The Path To Enlightenment

Today was a nice and sunny day with a not too cold temperature. A perfect day to visit the giant Buddha on Lantau Island. As it's quite high up in the mountains, I was expecting it to be a bit colder than in town. It was a bit colder, but not by much. Nothing to complain about.

The trip out was very easy. A few subway trains to the cable car station that took about 40 minutes and the cable car ride itself was about 20 minutes, not including the short wait times involved. Ditto on the way back, although it seemed shorter. Maybe I was vegging too much by then to notice.

Anyways, there was supposed to be a small village at the base of the Buddha and I thought it was an original backwater village of some sorts. But, I was wrong about that; it's a man-made modern "village" totally devoted to tourism. I was a bit disappointed at that, but I guess it is what it is. No time trip into the past here. Oh, well.

In any case, this place had a strange effect on me all day. I thought this was a place of relaxation and contemplation, but it had the exact opposite effect on me. Things that had been bugging me lately were all I could think about the whole time I was there. I could not block them out no matter how much I tried. Wandering around, my thoughts just consumed me. I think in retrospect, though, that was what was supposed to happen to me there. The energies that had swirled and consumed me made me come to a final conclusion regarding those issues that were on my mind for the past few weeks. And, now that they have resolved themselves, I feel a relief and have fewer burdens to bear. It was, indeed a path to enlightenment today. The universe works in strange ways, indeed.

And, as some of you may, or may not, know, I am afraid of heights. The cable car trip up to the top was actually pretty good. It's really, really, really, high up in the mountains. Going up I was only looking up and forward and that was not a problem. Coming down? Well, that was another story. It's REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, high up! Looking down as the cable car approached and dropped off from the tower was a though one; I gipped the railing and closed my eyes as I was expecting that feeling of dropping, which never happened as the cable car system here is excellent. The ride was smooth and steady without any jerkiness at all. That was a relief. The thought of it was worse than the actual of it. But, that thought happened quite a number of times as there are quite a few towers on the tops of the mountains. You will not believe the heights and the vastness of it all unless you are actually here yourself. I survived, though!