Day 464 of German
Just a block from my home, on a busy street, is a small, unassuming temple—so discreet one could drive right past it. Across the street is a church that, while understated, is more obviously a religious institution than the temple.
I am fully aware that inner peace is earned through effort, not granted by outside authorities. However, for my own mental health, I find it extremely calming simply to look at the image of the Buddha sitting. Outside this temple, there is a square concrete cauldron, usually with incense burning, and a small green Buddha statue sitting calmly on its ledge. Because the Buddha is outside, I can visit at any time.
The Contradiction of Craving
The act of going to the temple to calm myself, however, highlights a deep contradiction. In East Asia, cultural practice often involves supplicating (asking) Buddhist deities for blessings, prosperity, career success, and protection against adversity. As my father taught me in his explanations of Buddhist scripture, the very act of wanting is a form of delusion and the great cause of pain.
Going to a temple to ask for blessings is thus fundamentally contrary to the core Buddhist teaching of recognizing impermanence and understanding emptiness.
This contradiction brings to mind the Diamond Sutra:
凡所有相，皆是虛妄。若見諸相非相，則見如來
(All things that have characteristics are false and ephemeral. If you see all characteristics to be non-characteristics, then you see the Tathāgata.)1
As a result, when I offer incense, I rarely know what to say, and certainly don’t ask for conventional success. For now, when I see that little statue, I use it as a reminder: I am not here to ask for blessings or pray for things I have not worked for. The image of the Buddha sitting calmly is a reminder that I need to take the time to understand philosophical Buddhism. Perhaps through that struggle, I can renounce more of the trappings of conventional wants and desires.
- Section 5, The Diamond Sutra, translated by A. Charles Muller: http://www.acmuller.net/bud-canon/diamond_sutra.html#div-6 ↩︎