Prayers and perambulations

Today is Visakha Bucha day, the holiest day in the Buddhist calendar. My wife, who is meant to know these things, told me it celebrated three things related to the Buddha, but she had forgotten what they were, so I had to Google. I found out that today celebrates the birth, enlightenment and entry into nirvana of the Buddha, so now you know.

Personally, I am not of a religious persuasion. I believe I am the product of evolution and biology and when I die I will be worm food and nothing more; but if I had to sign on for an organised religion, I think I would go with Buddhism. Certainly the Thai version is very relaxed and groovy; and they do some very interesting festivals.

This evening we went, along with several hundred other people, to a temple near our home. There is a large Buddha statue and everyone congregated around it for prayers led by some monks.

As is usual at these events, 90% of the people were praying, 5% were chatting, and 5% were answering mobile phones. Over the course of the fifteen minutes or so of prayers, the chatting and phone answering responsibilities are passed around to make sure everyone has their turn.

Then everyone lights a candle and lazy people walk three times round the Buddha monument. The fitter ones head down some steps and walk three times round the temple complex. I am lazy, so I stayed to snap the lazy walkers.

After the walking around task, everyone headed for one of the smaller statues. Each one represents a day of the week and you choose the day that you were born. At least I think that is the story, but at least those involved seemed to know what they were doing.

Then the non-lazy people came walking back up the steps, providing an opportunity for some freaky photos.

A few more prayers and then everyone headed home. All very relaxed and enjoyable, another reason why I enjoy living in this country so much.

Comments 🔗

2008-05-19 | Billy says

My own stratgic approach to religion is quite contrary but the same if you get my drift. I sign up for ALL of them, I learned long ago about the benefits of a portfolio approach, and one of them may indeed be the winner and it is good to be a winner. I do not however go so far as to do anything other than sign up.

2008-05-20 | Spike says

Good strategy; a three day working week and all the holidays you can handle. Suspect the trick is to be selective as to which bits of doctrine to endorse. The marketing manager in Shell Malaysia was convinced that whisky could be considered halal, provided it was more than twelve years old. Once you have merged all the best bits of all the religions together, you will need a name for your new cult; I mean, religion. The Temple of the Seven Day Hedonists has a nice ring to it.