Skip to main content

Another rewarding journey

Visiting Lantau Island, and the Tian Tan Buddha featured highly on my list of priorities whilst in Hong Kong.  It was well worth the at times excruciating 2 hour wait to board the Ngong Ping cable car, which had the effect of introducing a pilgrimage quality to the expedition, challenging commitment and testing both patience and stamina.  The final leg of the journey involves climbing the 268 steps up to the lotus platform on which the Buddha sits.   

The awesome giant bronze Buddha which stands (or more accurately sits) at 34m tall and weighs over 250 tonnes took 12 years to complete occupies a majestic position, sitting serenely atop the Ngong Ping plateau, overlooking the spectacular mountain scenery of Lantau.  The magnificent figure with its compelling presence inspires Buddhists from all over Asia, and attracts tourists from all over the globe and had the perhaps unforeseen effect of transforming the distinctly humble Po Lin monastery, and its devout monks who offer delicious vegetarian fare to their visitors into a must-see destination which features on many a tourguide's schedule. 

What is perhaps undertaken by fewer travellers is the bus ride back to Tung Chung station.  Comparable only to the alpine coach journeys I've endured in anticipation of, or following a ski trip, route 23 really did challenge one's newly restored sanity/serenity.  With the only seat belt being available to (but not worn by) the driver, passengers were obliged to rely on the headrests of those in front of them, and sharp inhalations of breath were to be heard as we wound around the tight hairpin turns which dominated the circuitous return journey.  Judging by the speed at which most of the camera clutching passengers disembarked from the bus, it seemed as though the sight of the MTR (underground) station was a more than usually welcome one.  

Climbing off the bus, albeit with some degree of relief having arrived at the intended destination (which might, at certain points during the journey, have inspired quite high odds) I found myself still captivated and awestruck by the proportions of the Buddha, and the graceful beauty of it and the surrounding statues, 'the Offering of the Six Devas' each of which is depicted offering a different gift to the Buddha: flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit, and music.  I later discovered that the offerings are anything but coincidental generosity, as they symbolise charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom: the necessary prerequisites to achieve nirvana. 

Whilst I am, I fear, still some way off nirvana, the day trip moved me on a very deep level.  Apparently the hormones released at childbirth cause women to instantly forget the pain labour involves (which explains how we are able to give birth more than once without requiring lobotomies), the memories that proliferate having visited the gentle giant who represents the possibility of harmonious relationship between man and nature, people and religion obliterated the arduous struggle endured to get there.   







 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Table. Apple. Penny.

Whilst there were several places I might have been that morning, I wouldn't have been anywhere else.  The practitioner from the Memory Service arrived promptly.  I liked her instantly.    Mum was nervous.  I think I was a little, too.  It's been a difficult year.   "It's Friday, it's the fourteenth of December and I'm at home..."   No problems there.  CAMCOG, or the Cambridge Cognitive Examination is a thorough assessment tool used to assess the extent of extent of dementia, and to assess the level of cognitive impairment.  The standardised  measure assesses orientation, language, memory, praxis, attention, abstract thinking, perception and calculation.    "Table.  Apple.  Penny."   Three everyday items that were introduced at one point, and then referred to again later on.  Again, Mum was able to recall each.      I am reminded that the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Glass half full? Glass half empty? Or perhaps the glass is broken

I am, constitutionally, a glass half empty gal.  I will always first acknowledge what I don't have, what I have lost, and what it is that I am seeking.  I tend to overlook my strengths, concentrating only on those bits of me that are underdeveloped or weak.  I refer to myself as a realist, but in doing so compliment myself and insult those who genuinely are simply realistic.  My modus operandi is to identify what's not working and acknowledge this before seeing more clearly what functions perfectly well.  This has its place: I edit others' written work pretty well.  My fastidious attention to detail serves me, and the author.  Accuracy counts, for me and I have an excellent memory.  I can remember a great many of my sessions with clients verbatim.  Even this asset is something I can, and do, diminish the true value of, by concentrating on 'I should have said...' or 'why didn't....  occur to me during the session?' Earlier this we...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joan Miro: Emotional Art

"Painting and poetry are like love; an exchange of blood, a passionate embrace, without restraint, without defence.  The picture is born of an overflow of emotions and feelings." Miro, The Farm 'La Masia' (1921-22) I learnt a great deal about Miro on a recent visit to the Tate.  I learnt a great deal about a lot more too. Miro wanted to discover the sources of human feeling.  He described his method of creating poetry by way of painting, using a vocabulary of signs and symbols, metaphors and dream images to express definite themes he believed to be fundamental to human existence.  The exhibition displays his sense of humor and lively wit.  His chief concern was a social one; he wanted to get close to the great masses of humanity, and he was convinced that art can only truly appeal when it resonates with roots of lived experience.  "Wherever you are, you find the sun, a blade of grass, the spirals of the dragonfly.  Courage cons...
Post a Comment
Read more