A tourist

On an impromptu visit to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum today. I wasn't dressed very appropriately because I came right after school and was in shorts so they provided some cloth to cover up. Felt like an Indian with the wrapped legs. Now I know how it feels to walk in it, it's really restrictive.

I will not give a detailed post about the museum and the temple, but if you're interested in these sort of stuffs, I assure you, the place is not like your typical smoky, dilapidated temple. It's air-conditioned and very well renovated, almost like walking in your National Museum, except Buddhist-style. Well, that's because it's new. It's only two years old. I have seriously always wondered how ordinary people gain enlightenment, to want to be ordained, to want to go through the rite of attaining this enlightenment, through and through. Many of the venerables were ordained at about my current age now. Honestly, at this age, why in the world would I be thinking of such worldly views? I cannot fathom. I think these people who pursue this goal in life, somehow has already been special, probably influenced from family upbringing or, let's bring it further, to those who wasn't exposed from young, but came to know about it due to the years of knowledge. That amazes me. And maybe it's because I cannot picture myself seeking this path.

The deepest impression I had were two things:

The relic chamber. What is a relic? Buddhists believed that relics are a physical form in which they are able to pay respects to Buddha, and to know that his teachings, and even he, had been real. They are a crystallised form of the physical form after cremation. So the relic chamber had displays of relics of tongue/blood/eyes etc the different body parts. It was quite an experience. But what got me thinking was, how do they separate the different parts altogether when the body is being cremated? I remember back in 1996 as I stood at the crematorium watching my grandmother being cremated through the huge glass panel. I could almost feel the heat. There were nothing but ashes. How did they piece different parts of the ashes or even differentiate them?

The other thing.. or rather, a paragraph that I will leave with you today:

Tasting the flavour of solitude 
and the nectar of peace, 
those who drink the joy
that is the essence of reality 
abide free from fear of evil. 
It is always a pleasure 
not to have to encounter fools. 
It is always good to see noble beings 
and a delight to live with them.


It wasn't the exact same paragraphs at the Museum, it was simplified to this:

Living in a life of solitude, is better than spending it in the company of fools.


It had me pondering over my altered mentality this year. I had probably subconsciously got tired of chasing after the fake me to be in the company of fools.
Honestly? It's quite a lone journey, but upon seeing that today, it somewhat justified the solitude I've put myself in.

Somehow I really do believe that we just have an untapped reservoir of knowledge within us. How much we come to embrace it depends on how often we stop to question ourselves why we do what we do.