vaga #2/10 about Buddism

There are thousands of statues of Buddhas, but these and a few others were the most extraordinary because of their unclassical style

Part X

This is my last chapter of "Vaga #2" I want to summarise the most extraordinary things for me, I had never had a relationship with monks, they were like something from another world, distant, mysterious, the experience of seeing them daily, in significant quantities and I think the most surprising was to see children and adolescents as monks. Having been lucky enough to meet the monk U Kha Wein, to participate being inside a monastery and to try to follow their routines. Observing their devotion to the population, their loyalty and pride. Feeling a world of spirituality, and the atmosphere cannot be ignored.

pictures are from Thailand

I recently found a booklet on Buddhism made especially simple for foreigners who wanted to brush up on the subject, I have tried to read several but abandoned them because of their complexity, they are for Buddhists, not me. This clarified many things for me and I will share them with you because the philosophy of Buddhism is unknown to many. I will summarise the most important bits, at least the ones that I think are the most important.

Buddhism is a philosophy of life, to reach a state of Enlightenment through personal work, and Buddhism gives the guides to approach a full spiritual state. There is no God or theist, (the existence, (a superior being is confirmed and is a creator) Buddha means "the enlightened" Buddha, who started this philosophy has many different names, according to the region, the most common is Gautama or Gotama, who was born 6 centuries before Christ. There are two branches, Theravada or South School; Laos, Myanmar, Thailand among others and Mahayana, a school of the north and Tibet, China, Korea, Japan and others, perceive different interpretation of the teachings, there is a strong unity between the two, with only some diversities.

In very general terms; it is to recognise that life is imperfect, with discomfort, the process of struggles, old age, disease. In other words, suffering. The " enlightenment " as it is said ("illuminated") helps to understand this and during his life, he managed to overcome suffering. The causes of suffering are developed on the one hand - the desire for sensual pleasures, (smell, shapes, sounds, tastes, ... ..) this produces a constant search for the desire for pleasure. On the other hand, the desire for material objects to preserve, seek to obtain them and keep them and thirdly - the desire for non-existence, it is the desire for things that you will never have.

To understand suffering is to put an end to falsehood, slander, harshness and ignorance. It is being free of harm and making others unhappy, free to satisfy insatiably desires, disappointments and material and emotional attachments. To develop constant awareness of the physical and the mental. Meditation should end suffering, it will purify, calm and make the spirit transparent. The states of disappointment, greed or anger versus wisdom, compassion, generosity, kindness, can be carried in three channels; thinking, teaching doctrine and acting the way that you teach others to act. Karma is too complex for me to understand because it goes with reincarnation but I have taken the information from the booklet as simply as I could. The Law of Karma is a state of mind and the Energy of Karma is the constant practice of good deeds. Cause and effect. Your fate is in your hands what you do in the present will determine the future, in good karma, you will be reborn in a higher spirit and better life. This gives social and human control of good and evil, exercising your will, with good behaviour brings happiness and bad behaviour brings unhappiness. Karma is the true control, the power that rests with oneself.

we all have the potential to become a Buddha it is a work in progress that takes many lifetimes, according to reincarnations" following the philosophy of Buddhism. In the Theravada line, there are 28 Buddhas, although in other branches of Buddhism there may be more.

the monks, in their work and meditation, are dedicated to teaching the sutras, in rural areas they help the poor, sick and needy. They welcome children to join them when they are young, it is a way to feed and educate them since their families cannot and they also advise the community as much as the individual in where it is required or needed, they bless marriages and deaths among many other blessings with spiritual accompaniment. 

A good explanation of how Buddhism is composed, is the example used is by the rings of an old tree, the small inner circle would be the experience of being enlightened, true happiness is meditative, the next ring is Buddhism as philosophy, it is intellectual (knowledge) then Buddhism as a moral system, it is social, (moralistic), and the next and the widest ring is Buddhism as a popular religion, it is emotional (folk culture) This is my summary of the book

I don’t think that they generate money and live on charity, which would produce desires and expectations. Buddhists cremate dead bodies because they are not of importance, the spirit is the one that transfers to a new life.

One of the things that I did not understand was how ordinary people live by Buddhist belief, I thought it was one of meditation and austerity, but no, the people need to express emotion, as I said they are emotional. I am going to relate the different popular expressions of Buddhism, the “people's religion” that I have observed. Each region assimilates and manifests Buddhism according to its geographical and cultural place in country a reason for the distances between them is a doctrine more than five thousand years old and, logically, each area has their different development in the expression of their religion different, but, the monks practise the same style as their counterparts all over the world, the philosophy is the same and the same practices. Their differences between cultures are remarkable.

Nepal: austere, the soberest, mostly found in the Himalayas, today I reasoned that because I see the comparisons between being in the Himalayas and having travelled to different places by trekking. Where there are no towns, I only saw one very small town and it was precisely there that I observed a religious festival. It turned out that there were no roads and it is difficult to understand this until being immersed in those wonderful mountains ... there are no … roads, one has to walk several days at a time to get anywhere, and therefore there are no connections between people, they live in hamlets of about 15 houses or even less, and the community is not developed enough to organise itself into major events, I also believe that poverty does not allow for notorious festivities like the ones I will go on to relate. I did not see any statues of deities in the entrances of the temples. The pagodas and stupas are beautiful for Buddha, but they are all austere. The monasteries are simply constructed with a decorated entrance, neither is the architecture refined. They are simply decorated with paint on the walls and the door frames.

