Today is October 7th and it is one week since I went to Pollonaruwa. I returned to the UK from Sri Lanka the day before yesterday and , although many more exciting things happened while I was there ( which I hope to recount later), Pollonaruwa was the end of the quest as far as following in Merton's footsteps were concerned. And yet, the experience instigated a new beginning for me in the light of what I learned there. I shall try and share some of that experience with you now.
I had hoped that we might leave early to go to Pollonaruwa but, alas, we did not leave until after lunch when the sun was climbing to its hottest. By the time we got to Pollonaruwa itself it was 2pm. We had had rather fraught altercations with gates men and officials who sent us to one place and then another and who tried to get us to take a tourist guide with us - which was the very last thing I wanted! Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka there 20,000,000 people all of whom need to find money to live on, whatever way they can, and a white person looks like a meal ticket to many of them.
Eventually, after wrangling, we managed to persuade them that our driver was to be my guide and no he did not need a permit because he was not trying to be an official guide. What I would have done without Tania's wit and determination, I don't know.
We drove first to the ancient temple complex where there were a series of different kinds of temple in various stages of decay. It was rather like a theme park of ruined temples. The driver and myself walked over a trough which used to house water to wash worshipper's feet and then up a series of steps to the complex itself. The sun was very hot and when we removed our shoes and hats, the heat was scorching. I had to run on tip toes as fast as I could into any any patch of shade before the soles of my feet were burned. I must have been a very amusing sight.
The first temple that we entered reminded me very much of a medieval, ruined monastery. The figure of the Buddha and his two attendants had been badly damaged. The stone Buddha had lost his face yet still there was a feeling that this was a place where "prayer had been valid", There was a great sense of openness and deep silence and it was not hard for me to feel at peace and at one with love at the heart of all things there.
We explored some of the other ruined temples including a round one which had a Buddha stationed at north, south, east, and west. I liked this circular arrangement but could not stay long because my feet were burning.
We then went inside a darkened chamber where an elderly man held a candle to show how the stone of the Buddha sparkled in the candlelight because it was made of silica. I did not find this impressive but the great domed brick ceiling which was overhead, lit from an opening at the the side at the top, felt a very powerful symbol of lifted desire and surrender into space, openness and emptiness.
The final temple was shaped in the style of Thai temples but by that time my feet were sore and I was anxious to go on and visit the giant statues of the Buddha that Merton describes in his Asian journal
.I shall describe this in tomorrow's blog.....
No comments:
Post a Comment