So we have spent a couple of days in Shanghai now. It's an interesting city. There are such contrasts in the different areas. From poverty to affluence, modern to old, you can see a cross section of all kinds here.
Traveling has been really good. Mel and I have managed to get around really well (with lots of help from the staff at our hostel) and everything is going much more smoothly than I'd prepared myself for. It's even been really easy to find vegetarian food so far. We were both really jet lagged until about today and actually bickered a lot yesterday while making our way around on the metro. I'm surprised and things are both not at all what I expected and at the same time exactly what I would have imagined. It's really hard to explain....
Today we went to Yufo temple which is a buddhist temple in shanghai with a jade statue of the buddha that was apparently brought back from Thailand by a local monk way back in the day. We couldn't take pictures of it but trust me when I say that it was beautiful! There's definitely something about that particular statue. As we stood and looked at it I felt very moved, almost to the point of tears, which is odd for me. I don't consider myself to be buddhist but there are certain things about buddhism that I've always liked. The buddha said to find your own path and that is what I try to do. He also said not to worship him and so I've always thought that people praying to statues of the buddha went against what he said. Today though I found myself very moved by one of these statues. It really spoke to me. Does that mean that I've been wrong all this time. Perhaps there really is something to traditional buddhist practices? It's really given me something to think about.
I'm reading Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh and there are certain things in there that I'm feeling confused by. I'm definitely not an authority on buddhist thought but I always thought that the idea was to neither avoid unpleasantness or be attached to pleasure. In this book however he speaks of cultivating pleasant feelings and the positive impact you can have on the world by doing so. I've found this a bit hard to understand. It seems contradictory to me but perhaps this is this mans particular way of living and he's following his own path....?
Anyways, with no work or distractions in my day I'm having lots of time to contemplate. It's really nice. Tonight we head off to Beijing and I am excited to see how it is different.
Until then...
1 comment:
I also have been moved to tears by certain statues of the Buddha. A well-made image captures such tranquility and compassion that it can be palpable. I don't think of it as worshipful of the Buddha, but rather as being moved by him, by the example he sets for us.
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