pictures during a Buddhist festivity In the Himalayas, near Tibet, in the seccond photo a monk is in a costume, he dances to scare away evil spirits. Here I did not see statues of Buddha and I saw monks playing roles of folk beliefs

In Kandi,  Sri Lanka is a very important centre in Buddhism, it has high-level teaching centres, I did not see the large number of temples that I did in Chiang Mai, Thailand, nor did they have the sophistication of the temples in Myanmar. Being in Kandi city in the middle of the island I heard music, I ran to find out where it was coming from and I found the images below. It was a Buddhist holiday, with three elephants, I almost fell on my back. The photos speak for themselves, add in the music and dancers, it was all wonderful, the hairs on my body stood on end. I never found out what holiday it was and it was not known to tourists either, there was nothing in the brochure, nothing, it was pure chance that I came across it.  In the hotel that I had been staying in for a week, I had a couple of coffees with the owner, he did not tell me a word about what would happen the next day. I learned that it is done often during the year so it has no relevance to them. It was shocking, they went around a famous temple, a total of 3 blocks, the mayor and other personalities of the city participated, different groups of dancers, they were all men, the elephant keepers among others, a total of about 120 people participated. There were very few locals watching and no more than 10 tourists like me who were caught by surprise !!!! and what a surprise, I have never seen, nor heard, nor read anything like it before. They told me that in the past they used white elephants. I found out about the famous white elephants that are talked about in various stories. These are atypical, they are albinos, it is the royal elephants in the regions or countries that have elephants. The saying "white elephant" is attributed to the fact that they have a higher maintenance cost than the benefits they provide, unlike the common elephant.

In Bali, in Indonesia, they are mostly Hindu. Hinduism on this island is of extreme popular expression, with hundreds of deities, demons and other mythological creatures. The very complex history of the abundant iconography of Hinduism and Buddhism has borrowed many deities from many places. But in Bali it is extreme, I could not differentiate between the house temples, I couldn’t tell whether they were Buddhist or Hindu, their rites are similar and a Buddhist can be in a Hindu temple and follow the rites, but the Hindu is in command. Novi, a Balinese Buddhist, had to change her religion at the request of her groom’s grandfather when she got married  "the patriarch" is on the Groom’s side in Hinduism. I asked her if that complicates things? No, it's very easy, “On the last day of the ceremony I will go to the "temple" outside the houses and I will convert to Hinduism”. All the rituals of the 4-day long wedding were in the house temples alternating between his and her family homes. The fourth day came and I expected to find a "temple" of any size, but a temple and a special ceremony. I will only show the photos where she changes her religion, literally on the street. It was a shock.  

Chiang Mai, Thailand, is the expression related to its culture. Temple or Chety or Wat have about 4,000 more than any other country. Its festivities are full of colour and they last a week, they have various rites according to the occasion, they are massive, popular, joyful, with beautiful parades, many people dress in traditional clothes. There are candles, incense, flowers, the flower arrangements are extraordinary and unique, there are food stalls inside the temples so you can have a good time. Every month there is something to celebrate of different importance. The streets are decorated, all the wats (temples) are in abundance and it feels magical, at least in Chiang Mai it is the most colourful. Most of the temples have the same architecture and a few statues of deities in the entrances, being "naga" the serpent that is in the entrance as a handrail on the steps to access the temple. I will tell you about an extreme experience of folk religion. About 6 hours to the north always in the mountains, in my retreat deep in the woods, I made friends with the owner of the "guest house", an adorable Thai woman, she told me that the following day was the day of the dead and asked If I wanted to go to the temple and I did not want to miss it, it was only about 20 minutes away on foot. A ceremony that more or less was waiting for me, there will be more details but here comes the shock. At night under the temple that is on stilts and under this, were people gambling for 2 or 3 nights, look at the photos below, I wondered if this could be done in a Buddhist temple ……? things that I find difficult to understand. It is celebrated 2 or 3 days on the festival of the day "of the dead" and is in memory of a local person who died in the surroundings because there is no town and it is only celebrated one year after death with gambling,   "shocked again".

They were praying in the temple during the day and at night, gambling under the temple

Myanmar, is austere in its demonstrations for the Buddhist New Year, Songkran, with zero tourists, no decorations in the streets, or temples, the few people in the streets carry a hose or a bucket filled with water. I had the day of thanks or "the water festival" in Myanmar and the following year I was in Thailand, the difference was like day and night, in one you see poverty, sobriety, austerity and on the other hand, in Chiang Mai street stalls were selling all kinds of water pistols, waterproof phone covers, buckets etc for the holiday, the city parties for several days. The monks in Mandalay pass through the streets settling in with a small table and pray to the people on the block who attend by sitting on the ground. There are pilgrimages to the great pagodas on an individual and family basis but never even close to the massive Parades in Thailand. 

the first two photos are Myanmar versus Chiang Mai

Nichiren Daishonin a monk in ancient 11th century Japan, devoted himself to teaching a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on world peace. This philosophy was adopted by forming a contemporary group SOKA GAKKAI. I believe that after Hiroshima, its current president is Daisaku Ikeda who was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. " World peace through individual happiness ." He is a great worker and international educator for world peace. It has no temple, no monks, or meditation and its centre is in Japan, it is more of a university, a place where you can learn. It is international and there is a rigid selection of students from the world who then take the doctrine to their countries. I participated for about two years intermittently in Chile in this Buddhist group. I feel related to Buddhist philosophy.

the selection of pictures of Buddhas in this chapter is because they are unique, beatifull and weird