Bow Down, Mister

Although living in the 'village' inside the city, it is nice sometimes to get out of the urban area and out into the green of the nature. With this in mind, yesterday morning we took the subway to the westernmost stop at the end of Line 1, and from there took a bus to a temple in the mountains west of Beijing.

Though as we arrived, seeing this sign I wasn't quite sure that we had taken the right bus, and for a moment I was confused of whether I really was west of BJ or had somehow ended up back in Europe. ------>

Green hills, fresh air, plenty of sunshine.... :)

Still, as we walked through the various halls and shrines in the temple area, we ended up in a small temple room that seemed to serve the purpose of putting the "fear of God" into people. The walls were decorated with colourful and detailed depictions of various punishments given out in hell, supposedly trying to coach people into living a 'good' life. This, in my mind, goes to show how far the organised Chinese buddhism has come from the simple philosophy taught by Siddharta Gautama --- the ideas of compassion, forgiveness and love.

This also shows clearly in the way most people coming to the temples to bow down in front of the statues of various buddhas and boddhisattvas don't seem to have the slightest idea of ther teachings. Ritual usually takes place of thinking, you come to the temple to offer incense, money and fruit for good luck, riches, fertility....whatever you need most at the moment.

But as one of these worshippers what originally was behind all of it? Did Gautama want to become a golden statue? Didn't he say that he can point the way but everyone must walk it themselves?

Just some thoughts on seeing what the temples and the visitors represent. But that being said, everyone has their own way, and waving insence in front of the statues just might work for those people. We all have our own ways of finding what we choose.