Yangon is quite a big city with quite a lot of high buildings. The hotel that I stayed is 10 storey high. The very wellknown pagoda in Yangon is Shwedagon - which I can clearly see from my room :-)
Here are the pictures of Shwedagon at night. It's very beautiful.
It's a place of worship. But still there are a lot of people here mixing Buddhism and Animism. They still believe in Nat (guardian spirit) also do a lot of offerring to the Buddha hoping for good luck, etc. But of course there are a lot of them too that practice pure Buddhism.
On the left, a lady pour water on Buddha's status. Here people believe that it will bring you a good luck :-)And in some temples, there are seven statue. One of each day, so you have to pour water on the statue of your day of birth.
This is an example where animism is combined with buddhism.
There are a lot of Burmese peope do pray and meditate in the temple in the morning.
Buddha's teaching is simple. It's basically composed of Sila (Morality), Samadhi (Control of the mind) and Panna (Wisdom). No superstition involved in it, very logical.
If you are interested to know more about Buddhism, 'Good Question Good Answer' book written by Venerable S. Dhammika gives a good explanation. Here is the link: http://www.buddhanet.net/qanda.htm
And here is my picture in Shwedagon Phaya
As much as I think about Buddha's teachings and his revolutionary discovery, I still am left with questions to ponder. Like what happens to the soul once one reaches Samadhi? Does it die or dies it become part of something else ... the source from which it came? Great people have been born and taught many a good things for the betterment of the society and people in general. That huge gap that is left between reaching Samadhi and the fate of the soul past that .... is intriguing. I believe that all great souls are reincarnations of the greatest soul .. what we call as god. In Hinduism, we believe that god takes birth among the humans to help resolve their suffering. Buddha is one such great birth and awakened soul ... directly son of god. Thus at the end, the soul will reach god if one is able to reach Samadhi. This way the traditional belief in god and Buddha's teachings co-exist.
ReplyDeleteWhat people normally confuse with is, the meaningless forms of worship .. such as pouring water over the statue of the god, offering food, offering sacrifices etc. When we observe these practices, our relationship with god is reduced to that of a business relationship. I offered you something so you should do something in return for me !!!. That is such a cheap and pathetic way to believe in god.
Separate god from priests at Hindu temple or Fathers in Christian Church or of Mullahs in Mosques .... All these priests preach that if you do not offer money to them or more disguised version as used in Christianity ... to the Church, thus at the surface level seemingly removing priest from the equation all use only one thing ... scare tactics.
Believe in god, believe in doing right things and living an honest life is most important. Once all blind devotions are removed then belief in god and Buddha's teachings can exist in harmony ... there are no contradictions left ... One can practice Vipassana while believing in god and not in rote practices without meaning.