Instant boon

Instant boon

Today is Asanha Bucha Day, one of the most important religious days in the Buddhist calendar. Today, 25 centuries ago, three months after his enlightenment, the Lord Buddha gave his first sermon, and the first monks were ordained, inaugurating what is known as the Triple Gems.

You can be sure that all temples around the country will be packed with the faithful Buddhists intent on making merit on this auspicious day.

I made one of my rare visits to the temple last weekend to make merit for a dear friend. Most temples are ready to accept walk-in sangkhathan bearers in the chapel or prayer hall, although some temples make an effort to facilitate this ceremony with a special room complete with all the essentials: Buddha altar, prayer prompters (for those who are not so familiar with the Pali recitations), on-duty monk and water ewer to conclude the ceremony.

Some temples go even further and provide a selection of sangkhathan offerings for those who have the heart but not the time to go shopping. These offerings comprise the essentials in the daily life of a monk - soap, razor, slippers, towels, dry foodstuffs, instant noodles, medicine - and you can prepare as many or as few as your budget allows.

For convenience's sake, my friends and I went to a popular temple on Rama IV Road that shall not be named. Normally, there is a parking lot in front of the temple, but this time it had been taken over by makeshift tents that allowed a small passage for cars to wind their way through to the exit. The car park attendant was kind enough to guide me through a narrow winding path to the front of an empty building, and if you weren't too squeamish about backing your car through a maze of lottery vendors, then you would have been thankful for the space.

The atmosphere had become like that of a fairground, with stalls offering all sorts of merit-making activities instead of games. Instead of a coconut shy, there was an image of various deities - Ganesh was quite prominently displayed - covered in garlands, with a donation box nearby. Another large tent had row upon row of donation boxes, as well as large Buddhist Lent candles to be used during the upcoming Buddhist Rains Retreat.

Finally I found the sangkhathan room, tucked away behind the tents. There was now a row of seats in front; the waiting room. No cue cards were being given out, so I breathed a sigh of relief. We walked behind to make our selection - we are some of those busy urbanites who don't have time to put together a proper sangkhathan offering. A donation box indicated we could put in whatever amount we felt inclined to do, and take a set. A stack of pink envelopes was on hand for our cash donation to accompany the sangkhathan. A monk was sitting in front of a microphone, his voice booming over the PA system around the temple grounds to keep devout temple-goers updated on the various merit-making opportunities that were laid before them.

We were soon quickly ushered into the room where a monk presided on a raised platform. On previous occasions, at other less busy temples, the monk would chat with us and ask what the occasion was that required our merit-making. He would then ask us to write the name of our friend on a piece of paper, and the entire ceremony would be directed at him.

But this time there was no such opportunity for personalised service. We were told to go straight into the offering recitation, and before you could say "Holy Asanha Bucha", the ceremony was over. We were sent off with a flourish of holy water, and it was time for the next set of merit-makers.

It was a bit of a disappointing experience for me, to say the least. I was expecting something a bit more spiritual and solemn, where we could have time to concentrate on our friend during the prayer recitation and dedicate the boon or merit to him. Maybe I was expecting too much. After all, this is the age of convenience stores, fast food and instant noodles. Why should merit-making be any different?

I do hope, though, that the boon has made its way to my friend who is somewhere in the great beyond. If it did get there, it couldn't have been any of my doing; my meditation attempt was shot to a million shreds by the sheer chaos of the surroundings.

It would have had to be propelled there by the joint spiritual determination of my friends, guided by the monk's well-practiced invocation.

Any merit I might have gained during the afternoon's pilgrimage has evaporated into thin air as I write this column, and I will probably be sentenced to endless Buddhist purgatory.

Tonight, as the light of the Full Moon bathes the skyscrapers of Bangkok, I will pray to my private Buddha for forgiveness, and in the quiet solitude of my own "temple of the mind", I will perhaps begin to recover a sense of hope for spirituality.

Usnisa Sukhsvasti is the features editor of the Bangkok Post.

Usnisa Sukhsvasti

Feature Editor

M.R. Usnisa Sukhsvasti is Bangkok Post’s features editor, a teacher at Chulalongkorn University and a social worker.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT