Meditation Center

Terelj National Park is a bit different from national parks in the USA, and other places I have been.  I’ll describe those differences in another post, but right now I want to mention that if you make the turn into the Turtle rock area, and wind around for a couple of miles, and successfully navigate the HUGE potholes, you reach the foot of the mountain that holds the Buddhist meditation center.

The guide, the driver, and I, start the trek up the mountainside to the Vajrayana Buddhist meditation house.  It looks ancient, and the guide explains that sure enough it was built way back in 2002, to replace the old one which dates to 1994.  ;)

As we wind gently upwards, I see signs reminiscent of the old “Burma Shave” signs that only us old folks recall.  They give various Buddhist slogans, some of which I capture with my camera.  Some of these are not far from Scripture.

Near the top we cross a long swinging suspension bridge, which is a lot of fun to sway.

Then we climb the long steep staircase which comprises the “elephant’s trunk” of the meditation building built to look like an elephant’s head.

The building is surrounded by micro-statues of Buddha, and the outside rafter have Buddhist depictions of hell on the bottom, earth in the middle, and heaven above.

I take a bit of time to pray at the top.  The view is magnificent.  It is a beautiful opportunity to admire the creation of the one true G^d, Jehovah.  Buddhism is one of the few religions with no god in the usual sense.  It is about mankind perfecting self through good actions and good living.  Good luck with that!

As I sit and pray I think briefly about the devout Buddhists who have lived and meditated and denied self for the sake of a premise put forth by Siddhartha Gautama, acknowledged to be a man.  I feel a bit of sadness at the number of people in the world who never really have a good opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus The Christ.  How tragic!  I am totally ignorant as to how G^d will sort these things out, but I trust that He will.  I am confident in the justice, mercy, and grace of the Adonai Eloheinu.

And that is the gospel, the good news.  We can trust that our heavenly Father, whose “ foolishness … is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.”  And, “… to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Amen.