Beautiful Sunday: visiting the old temple to ask for blessings.

about 1 year ago

During the first two months of the new year, temples and shrines would be packed with people who went there to perform their ceremonies and request for new year blessings. I wouldn’t try to visit famous Chinese shrines during this period as the crowds could be quite overwhelming. So, I went to one of my favourite old temple called Wat Boworn in the old part of Bangkok; about fifteen minutes’ walk to the Grand Palace. I could easily find parking in the old temple.

I was pleasantly surprised that there weren’t many people at Wat Boworn. Though there was a flowing stream of visitors throughout the afternoon, the atmosphere was very comfortable and peaceful. I took a shortcut from the car park which passed by a secluded area of monks’ lodgings and some small gardens with tall trees. Then the path opened onto the courtyard at the back of the temple. I liked to walk from the south side as I could observe the old temple halls, pagoda and old Chinese stone statues along the way.

It’s so nice to see same old faces of these old statues which made me feeling I just met some old friends. So, I never felt like a stranger or visitor in this temple. This would always be the place where I came to see old friendly statues and get connected with sacred energy inside the temple from over two hundred years ago. Many people could also feel the holy vibes inside the temple hall; Sind people would sit quietly at the back of the hall praying or meditating for hours.

There seemed to be some past life connection between me and this temple as I kept coming back every time I needed some spiritual support and healing. I remembered dreaming about this temple in the old days without knowing it’s Wat Boworn over a hundred years ago. I saw myself walking around the old temple with a canal and many tall trees. I only realised that the temple in my dream was this temple when I did my research about its history. There used to be a small canal surrounded by tall trees passing between two small temples. The two temples were merged together into a new bigger temple and the canal was filled up.

People who wanted to visit this temple had to walk from the bigger canal thirty meters away. In the old days (before the days of automobile and trains), most people traveled by boats so canals were the lifeblood of Siam. One day I wondered around and found the bigger canal where visitors to the temple would disembark from their boats. The small pier had been replaced by concrete flood barrier. The local resident along the canal told me about the old place while I was having my ice cream and enjoying myself by the quiet canal.

He told me that the spot I was sitting on used to be the pier when he was a kid running along this canal. There was a big slap of stone where King Rama V used to disembark from his boat. The beloved King used to come to Wat Boworn quite regularly. I then retraced his steps along the old houses to the temple, imagining the old atmosphere of narrow path with lots of trees leading towards the temple’s gate.

There were less houses and more wooded areas in Bangkok over one hundred years ago. I read some old stories that people were attacked by some black bears outside Bangkok. The famous old jungle was only two hours drive from Bangkok with lots of wild animals such as bears and tigers. It’s sad to know that things changed so fast and drastically; that’s the impact of colonisation in South East Asia. The hunters did ship off lots of log woods and minerals from several countries.

The King must have needed some quiet time to ponder over the looming pressure of western colonisation. There used to be very holy old monks at this temple who could lend the distressed king some spiritual guidance and support. I could have been one of the entourage in the past as I found myself being reconnected to several historical spots connecting to this reign by chance over the years. Most of my old friends were descendants from this royal household by coincidence too. That’s probably why I was drawn to this temple since I came back to my motherland after several years overseas.

So, walking inside Wat Boworn was like walking back to the past dimension mentally. But I could no longer see the old physical state of this temple. The new buildings and structures obstructed my vision of the past. I could feel disoriented at times, like a stranger waking in a familiar place but with modern surroundings. I had to switch back to the present moment and disregard my weird feelings. All I could do was to make the best of my present lifetime and let go of the urge to know about the past.

Usually I could tell whether I had been to a place in my past life before; in some instances I could tell my friends where certain rooms were located in the big house or mansion including the collected items inside the cabinets, and even a trap door! The guide had a shock when I showed him how to open and close the trap door in a historical building outside Bangkok. My friend couldn’t believe what I did automatically to that trap door. The more I knew about the past, the more confused I became and I was overcome with sadness once I started doing my research into past history. So, I had to let go and stopped wanting to know or find out more about my past life connections.

Perhaps some old spirits from the past used to know me and they were still guarding the old places. They could recognize me even though I was reincarnated into someone quite different but they tried to send me messages. As I couldn’t quite get their messages very clearly, I often felt some strange vibes in the air. We couldn’t communicate between different dimensions; the frequencies just wouldn’t sync. So, I tried to be quietly contemplative and praying for compassionate energy for all sentient beings. I had once or twice been successful in communicating across different dimensions by chance with heavy repercussions. Sometimes the burden of living in two dimensions could be too much to handle and karmic consequences could be unpredictable.

So, I just visited Wat Boworn whenever I needed to calm my restless soul and get some healing vibes. The timeless stillness of the temple hall was just impossible to describe. People would just naturally become very quiet and very polite inside the hall. Their subconscious could feel some strange compassionate vibes in the atmosphere. I have seen some tourists got quite affected and decided to sit quietly at the back of the hall. I was always eager to observe the facial expressions of the Buddha statues. They sometimes smiled beautifully as if as an approval to my good behaviour and spiritual progress. Sometimes I couldn’t understand their ‘expressions’. I wasn’t psychic enough to get all the messages correctly and clearly.

I would quietly pay my respect and do some prayer. At times I would ask for help as I was so distressed by too many negative vibes. After sitting quietly there for a while, things would clear up and my mind would be light and free to be joyful once again. In this time of uncertainty and drastic changes, spiritual guidance and healing vibes would become very precious to my survival. Luckily, I have found my oasis of holy vibes and nourishing energies. The body language and manners of several people in the temple told me that we were all in the same boat. I was so glad to see many people still having that connection to holy vibes and spiritual ways of life.

I did have a nice walk and photography session inside Wat Boworn. The old gate keeper and his sister who used to sell jasmine garlands were gone; perhaps because of old age and plandemic lockdown. We became friends by chance so I was treated specially by the old staff whenever I need some favour. Time moves unceasingly and so changes become certainty. I’d better make haste and be prepared for what’s coming. I continue to pray and become more meditative so that my vibes wouldn’t aggravate the already confusing jangles of frequencies in the ether.