayers and singing the songs that somehow I remember after not attending for ten years now.
This is not hypocrisy folks. This is nostalgia at worst and at best me considering the suffering my not doing the kneeling and praying could potentially and unnecessarily cause. It’s also a long story about me not going into temples.
