Water is life-giving in more ways then one

Loy Krathong - Thailand's water festival.

The River Jordan

Coming from Australia, a desert continent, I know that you can live a lot longer without food than without water.  It is a truism to say that water is essential for life but, more so, it gives life in many ways as water is a powerful, life-givng symbol.   

November 25 was the annual Loy Krathong festival this week in Thailand.  My understanding is that it coincides with the first full moon after rainy season which means late November.  Rainy season is the time for growing rice, an essential to life here.  Loy Krathong is then the festival for giving thanks for the rice crop and all blessings of life in the past year, while also asking for continued blessings and the banishing of any bad luck.  Luck is an important concept here, or that is how I experience it. 

This festival is just wonderful.  I love it as does everyone in Thailand.  It is celebrated by going to the water - a river, a canal, a lake - and setting free your krathong which is a float full of symbols of yourself.  These symbols are a strand of your hair, a fingernail and one baht.  The krathong becomes like a floating altar that symbolises you and you send it off into the water praying that all good things come your way and givng thanks for all past blessings.  It is a life giving celebration centred on water.  It is an annual highlight of life that sees crowds flocking to waterways to float their krathong and enjoy the festival with all its charm, song and grace.     

In the Holy Land, one of the 'must do' sites is to visit the River Jordan.  When going there, what I saw was a muddy river that was more like a creek.  Yet this river gives life to the land and was central in the life and story of Jesus as here he was baptized by John the baptist.  When going there, an optional activity was to bathe in the river.  I forewent the pleasure but there were ones very keen to dive in for reasons that spoke not of a muddy creek but of giving life and energy to oneself.  The experience was a spiritual one, full of meaning. 

Water does give life and not just by drinking it as we do every day.  Its symbolism is universal.  Its power to give life, physical and spiritual, cannot be denied. 

Show me the way

One site visit on our Holy Land pilgrimage was to a monastery in the desert.  It was literally in the middle of nowhere.  Getting there involved a steep climb.  An option was to avail of a donkey ride service.  One of the women who went by donkey told us afterwards that it was not at all an easy or comfortable way to get to and from the monastery.  That told me that the way seen as being obviously easier was not.  It was better to walk which is what I did. 

During my week, I was witness to a home accident when visiting my good Thai friend.  He was starting to cook dinner and realised that the gas supply was depleted.   So he rang for the gas man to bring a full gas cylinder which he did and installed.  Cooking then began yet again but five minutes later - BOOM!  There was a gas explosion and my firend and his nephew, both in the kitchen, were blown away and burnt around their legs.  They were obviously in distress and shocked, needing medical attention for their burns. 

I proceeded to clean up the kitchen while they attended to themselves.  I advised that they should get the gas man back.  So the gas man was rung but he did not show and did not answer his phone again after receiving the first call about the explosion.  We waited no longer and went off to the hospital.  My take was that the man had been careless in his work and the result was an explosion.

My voiced campaign with my friend became one of seeing that the gas man righted his mistake and take some responsibility for what happened.  My advice came with my offer of buying an electric hot plate so that they would never have to use gas or that careless man again.  I could sense that my advice and offer were being ignored.  For me, it was about righting a wrong and fixing a situation.  So I was not sure what my friend was thinking.   

I am back at my friend's the next night to see how he and the nephew are.  They are sore and sorry, with minor burns and pain but okay. On sensing where my friend stood on approaching this situation, namely not in the way I would choose, I figured that my chosen approach that night would be to sit back, watch and listen.  Keep my mouth shut for a change was my decision.  After all, it is his home and he has to live there, not me.  So I just observed and saw what happened.

The gas man is rung again.  He came and fixed the problem and was to be paid for the repair.  The guy offered no compensation, no free work nor any expression of his responsibility in this whole affair.  My take remained that he did not install the cylinder properly or it was a faulty cylinder that he installed.  Either way he shared the blame and should be responsible for righting a wrong caused by his work.  This was not the take of my friend, a Thai and Buddhist.  His summation was that his buddha - me - was there to look after him and that the gas man was not to be held accountable in any way.  His approach was to get the man in to fix the problem, pay him and continue using him and gas as if nothing ever happened. 

