on a recent trip to a town nearby shanghai, i took a detour and stopped at a temple. i have always enjoyed the atmosphere of temples, the simplicity of the lay-outs, the gardens and the large sculptures of the gods. people meander around, kids play, adults get on their knees and bow their heads before painted gods. they are also normally peaceful places, where you can go and seemingly ask for anything you like. your wishes perhaps granted but the thoughts allow you to clear your mind of what is going on. donate some money, light some candles and move along. perhaps they will be answered.
at this recent trip my friend and i both lit candles and as i was walking out of the main hall my friend hollered to me that something strange had happened, he then pointed to my candle that had blown out. i saw it and then asked him to help me relight it since he was closer to the area. it did not bother me at all and i took it for no other sign then perhaps the candles were old or that a breeze had come through. i have never been that superstitious, and also know that the gods are all around us and that the sculptures we had just bowed our head to our just that, a representation of something to be humble too, it is a metaphor for how we should treat others, our families and our elders. our society and ourselves.

as the trip continued, we were bestowed with the luck of coming across a series of buildings that i am going to try to purchase. underpriced, and superbly located in an area i had been searching for, i thought again of the candle going out, and the luck bestowed on me to find such an opportunity. when i had found my house in shanghai, i had done a similar ritual.  i had gone to a temple and whispered to a deity on what i was in search of. then it was found. i think it was more about believing in the idea that the process will work out that made it work out rather then some prophetic meaning or outcome that came from above. i think the gods have more important matters then helping me find more property to acquire. but i think we convince ourselves of these beliefs, luck and karma. we make connections in our pursuit for meaning in the whole thing. we want signs, divine intervention and a more meaningful story then what is on the surface. it makes for a better story, to ourselves and too others.

we finally ended our journey at a factory that specialises in making buddha statues. countless statues in various states of completion occupied a few factories at the end of an ordinary street near the lake we had visited. the skills of the workers were impressive as they layered wood together and chiselled various gods from noting, but it was the unusual unpolished statues that fascinated me. here were the statues that i had been praying too just earlier in the day but not yet completed and put into the parks. it reminded me of the phrase that in order to truly know buddha, to truly understand the way and the purpose of it all, you must in a way destroy it. you have to understand the game in it all, but not forget the beauty and importance of that game.