Friends and members visited Vietnamese Chau Nam-Quang Buddhist temple. This temple complex has been in the works since 1996, and the community has built a symbolic garden around Buddha’s Birth, Enlightenment, Teaching and Death. The extensive grounds have four comfy meditation gazebos, a mausoleum, a library, a practice hall, a lunch hall, and many other buildings. What you see in these photos are a few of the people who attended the tour, standing in front of the statue group representing the birth of the Buddha. Elsewhere on the grounds, the community is using huge logs, cut into disks, as pathways between gardens in a side yard about two acres in size. Buddhist community host Master Kevin took us into the library and gifted many of us with books his Master had written explaining the sutras, in both Vietnamese and English. In English, Master Kevin informed us that one of the most important lessons the Buddha imparted was to NOT believe anything he said until we did the practice he (the Buddha) recommended, and proved for ourselves that he was right. That is So Much like the Rosicrucian teachings that say, read the monographs, do the exercises and meditations, but do NOT believe anything we teach until you prove it for your self.

The man wearing the yellow and green top is being reverent in the courtyard that has statue deities rejoicing at Buddha’s enlightenment. Behind him is another member who is contemplating something different. The woman with long thin braids is looking over at the statue of Kwan Yin, who represents compassion, healing and the essence of female energy. The man in the meeting hall with red carpeting is examining the decorations on the huge bell that a person may ring, after composing a prayer in their mind as to what negativity they want removed from their life. The sound of the bell, whose name is “Meditation”, is supposed to fragment and break up the negativity for you. This hall also has huge drums that will be beaten in a ceremony in May to celebrate the Buddha’s birthday. Look on the Temple website: https://namquangtemple.org and for most of their events, the public is welcome. The man and woman posing for photos in the entry for the meditation hall. This Temple is the location of next month’s Sound Healing Workshop, for member’s only. (For more information on that, see https://sites.google.com/amorc.rosicrucian.org/rosicruciansinoregon/ and look for events on May 3rd and 4th.) The last photo is of the sculpture representing the Death of the Buddha. I took this close-up first, because there is a stripe of darker marble under the Buddha’s chin that goes down the length of its clothed body and I wondered why the sculptors chose to leave in this Yin to the glittering white marble Yang. Also, there was a very small flower, blown from a nearby tree, in the palm of the Buddha sculpture’s hand.