Pilgrimage 4

As my walk continues up the hill toward the temple, it is a time to reflect and what I see along the way really are the things to think about in life. The first sign is a small marble "factory" that produces mostly grave markers. It is good to stop allowing the flowing river and think about that. There is no escaping it, death comes, and how will I face it, how do I face it, how have I faced it.

It is amazing to see how many of these pieces or marble there are, how many times have I been affected by the deaths of others? The first time death "appeared" for me was as a child of five when my uncle died in a hunting accident. At that time, I was mostly affected by how others had reacted to the situation. Then my first year of college my beloved grandpa died unexpectedly...it was the first poem I ever wrote with the memories of him working in the garden and I remember the last line: "And you now in a row instead of planting..." My creative writing professor and the whole class were speechless when I had finished reading it. A very powerful experience. And then my dear grandma died. The day before she had seen a rose frosted and a bit wilted in early October and had told me, "Isn't it beautiful, still there, frosted, alive..." These are often the thoughts that go through my mind. All the friends, who were so young, who I lost to AIDS in the '80's and early '90's...and so on....

Then I often come to this point and almost every time light has shone through these trees. It reminds me to look up to the Buddha with all of these questions, to keep turning and looking in the right direction....

Coming around a curve, I see this bench that faces away from the street, looking into the forest and I realize, getting closer to the temple, it is time to turn deeply inwards, to what is there, to what the Still Small Voice may be saying...

And then, just before reaching the temple is a sewage treatment plant. A very small one, but it has become a reminder for me that I am here to "clean" up the karma that has obscured and disturbed the pure clear water of the spirit that is always there. This is a most important point before I reach the point to go up to the temple....