Sunday Peace--in Beijing, in my Heart

Yes--our day started peacefully, on the patio of our hotel.

We reveled in our food, knowing it was our last morning of tranquility before the inevitable conferencing that was kicking off later that evening. 

We drank our warm beverages slowly, while soaking in the heat of the morning and the view.

When we were finished, we headed over to the Lama Temple so that Yi-Ting could take my picture by this door.

There were a multitude of doors--and buildings to wander through.  The Temple used to be a palace complex, but was turned into a Buddhist compound in the 1700s.

There are numerous incense burners outside of the buildings, and lining the street outside the compound are store after store offering sticks of incense for sale--for those looking to offer it to the idols found inside.

A variety of these Buddhist statues fill each of the buildings, and I was longing to take pictures so that I'd remember the strangeness of them for posterity.  There were signs posted everywhere saying photography is not allowed of them, however, so out of respect for this religion I am an outsider of, I have no pictures to offer you. 

Instead, let me share with you what I was thinking as I wandered around observing the practices of the people who were there less for sight-seeing and more for worshiping;

my thoughts as I gazed at the immobile and sometimes terrifying faces of the statues, as I watched people lay their unlit incense at the feet of them,  as I saw fruit and other items placed as sacrifices on tables nearby.

As I watched people show devout reverence toward these external structures,

as I watched them bow 3 times in a row with incense held at their foreheads, and as I felt the urgency flowing from their movements.

As I prayed in my heart to a Living God that is with me always, and dwelt gratefully in the peace of walking with him through the chaos around me.

I thought about the reality of Christ in me, the significance of what Paul meant when he said "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?".   I thought about how Christ calls me by name, and promises to be my Counselor.  I reflected on the peace of knowing that I do not have to beg for grace, or pray for it without knowing if I will receive it, but that I can count on it--as a child dearly loved. 

If I had spoken the language of the earnest people around me, I would have asked them "Are any of these thoughts true for you?"  

I would have asked them if they find security, direction, wisdom.  Love that cannot be lost, redemption.  Peace.

Because if they don't? Then what I was observing all seems like a tragedy of wasted time, and I want to understand why they do it. I want to understand what the treasure is.  The point.

I found myself thinking some of the same things at our next stop--The Temple of Confucius.  Seen here in wooden depiction, Confucius is known for being a philosopher and teacher (and much more, of which I am unsure of the details....)

He was also a proponent of musical instruments such as these:

And since Yi-Ting and I are such dedicated musicians and scholars, we decided that we liked him.  We probably would have been good friends, had we shared a portion of a century together.

Our time with him was a good way to remind us that next on our agenda was to check out of our hotel and find our new one, so that we could get that conferencing going.

So that we could glean more wisdom about our roles as musicians, scholars, and teachers.

Sadly, however, I think he'd most likely be disappointed in us.  See, we didn't last long at that conference before we realized there was so much more to see in the city that we were quickly becoming sad to leave.

[More accurately, it was that peace that I'd found that didn't last long, as the cranky monster that hates all things academic took up residence in my soul and caused me to claw my way out of the conference center....] 

So stay tuned for my final days in Beijing--the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, the Beihai Gardens.  They are all awaiting our arrival...