the golden belly

There's a Buddhist monastery in my neighborhood, and it looks gorgeous from the outside. So I dedided to go in today as I went for a walk, and as I had not been feeling very well, despite some good mail this week. I just felt I could do with a big belly to rest my head on a bit, some 8-fold path action, and some enlightenment.

They have an outdoors garden with a koi pond and statues and a gazebo with an enormous Buddha in the middle. One is not allowed to feed the foot-long goldfish. There are all sorts of interior rooms, all designed with a lot of feng shui in mind, and then an enormous palatial chanting room at the very back. In the chanting room, there are places to kneel, books in Sanskrit, and another enormous golden Buddha with offerings of fruit on the altars along with burning incense. The fruits were pineapples, avocadoes, and bananas. It felt pretty holy.

I also liked to talk with the buddhist monks and nuns who were wandering around and who told me about the place, which is largely staffed by volunteers. They also gave me a free Buddhist book. Maybe I'll go do a meditation ritual there one of these days. The experience also inspired me to do things like wash the dishes, which, if done correctly, can probably be a zen action.