Peace in every step

Peaceful Ayutthaya. Photo: Hong My

For me, Thailand is a place of tranquility and peace. From Bangkok to Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin… I leisurely visited countless Buddhist holy sites in this country. And I felt absolutely no desire to beg or pray; I simply found serenity strolling amidst the compassionate beauty of the statues…

A long, long time ago, I once found myself in Ayutthaya! I was very young then. I saw a huge Bodhi tree with its enormous roots embracing the head of a Buddha.

I no longer remember my feelings at that time: astonishment at nature and history, joy at a discovery that I thought no one else but I had made—this strange thing! And peace because the Buddha's face seemed to hold a faint smile…

I admire how time has preserved such beautiful things. While the long rows of Buddha statues around the temple have all lost their heads, perhaps taken away by antique dealers to new lands…

Where did the statue heads go? And where are they now?

I imagine Buddha heads lying silently in luxurious apartments, surrounded by glass doors and air conditioning, listening to jazz or all sorts of other music every day. Perhaps in Hong Kong, New York, Manhattan, Paris…

One might find, somewhere in the shop filled with masterpieces of human ingenuity and time, covered in a silvery dust despite being constantly cleaned, permeated with the scent of incense burning in ceramic vases.

The headless Buddha statues remain peacefully in their millennia-old meditative slumber. Some Buddha statues bear new heads that attempts to replicate, but none fit properly.

But all the vicissitudes of human life seem to have no effect on the greed and envy of the souls deep within these ancient statues. Their smiles subtly mock every nuance of human greed.

Ultimately, peace doesn't come from external circumstances. Peace radiates from within you… It may take many years and many events before you realize this, or you may never realize it at all.

Many years have passed since I left Thailand to return home. I have almost completely erased all traces of my old life, short but full of upheaval, adventure, and regret…

But I still know that somewhere, a bell I hung atop a tower in the heart of Bangkok still rings softly, for forgiveness, for cleansing, for peace.

I also know that in Ayutthaya, the statue's head still lies nestled within the roots of a century-old Bodhi tree, still bearing that same smile, that same melancholic air.

I renewed my passport a few years ago.

For the past few years, I have been traveling back and forth to other regions rich in Buddhist traditions…

But for many years, I haven't felt that same sense of peace and serenity as the day I first set foot in Ayutthaya, like when I stood before that Bodhi tree. Only during that period of my life did I feel protected and sheltered, and that was the sweetest feeling of peace.

If peace and good fortune were like a savings account and I'd only used a small portion of it, then right now, I'd want to use a large part of it. In the years to come, I'd use the rest sparingly…

That's a weird idea, but it made me laugh.

Laughter makes you feel much lighter...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/binh-an-trong-moi-buoc-chan-3140548.html