Mystery Photo Explained.

        I am preparing a Powerpoint talk on Buddhism at the request of a book club that I attend at my current church in my home community. I do not claim to really know or practice Buddhism to an adequate degree, but I have also attended weekly meetings to a meditative and spiritually seeking group of folks of various religious backgrounds and traditions which does have some Buddhist leanings and which meets in a local Mindfulness center which is Buddhist. I therefore know enough that I want to try to give at least an idea of the basics belief system of Buddhism. Some of the more esoteric ideas about non-self and the lack of a belief in an actual personified deity seem quite alien to our Western patterns of religious thought. Yet Buddhism and at least one of its regular practices, that is various forms of meditation, have gained a foothold in Western practices. Meditation indeed has a multitude of benefits both for mental health, and even for physical health. Such a practice is easy to establish but perhaps somewhat difficult to stick to. The group I am giving this talk to is strongly Christian, actually the local equivalent of the Church I grew up in located in a small town in northern Illinois. The congregation of my new church is fairly intellectual and well educated and some of them are curious about Buddhist traditions. As I say, I don't know much, but I think I know more than my audience.

         Buddhism is older than Christianity, with the Buddha's life occurring at about 500 B.C.E. For 400 years, his teachings were not even written down because the Buddha himself discouraged recording them. For several centuries the sutras, ie the teachings, were memorized and orally transferred by monks dedicated to such an occupation. However, once their written recording occurred, another 2 millenium's passage has led to multiple lists of beliefs, many interpretations, and blosoming of numerous different sects of practice. It may take a lifetime of study to fully understand all these variations. Still there are some very basic beliefs mostly in numbered lists that pertain to all Buddhist beliefs. My plan in my talk is to present some of those basic belief systems.

         A significant resource for me has been Thich Nhat Hanh's book: "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation." Thich Nhat Hanh, affectionately called Thai or Thay, was a Vietnamese monk since age 16 who is credited with bringing what he called "Engaging Buddhism" to the West. He had to leave Vietnam during the 1970s due to the Vietnamese War and its aftermath. He established a retreat center in France called "Plum Village." He finally had a very disabling stroke, but was able to return to his home city of Hue, Vietnam and died there in 2022. He has written many books and his style of teaching is very approachable and very easy to read.

         Of course, during my many world travels, my husband and I visited several countries in East Asia where Buddhism is a significant if not the dominant religion. We visited several places in India important in the Buddha's life and saw the monuments there. In China, after supression of significant Buddhist presence during the Revolution, Buddhism is being allowed to return, though it is still heavily monitored and controlled by the Comunist Party. Buddhism has been historically and still is a strong presence in both Cambodia and in Thailand. And of course, Tibet is the source of one very large and prominent variety of Buddhist thought. I have a multitude of photos of all these places. Therefore, I plan to intersperse these photos amongst the lists of the Buddhist belief system numbered bullet points.

         Hence I came upon some photos of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. This imposing structure on a hilltop in the middle of the capitol city of Tibet. It was the home of the Dalai Llama before he was exiled from Tibet to Dharamsala, India, by the Chinese takeover. It also was home to multiple monks, with multiple shrines and memorils and relics of many boddhisatvas throughout Tibetan Buddhist history. I have always said that after visiting Tibet, I understood the strong presence of spirituality there of whatever kind. At the altitude of Lhasa, oxygen is scarce. The landscape is harchnd austere. And it is so very different a culture from what we know in the West. Yet the people are so friendly and outgoing, that one can't help but feel an opening of the heart, and a sense of peace and wonder.

         So here is a photo, your Mystery Photo, of the Potala Palace in the center of Lhasa, Tibet.