Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival over here in China. Yes, I am in China right now teaching English at a high school in China. While in China I plan to do faith visits that won’t have me ending up in a prison and writing about religious events that I take part in. I won’t be posting though (my girlfriend will) since Google blogs are blocked. Mid-Autumn Festival at its core is religious, allow me to explain why.
On my way to the Baoying countryside I noticed something that was in all households. Nearly all households have Guan Yin, the goddess and bodhisattva of compassion in Mahayana Buddhism. Her role is similar to Mary in Catholicism as an advocate for those who have little and watching over families. She is especially related to fertility, the harvest and wealth, which are extremely important in the countryside.
The common wishes people have are found expressed in prayers within nearly all faiths. These wishes are the wish for a more comfortable life (better harvest, new job, job, recovery from sickness, ect.), the possibility of children and the well being of family and friends. I have heard these prayers expressed in the conversations with people of the Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Jewish faiths and have experienced it in China in relationship to Buddhism.
I think in many ways this has helped improve people. It is along these larger than life expressions of the infinite and unknown that people have sought to help one another. Mayahana Buddhism is based around family, I experienced that at the Mid-Autumn Festival today where I was treated as honored guest and invited to be a part of the family. Just as the infinite, unknown God or divine reminds us of what we don’t have; it reminds to cherish all the more what is a part of our life.
So have a joyous day today and if you are religious or spiritual, look at your faith and how it relates to the unknown and think of how it has connected you to others and in what way it shows you the wholeness of the moment right now.
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