A couple weeks ago, I had
the pleasure of visiting a Buddhist Temple. The thing that I liked about it so much was seeing people who were
just like me practicing their religion. I took a world religion class when I was at
BYU–Idaho and we spent a good amount of time on Buddhism. Buddhism is a very diverse religion, it is
dominant in Asia, but lately, in Western civilizations more people have been
practicing it. The reason that it appeals to so many people is that it is a very
accepting religion. All people are welcome and to practice it however they see fit.
During my visit, it was
interesting to see how other people worshipping. It was very
peaceful there. The Lama temple is a Mahayana Tibetan Buddhist Temple. Although
it’s a high tourist attraction, there are still monks that live there; It still
serves as a place for them to be educated. After walking through the
main gates and visiting some of the different shrines, I had a distinctly
peaceful feeling. There was a certain reverence that you could feel
at the Temple. While I was there, I had a discussion with my friend
about some things we noticed.
For example, burning
incense is a tradition within Buddhism because people believe the smoke brings
their prayers up the heaven so that the Gods can hear them. Many
people were burning incense; that was no surprise. The interesting
thing is that for the different statues of Gods, some people had different
amounts. Some people burned small incense sticks and others burned
larger ones; some had three sticks while others had many
more. Another observation is the way that different people bowed to
the statues. Outside some of the temples, all people kneel in
different ways. Some kneel and put their forehead on the ground,
others hold incense between their fingers and bow. All people were
different and did things a different way, but in the end they all came together
and were there for the same person.
(This is the courtyard)
(This is us at the front gate)
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