Buddha Nature

[whipchick]

This is a champion post for rayaso for therealljidol.
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Bodh Gaya, India, is where Prince Siddhārtha Gautama sat under a tree, attained enlightenment, and became the Buddha.

I went there to see if I was still an agnostic. Maybe I was a Buddhist now, after years of reading and the desire to be part of something more spiritual than yoga

Comments

[rayaso]

This was so marvelous and so sad at the same time. I think Disney might want to open a Buddhaland - Mickey Mouse in monk's robes. Your writing is, of course, excellent, and I love the various descriptions. You pack so much into this, and I love the second to last paragraph. My sister experienced the tall woman as photo op when she lived in Japan for a couple of years. She was 6 feet tall and one of her sons, who was very young at the time, had blazing red hair. It was a bonanza. Thank you so much for being my Champion, and for writing such a stellar entry!

[whipchick]

Thank you - it was a surprisingly meaningful Buddhist experience, all in all - I feel like I learned a lot about acceptance :) Thank you for the invitation, and it's nice to be back in Idol for a brief moment!

[rayaso]

It was nice to see you back!

[viagra]

This was beautiful. Sad at times (though maybe "sad" isn't the right word; "disappointing" comes close but sounds too critical), funny at times, always relatable. This is a great piece to fit into rayaso's portfolio; it's very different from something I might see from him but it also has echoes of his work and style. I really enjoyed this, and I'm glad you were his champion for this round.

[rayaso]

One of the major reasons I was so eager to have whipchick as my champion is the quality of her writing, which I have missed. I didn't know what she would come up with, but I felt it would be different from my writing.

[whipchick]

Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it - and I very much enjoyed reading your work in the Gatekeepers round!

[roina_arwen]

I always enjoy reading your writing! Commercialism ruins so much of what should be sacred.

[halfshellvenus]

"Buddhaland" is the perfect description for this experience. It's so disappointing to go in search of the potential religious "more" you were trying to embrace, and to instead find its opposite everywhere you looked and tugging at your sleeve... the opposite of Buddha himself and his teachings, even.

I am agnostic myself, not looking for more but never closing the door in case I should come across it. I don't think you could have done more to try to find that feeling or inspiration--I think you opened yourself to a lot of possibilities most people wouldn't even have thought of!

It’s my own voice saying, “This sucks.”
And you were so sadly right. :)

On it, I take twenty-eight photos with Buddhist monks
:( :( I suppose it didn't occur to them that their unique experience was not YOUR unique experience, and that they were interfering with your own potential pilgramage. :(

The monk at the guesthouse seemed like the final disillusionment, but I liked how you reframed it in terms of Buddhist thinking with a bit of a wry twist: Both

[whipchick]

It was so bizarrely commercial in such a tacked-together way, and yet it taught me so much about acceptance and taking myself too seriously!

And it was indeed weird seeing so many monks who wanted to take photos - I got more context for it a couple of years later in Myanmar. Apparently, Buddhist monk is often not a lifelong commitment as a Christian monk might be. Several cultures including Thai Buddhists and Burmese Buddhists have monkhood as a rite of passage for young men, or as a means for getting the schooling provided by the temple. It's also not uncommon for men who need a break from their life or their family or their job to take anywhere from six weeks to six months and go be a monk again for a while, like a reset button. So there were definitely both lifetime monks and "here for the trip to Bodh Gaya" monks present.

Thanks for having me!

[halfshellvenus]

anywhere from six weeks to six months and go be a monk again for a while, like a reset button.
I did not know that!

I can see that having real value, too. It would be like a kind of lengthy religious retreat, where you could focus on your faith and basic priorities while stripping your physical environment down to the simplest essentials, to help regain your perspective.

It's too bad there isn't a parallel opportunity for women-- or is there? Although I don't imagine they would feel quite as free to walk away from familial responsibilities as many men might.

[flipflop_diva]

This is so crazy. Like it almost reads like one of rayaso's odd fictional worlds except it's sadly real. But it was also really interesting to read. I'm glad you were rayaso's champion!