If you visited just one site in all of Myanmar, it has to be the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda. Each visit reveals something else of the mystery of this ancient and evolving religious structure of the Burmese Buddhism.
Both Bodhi Satva, the tree under which Buddha received the englightenment.
I hit the gong four times, to pray for the four people who I have been carrying in my heart, two in Brussels, one in Miami and one in Havana.
There is an interesting story about this bell. The british wanted to take it to India as a war booty but somehow the boat sank in the Rangoon Bay and only much later were the Burmese able to locate the bell and bring it back to its honourable place in the Shwedagon Pagoda
Gautama Buddha
I sat down and concentrated and prayed for a little.
This year particularly seems to have been a lot of upheavals and intolerance and sickness.
When I was a child I was encouraged to collect stamps and I remember a stamp with a structure similar to this pagoda above. (India?)
The Burmese are the most Buddhist of all the Buddhist countries I have visited, they live their faith and not just talk about it . They place a lot of importance on getting merit which you can if you are willing to sacrifice, if you are a good person thinking of others, doing civic duty, helping others in need.
Today might have been an auspicious day, as there were many novice monks and nuns being inducted and their proud families parading with them around the pagoda
Collecting some Mitta
