Religion is a touchy subject

So lets "touch" it. This entry is based on spending a lot of my tour time at religious sites for a "religion" I have read a lot about and would like to think I embrace in parts of my life, but which I do not knowingly practice. From everything I have read Buddhism should be considered a way of living, a philosophy of life, not a "religion" but hey what do I know?

I distinguish the following for the sake of this blog. And all of these definitions are open for refinement

Philosophy of life- The way you CHOOSE to live based on the observations you have made or the things you are willing to experiment with about the way life works, and the nature of causal events. This can be considered, reverence, and spirituality without having to have a deity

Religion - The incorporation of a deity into any philosophy of life, OR the use of and belief in a deity without having to ascribe to a philosophy of life.

Religion-Inc. - The usurpation of a philosophy of life or a religion by power brokers who use the religion or philosophy to garner power rather than BE the religion or the philosophy.
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Given this, and knowing me, you may start to see that I could easily turn this into a rant about Religion-Inc. That would be a blog-and-a-half on its own. Here I simply want to introduce the distinction and comment on what I see at the religious sites and with the people in Thailand and how it affected me.
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The first thing that struck me when just looking at the people in Bangkok was the respect in their eyes for other people that they didn't even know. Their kindness to strangers, their warmth, easy humor, and presence. Couple that with the leadership espoused by their king, and I thought = hey I could live with these people if I could learn to read and speak a language with 44 consonants, 28 vowels used in three different ways each, and 4 other kinds of sound markings!

The thing that struck me about their religious sites- is that while they tried hard to maintain some kind of reverence, and you could tune into the quiet and calm if you took the time to "sit in the presence of" - tour operators and commercial interests sort of beat out the monks for who "owned" the places.

The great statues of Buddha, the emerald Buddha, the reclining Buddha, the Solid Gold Buddha ( 5.5 tons of solid gold- now there is a thought) and the myriad of Buddhas in various poses all over the place --- Rather than becoming triggers to one's own spirit for quiet reflection or even a call to action, were reduced to icons serving Religion-Inc. I had to constantly lock out the crowds, "erase" their rather crass and annoying comments, stop hearing their lack of reverence for just honoring the symbol as a trigger to a man's extraordinary life, so that I could approach some level of oneness with my own sentiments and calm.

On one level I found it annoying that all of these people were simply there filling up the emotional and aural and visual space with crap "ohhh take a picture of me with God- OK now whats for lunch". On an entirely different level I was amused at myself for being annoyed. And on another level i was annoyed at myself for being amused when i felt I should be clearing out the infidels with the jawbone of an ass- and on and on for many levels.

On balance- just seeing the many level of idiotic consciousness dancing around in me was a gift from Buddha - so something was at work.

When people make religious icons, I see them being used a number of ways. First as simply a reminder, a trigger to stop and reflect in this spot where hopefully many others have stopped and reflected. I also see people simply turning the icons into gods and worshipping them, not worshipping where the icons happen to be and using them as triggers.

In the same way people have turned other people into Gods rather than as exemplars of how humans might live- Notably- Christ, Mohammad, Buddha. To me, turning them into Gods reduces the experience of spirituality and being human. Using Christ, Mohammad and Buddha as triggers to my own humanity - is to me a much more empowering place to be.

Anyhow- here are some Buddha pictures- since that is the primary philosophy of Thailand! Enjoy


One of the smaller temples we visited. All visitors must take their shoes off at all temples. The Thai have this belief that feet being the lowest part of the body are "unclean" in such a way that it is considered an insult to show the soles of your feet to another person - point them in that direction - or point them in the direction of the Buddha images or icons.
Many westerners and Europeans either didn't care about this or were ignorant of it and so have been damned to eternal Buddhist hell for their transgression ( ha ha) The other name for Buddhist hell is "here".






The Solid Gold Buddha












The Reclining Buddha, and a picture of the bottom of his foot with all kinds of mystical symbols engraved therein.



The face of the Reclining Buddha
Me, having climbed to the top of the Golden mount wherein Buddha's ashes are supposed to be stored. I climbed up over 300 steps 3 days after my stem cell procedure. Many have claimed that my boost was psychosomatic. All I know for sure that after 15 years of pain in walking a short distance, I had no pain climbing over 300 steps. So if I had 15 years of psychosomatic pain all I can say is what an idiot I am. I happen to feel that this process actually helped my body heal and eliminated a majority of the pain in doing so. If this process has helped me then it was worth it. Of course I'm still an idiot- some things can't be fixed! By the way I am not in pain I am just squinting into the sun. However after looking at this picture- I need a new face!