Is Buddhism Here Buddhism There?

From my point of view, there is a dryness in the way Buddhism is being transmitted in the West, a focus on the cerebral.

In 12 years I have never heard a Dharma talk on devotion, never heard a Dharma talk about service. And these are aspects that have become vital to the way I walk the path.

After 12 years of study and practice I know nothing about the Buddhist holidays. What are they? When are they? What is their purpose, the symbolism behind them? And until now it never occurred to me to research them because they simply do not seem part of my Buddhist American life.

One of the things I’m most curious about in this visit to Thailand is how Buddhism manifests in a different cultural context. Is it a different experience in a place where there is an inextricable link between the culture and the religion, where there is a tight bond between the monastic community and lay society.

I arrived in Bangkok 2 days ago and took a walk near the guest house in the hours before I hit the jetlag wall. I happened  upon a big (by my current standard) Wat (temple complex) called Wat Suthat a few blocks from the guest house. This was not one of the well known Wats I’d read about or noticed on the tourist maps. Just one of many, many Wats in the city.

Because it was not a tourist spot it was relatively empty and quiet. There was an open courtyard and a gallery surrounding a central shrine building. The gallery was essentially a recessed area, covered overhead but open to the air, in which a hundred or more full sized golden Buddha statues resided, all facing outward toward the courtyard and the shrine.

About 8 monks were assisting, i.e. veritably carrying, a very old and frail monk out of the shrine. I stood back and bowed in the way that I think is correct in the Thai Theravadan tradition; palms together with thumbs against the forehead. Wondered what they thought of this rare western woman making this gesture (I’ve not seen a lot of westerners in Bangkok and only 2 or 3 other western women alone).

I had entered the shrine from the back entrance and as I walked toward the front door came across my first really big Buddha statue. It was of course the central feature of the shrine. A golden image of the Buddha sitting on a lotus; I’m not great at estimating size but I suspect it was at least 20 feet tall.

I paid homage in the way I learned from the bhikkhunis; kneeling on your heels with your butt NOT sticking up in the air, hands in prayer, bow 3 times (to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) touching the head to the floor each time.  Noticed that more them half of the people who entered also paid homage in this way; the others did not bow at all.

I spent some time meditating and then some time contemplating. 

Contemplating this huge icon, the ornately painted walls with scenes that I do not understand, the long line of golden Buddhas in the gallery, the saffron robed monks, and this self sitting there. Actually being there in this world so far away.

Literally shook my head in disbelief (as I’ve done a number of times these past 2 days in Thailand, this past 7 months in the US). 

Wondering…

How did I get here??? (here Thailand, here this journey). How is it that this self is open to this search for the divine? What, if anything, will be found on this journey?

It occurred to mind that one creates ornate imagery in such large scale to attempt to make accessible that which cannot be understood; to ascribe name and form to the divine. And when I think in those terms it makes the search acceptable to this mind.  And intellect allows that which spirit demands.