This post is from a few years ago and was taken from my old blog. As I was reading it I realized its still apropos for today. So, I decided to re-post it. It was during a time when I was on a journey to enlightenment on a sabbatical in Nepal.
Today was a beautiful day, I started out the day meditating and I’m ending my day meditating. It was really a beautiful experience to meditate with the monks this morning. They have their morning prayers so I prayed silently with them. After my meditation, I opened my eyes and saw, in a state of loving awareness, all the ornateness of the inside of the temple. I got god bumps just realizing that I was meditating in a Monastery with monks in Nepal. Tee-hee. The architectural details of this building are hard to describe or do justice. Suffice it to say, there were some really big statues of Buddha, and too many small Buddhas to count.
Tonight when I went back to do another meditation and prayer, and as I admired the craftsmanship and the beauty of the interior design, I wondered if that’s really what God had in mind when he was going about creating ways to worship him? On a side note, I don’t think God did create ways to worship him, because I don’t believe he asks anything of us. I know that most religions have their rituals and ornate decorations, the Catholic Church is certainly no exception. But I wondered if all the decor and dogma are really necessary? As I thought about Buddha under the tree meditating, there was no ornate decor around him, he was alone with God under the tree. Jesus spent forty days and forty nights alone in the desert with God to achieve enlightenment. And when he did reach enlightenment where did he preach? Outside in nature.
So where did the need for what I will call, fancy worship come from? Did Jesus or Buddha ever say, in order to feel God you better have lots of gold, big fancy statues and a big frigging building? Nope. Both found enlightenment while they were alone, in nature, contacting God. So, fancy worship must have come from MAN .
Which then lead me to, what am i doing in this big, fancy, though beautiful building, trying to find God? Hmmm. I love the energy of the chanting and prayers. I find their rituals fascinating but do I need to be here to contact God? Of course not.
Its just interesting to be a part of it.
There have been many times on this journey when I felt the love of God surging through my body. I’ve experienced indescribable joy and love. Each and every time, I’ve had those experiences, guess where I’ve been? Yep, alone in nature with God.
So, from now on how am I going to go about achieving enlightenment? I think I’ll try it the old fashioned way that Buddha and Jesus did it…alone in nature with God.
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