Practise, faith, and god are a very strong and a powerful title.
"Lifer" blog post for April 17' will discuss my pilgrimage with my family to Katharagama, Sri Lanka on April 01st and 02nd.
Now I'm 25 years old and my perception on the world is more dark and confusing, but it is kind of enlightening.... the more I see the goodness of heart and mind, I personally study the dark side of the mind and heart also.
I think it's maturity I guess.
It emphasizes my ability to understand the world in a more personal but a broader sense.
It actually helps me to get a good grasp of the concept of life and religion.
As a family, we annually went to Katharagama.
When we went to Katharagama we usually go to three places.
Lord Ganesha's Temple, Lord Kataragama's Temple, and Kiri Vehera.
Kiri Vehera is considered one of the greatest Buddhist pilgrimages for Sri Lankans because it will provide an opportunity to the Buddhists to visit a location where Lord Buddha visited in his journeys to Sri Lanka.
The above picture is a picture of the Kiri vehera Stupa.
I will not discuss the history but I'll analyze the practice of a Buddhist at Kiri Vehera.
Basically what I do is offer flowers and light a lamp to the Stupa. The purpose of this is to identify the existential issue of life that nothing is eternal and all to embrace the greatness of Lord Buddha.
When you see old flowers and lanterns that are used previously you will recognize that things eventually fade away.
But it is questionable whether all Buddhists function with this practice and attitude with the idea of the basic concept of this offering. This is my opinion. Some do these offerings expecting the blessing of Lord Buddha hoping to gain more material or mental happiness.
The Black and white image below is another offering made to the stupa with the Buddhist flag reflecting on the primary Buddhist concepts.
The colors of the Buddhist flag reflects different Buddhist concepts.
The Buddhist flag, first hoisted in 1885 in Sri Lanka, is a symbol of faith and peace used throughout the world to represent the Buddhist faith.
The six colors of the flag represent the colors of the aura that emanated from the body of the Buddha when He attained Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. The horizontal stripes represent the races of the world living in harmony and the vertical stripes represent eternal world peace.
The colors symbolize the perfection of Buddhahood and the Dharma.
The Blue light that radiated from the Buddha's hair symbolizes the spirit of Universal Compassion for all beings.
The Yellow light that radiated from the Buddha's epidermis symbolizes the Middle Way which avoids all extremes and brings balance and liberation.
The Red light that radiated from the Buddha's flesh symbolizes the blessings that the practice of the Buddha's Teaching brings.
The White light that radiated from the Buddha's bones and teeth symbolizes the purity of the Buddha's Teaching and the liberation it brings.
The Orange light that radiated from the Buddha's palms, heels and lips symbolize the unshakable Wisdom of the Buddha's Teaching.
The Combination Colour symbolizes the universality of the Truth of the Buddha's Teaching.
Therefore, the overall flag represents that regardless of race, nationality, division or color, all sentient beings possess the potential of Buddhahood.
From
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/4886/flag.htm, located by
Dov Gutterman, 9 April 1999
Below is the front of Kataragama Temple.
As a practice, our family annually makes offering to Katharagama temple though we are Buddhists. It has become a practice as well as an experience for the family. I personally find this offering a great experience.
Now with dealing with the introduction, I believe that the concepts of religion is more linked to a practise and accordingly faith is built. And it does not actually need a spiritual existense of a god, As long as your practise is acceptable socially and it creates goodness in this world without harm to other lifes. I personally believe that faith and belief in a god is something not bad.
As a buddhist the concept of god is not there. Simply if you do wrong you'll get punished, and if you do right you'll get treated. (The Concept of 'Karma')
So when discussing my maturity in perception, the more I realised the good is always linked with the dark side (Evil or bad) the more you tend understand that both are like ying-yang. (Interrelation of forces.)
Both needs to exist.
So it is acceptable in the world, that nor good or bad will ever be eliminated.
