Yesterday I wandered down to the stream beside my house. I walked through the water to a tall plateau’d boulder and perched on it. I could heard the stream rolling over rocks, the birds singing, the insects buzzing, the leaves tumbling in the breeze. I could see the water bubble and swirl as it flowed. At the same time, I couldn’t help but think about death and confronting death. How it would feel to leave this world? What is coming to terms with one’s own mortality?
Without knowing, that stream had become a place for my mind to explore the thoughts of my own existence and in effect – a temple.
Kuan is the Taoist word for temple, which means ‘to look’. To me, this is the most fitting definition of a temple, as it is a place to make observations and discoveries. We find temples in nature, like the stream beside my house, which clear our mind and allow us to think deeply. Over the centuries, people have constructed temples; take the pyramids for instance. Merely thinking about the pyramids invokes ideas of a forgotten past, to be there at the base must be an incredibly powerful experience.
We can making our own temples as well by decorating rooms in ways that evoke a certain sensation. It reminds me of the philosophy behind Feng Shui, in that the layout and decoration of a room can improve aspects of your psyche. They are all around, we just need to stumble into them and open ourselves up.
Modern offices seem to be the antithesis of temples, any art or items of deep meaning are absent in order to keep people focused on their work. Which begs the question, is it possible for office work to exist within a temple? – Or would that somehow remove the special qualities of that place?
“Does the fisherman not find the sea his temple? Or the farmer his fields?”
No matter how many times I go back to that stream, I recognize it as a temple. I think it would do good to find more of those in my life and attempt to create them within my home.
What temples do you have in your own life?
The Daily Wonton 