I quietly took it all in and realised that I had here a key learning that gave me a keen insight into Thais.  Simply put, I was about righting a perceived wrong, based on my innate, western sense of justice.  My friend did not share this same western sense of justice but saw what happened as fate and so just kept going in the same direction, expecting nothing from the gas man.  This resulted in nothing changing. 

The big difference in facing this situation between the two of us was that I looked for a just result which meant challenging the person responsible and looking for change that would assure this not happen again.  My friend rather saw how his buddha looked after him, acted to get the gas cylinder fixed so that he could keep cooking with it and then planned to go back home to make merit at their temple. 

I am not saying that one way is wrong and the other right nor that one way is better than the other.  I am simply noting the difference in approaches between an eastern Buddhist and a western Christian.  This for me has been a huge learning experience.  It shows me how we each have our own ways and how I need to stand back and respect the way of another, not trying to fix their situation but letting them act in their way on it.  One reason is that my acting independently on what I hold to be right just would not work as my Thai friend would just ignore whatever I have to offer, no matter how much sense it makes to me.   

My insight on this occasion may be deep.  I am seeing that justice is a western notion that leads to action and change.  The eastern Buddhist way does not apply the western notion of justice which leads to a lack of action for change and things just keep going the same way, no matter how dysfunctional.  Nothing changes.  I must say that I could be wrong and I do not want to appear as being a superior westerner but I have had this insight which excites me and feel the need to record and share.  So I do. 

Basically, as I reflect on this happening, the obvious way for one is not so for another.  I do wonder why my offer of a hot plate was not accepted as it seemed a reasonable and safe option.  Still the donkey looked the easy option on the day but it wasn't. 

Call of the Desert

Present day Jerusalem is a modern city in the middle of the desert.  The terraine is rough and hilly.  It is all rock and dirt, a barren land but one that has its own appeal and attractiveness. 

Going into the desert to visit monasteries and holy sites, I found myself just wanting to experience the place.  I just wanted to be.  Being there, I could feel a sense of awe, of mystery.  It gave me an incredible sense of being drawn.  I could sense why people came here to pursue holiness.  It was a place like this that Jesus went away to pray. 

In the history of Christianity, there is the tradition of desert spirituality.  In the early Church, there were the Desert Fathers and Mothers, ones who made their home in the desert to pray and find the Lord.  They became recognised as wise people who were sought after by many for their counsel and wisdom.  Having my brief experience there in the Holy Land, I can understand and appreciate better this movement in the Church history and its value. 

The desert, a place of emptiness and yet a place of so much; a harsh place but a place with its own beauty.  The desert, the one place, highlights absence but also offers a sense of presence.  It is both a godless place but a place where God is found.  It is a place of extremes - absence and presence; emptiness and abundance; temptation and holiness.  To this day, there are people living in the same desert, seeking their way to holiness. 

O Jerusalem!

I have been away for two weeks.  Guess where I have been? 

O Jerusalem! 

What can one say?  It has so much history with its own beauty and attraction. What a city!  Yet it lies in the middle of a desert.  After being there and seeing the harsh conditions of the countryside, I wonder why they chose to build a city in the middle of nowhere.  It must have been divinely inspired, especially after it has survived the tumultuous history it has endured.

My first impressions as I explored and tried to picture the place in Jesus' time were that it was quite a small place where everywhere was close to everywhere else and where only a small population would have lived.  It struck me then that everybody would have known everybody else and so it would have been hard to get away with anything.  Nothing or no one could lie hidden, I would say. 

Then along comes the stranger, Jesus, from Galilee up in the fertile north and locals would question:
Who is he?
Who is he to tell us what to do?
Whom does he think he is coming here and acting as if he is our leader?
I could see why Jesus, or any character like him, would come under the radar of the Jerusalem population and leadership and receive unwanted attention. 

Jerusalem is a place that has a sesne of being superior.  Once again, when you see where it is, you wonder why.  Its value lies beyond what you see.  It is about much more - history, religion, politics, culture.  It is so rich in many ways. 

Jerusalem today is nothing like it was in Jesus' time but it does lie on the same spot as it did in ancient times.  Jesus' Jerusalem is but one small part of modern Jerusalem, a city with up to one million inhabitants.   Still you can get some sort of picture of what it may have been like.   It naturally gives you an overwhelmimg sense of something or someone other. 

Definitely, O Jerusalem!