Hoa Nghiem pagoda_Brussels
Well, if any of you is interested in Buddhism, there are two pagodas in Brussels, but this Hoa Nghiem pagoda is very nice, I have to say.
The pagoda is situated in Port d'Andaerlect, not in a very nice quartier of Brussels, but don't be disappointed because of its geographical orientation. Besides, the worse the place is, the more it needs to purify...(I am not saying that part of Brussels is poor but because the record of violences or attacks that happened there, it is quite dark, not lot of street lights, so easy for victims to be attacked). It was the first time I went to the pagoda here in Brussels, the entrance was like any other houses here in Brussels, you will find in the first room, a small glass closet where they put different buddha statues (which probably were brought from Vietnam) to sell there. For the info, when you would like to have buddha to wordship at home, you can't just buy one of those statue, bring him/her (yes, Kuan Yuen was a man Buddha in China, but for us, Kuan Yuen is a woman, and there are many female Buddha). On a note aside, the reason there are normally no female Buddha is because women were supposed to be the dirty piece of human race, (considering nowadays most men take 1 shower/week, smell and tend to forget to wipe their *ss, get skidmark), I think it's because women have periods every month, and it is considered to dirt the place of wordshipping-of course this is again a rule from our ancestors, don't think Buddha ever said that. If you know to Laos, some temples do not allow women to enter.
Also I think because Vietnam culture scores quite high on feminine (Feminity vs masculinity in culture), so I suppose we would like to have some softness in Buddhism, and also as mentioned in previous blog, Vietnamese Buddhism is an integration of three religions, so here you see the effect of Taos (the balance of Yin and Yang) ;-)...Well, there must be reason for everything, no?BTW, do you know in cooking, Yin is white meats such as poultry, duck/lamb are neutre but beef is very Yang...etc.
To come back to what I would like to say earlier, it is not enough to buy a statue of Buddha, and wordship with incenses. It depends on which Buddha, like the Earth Buddha, you have to put him on the floor instead of the highest part of the house as oppose to Kuan Yuen or others, because he is from the Earth, and he usually is "your home Buddha" who supervises your way of living or your way of treating people, to protect you..etc. Also, talking about the place where to put your statue of Buddha, we will have to see how feng shui is important in building a house in Asia (or at least in South East Asia)..kitchen should not be in front of bathroom and WC (if I begin to explain on this, I will never be able to finish this blog) or your bedroom should not have anything with glass, or your house shouldn't be built on West because you are fire elements (not sure about this). In short, your Buddha should be kept in the pagoda for some time to call the Buddha's spirit (I guess) because when you buy the statue, it is a simple piece of earth or whatever it is made from. The rest is the same as for God, have to be wordship in purify place...etc
After you pass through this first room, you can either access to the kitchen or the main wordship palace upstairs. Btw, the vegetarian food is excellent, I tried, and much better than what you can buy from shops, especially different sort of rice cakes that are covered with banana leaves mmmmmmm. So, me and others went upstairs to wordship, then we went downstairs to have a small soup made with noodles, chinese mushroom, and tofu, rice cakes, spring rolls..Then, around 22.30, we went upstairs again, it's time to pray or sing with the monks ans nuns. I couldn't stop giggling because of the wording in the bible ;-), for me it is like a booklet with very long phrases that have no meaning...very funny, nobody can actually understand what these phrases say. There are different versions and types of bibles, but I have never prayed with this one before (not that I have been praying or singing from a bible often, but I did sometimes before when I was still in VN). Inside the wordship palace, I could see lots of familiar Buddhas, very serious, although it was a bit weird that they played Chinese songs instead of the bell and bass drums...only that I felt a bit disappointed. At the end, we received lucky money and a fruit that is supposed to bring happiness (from Buddhas) from the nuns.
We had firecrackers, and then lion and dragon dances to fight evil spirits, to begin a new year with prosperity, a good start for the 2005.
I wish you all happiness and joy!!
The pagoda is situated in Port d'Andaerlect, not in a very nice quartier of Brussels, but don't be disappointed because of its geographical orientation. Besides, the worse the place is, the more it needs to purify...(I am not saying that part of Brussels is poor but because the record of violences or attacks that happened there, it is quite dark, not lot of street lights, so easy for victims to be attacked). It was the first time I went to the pagoda here in Brussels, the entrance was like any other houses here in Brussels, you will find in the first room, a small glass closet where they put different buddha statues (which probably were brought from Vietnam) to sell there. For the info, when you would like to have buddha to wordship at home, you can't just buy one of those statue, bring him/her (yes, Kuan Yuen was a man Buddha in China, but for us, Kuan Yuen is a woman, and there are many female Buddha). On a note aside, the reason there are normally no female Buddha is because women were supposed to be the dirty piece of human race, (considering nowadays most men take 1 shower/week, smell and tend to forget to wipe their *ss, get skidmark), I think it's because women have periods every month, and it is considered to dirt the place of wordshipping-of course this is again a rule from our ancestors, don't think Buddha ever said that. If you know to Laos, some temples do not allow women to enter.
Also I think because Vietnam culture scores quite high on feminine (Feminity vs masculinity in culture), so I suppose we would like to have some softness in Buddhism, and also as mentioned in previous blog, Vietnamese Buddhism is an integration of three religions, so here you see the effect of Taos (the balance of Yin and Yang) ;-)...Well, there must be reason for everything, no?BTW, do you know in cooking, Yin is white meats such as poultry, duck/lamb are neutre but beef is very Yang...etc.
To come back to what I would like to say earlier, it is not enough to buy a statue of Buddha, and wordship with incenses. It depends on which Buddha, like the Earth Buddha, you have to put him on the floor instead of the highest part of the house as oppose to Kuan Yuen or others, because he is from the Earth, and he usually is "your home Buddha" who supervises your way of living or your way of treating people, to protect you..etc. Also, talking about the place where to put your statue of Buddha, we will have to see how feng shui is important in building a house in Asia (or at least in South East Asia)..kitchen should not be in front of bathroom and WC (if I begin to explain on this, I will never be able to finish this blog) or your bedroom should not have anything with glass, or your house shouldn't be built on West because you are fire elements (not sure about this). In short, your Buddha should be kept in the pagoda for some time to call the Buddha's spirit (I guess) because when you buy the statue, it is a simple piece of earth or whatever it is made from. The rest is the same as for God, have to be wordship in purify place...etc
After you pass through this first room, you can either access to the kitchen or the main wordship palace upstairs. Btw, the vegetarian food is excellent, I tried, and much better than what you can buy from shops, especially different sort of rice cakes that are covered with banana leaves mmmmmmm. So, me and others went upstairs to wordship, then we went downstairs to have a small soup made with noodles, chinese mushroom, and tofu, rice cakes, spring rolls..Then, around 22.30, we went upstairs again, it's time to pray or sing with the monks ans nuns. I couldn't stop giggling because of the wording in the bible ;-), for me it is like a booklet with very long phrases that have no meaning...very funny, nobody can actually understand what these phrases say. There are different versions and types of bibles, but I have never prayed with this one before (not that I have been praying or singing from a bible often, but I did sometimes before when I was still in VN). Inside the wordship palace, I could see lots of familiar Buddhas, very serious, although it was a bit weird that they played Chinese songs instead of the bell and bass drums...only that I felt a bit disappointed. At the end, we received lucky money and a fruit that is supposed to bring happiness (from Buddhas) from the nuns.
We had firecrackers, and then lion and dragon dances to fight evil spirits, to begin a new year with prosperity, a good start for the 2005.
I wish you all happiness and joy!!
posted by Vagabonder @ 10:03 AM
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