You may have been forgiven for expecting some profound words about enlightenment after the final words of my last blog. I am afraid you will have to be disappointed because I don't think I even know what enlightenment is let alone how to achieve it. Nor do I think I would know that I had achieved it if I had!
However, after racing across the burning sand once more, I passed the small seated Buddha in a cave and came to the large majestic statue of the Buddha, post enlightenment- "the Buddha after maturity" was how my driver described him. I the guide I had, it said that this was the Buddha, two years after enlightenment. Merton mistakenly assumed this statue to be Ananda, the Buddha's favourite pupil. But whoever the statue is it is first and foremost portraying a human in possession of the contentment of being able to be free from grasping desire. He stands relaxed and tall with his arms and hands folded across his chest. There is no reaching out in desire and longing. But the wonderful thing for me was that although the flow of the contours on the stone and the carving on the statue were just as exquisitely beautiful, there were visible signs of decay on this figure. The nostrils had cobwebs or some other detritis in them; there a crack or chip in the stone near the chest and the long drape of stone which was the Buddha's robe had to be supported by iron rods (to stop it collapsing, I suppose). There were other signs of decay too and this filled me with delight because they conveyed to me the sense that here was a man who was already feeling the effects of physical deterioration which would lead eventually to the death of his body while AT THE SAME TIME finding release and peace within his spirit/soul.
Tomorrow, I will describe the last recumbent statue which filled me with such joy that I found it hard to leave its contemplation and cried all the way back to the car.
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