On the path to enlightenment

Legally and officially, my religion is Buddhism. Unofficially, it may be Christianity. Protestant to be exact. The reality, though, is that I am a God-less child. Based on my (shallow) grasp of the main religions in Malaysia, Buddhism is probably the closest that I could relate to and see myself joining if the need ever arises.

I like how Buddhism preaches about the simple life but I also happen to know personally of temples asking for donations to build huge temples with large idols. That makes me rather conflicted. One day, it would make sense to sit down and properly understand their teachings. For now, my God would most likely be 💰

Two years ago, while on my do-something journey, it included joining in the Wesak festivity. I've never been a hardcore Buddhist or temple worshiper but I had time to burn and curiosity to satisfy. This temple is located within one of the PJ residential area. Traffic heading there was quite bad that I had to park quite a distance away.

So, it was my virgin Wesak trip. Apart from the usual prayers, there were also stalls selling food, drinks and snack. That was surprising as it felt like a religious event but the air is almost carnival-like.

Turned out that the temple also provides free vegetarian food. They had me at the free part.

The event was held at the hall which you had to queue to enter as they would need to clear the tables first. The dishes are all basic vegetarian food. Probably prepared by the temple staff and volunteers.
There were curry vegetable, braised vegetable, braised mushroom, soup and of course, rice.

I'm not going to say that it's super duper awesome because that'll be lying but it did have a nice homely touch to it. Simple flavors to keep simpletons happy and satisfied. I did donate some money on the way out but it may have been insufficient because I ended up with stomach ache not long after =|

jl invited me over to her place for dinner that night.The perks of having birds of the same feather.

It was a vegetarian dinners, thanks to her volunteering stint at another temple.
Again, the same drill though this one had more choices. Even mock meat.

I could be wrong here but my observation tells me that the Buddhist teaching preaches about not chasing after material gain or any gain at all. By letting go of the things you want, then you can attain peace. Would that be right? Oh well, sometimes I find that the desire to have more, be something makes me more unhappy that I want to abandon it all.

First thing would be to eat everything and not bother how fat I become :D