Ancient Temples of Seam Reap, Cambodia

Moving into the Light 

Inside the Ta Prohm temple, I found a hallway like this. It was a bit dark but with some side light  provided in the early morning hour, the hallway offered an invitation to walk into the light at its far end.  As I walked, I thought of its history & wondered about some of the memories embedded in its walls. I also felt pulled into the light as though I was walking into the infinite itself.

I felt the experience of being exactly where I was, in that moment…both in the shadows and yet with the promise of light at the end of its tunnel like walk way. I heard my mind saying, ‘This too; this too; all of it – the dark & the light…just keep going.’

Feeling the body walking. Feeling the heart, just as it is. Feeling awareness itself. Nothing added. Nothing taken away. Just living this moment & walking into the light.

Humanity on Sacred Ground

When walking in the jungle surrounding Angkor Thom in Cambodia, I came across this image on the path: the face of the Buddha. A face filled with both stillness & aliveness that became an extension of nature itself.

The face was reminding me that the Buddha wasn’t just a historical person, but remains here & now  through his teachings in offering the potential to be awake, alive, and embodied with  a loving presence that holds compassion & wisdom. 

We stand on sacred ground when we can find peace with ourselves and others, wherever we are. Peace can only be found in this moment, again & again. 

My practice becomes paying attention to living as fully as I can, in as many moments as I am able, again & again. 

My walk in the jungles surrounding Angkor Thom becomes an opportunity and reminder to keep curiously knowing with a direct & felt experience, what’s here, right now, in this moment.

 

Hold No Fear: Angkor Wat

This was one of the first images that I photographed inside the 900 year-old ancient temple of Angkor Wat. The Buddha standing just inside the doorway, larger than life, in his shimmering gold robe seemed to be saying: 

Pause & feel the stillness of this Sacred Space.
 
Allow yourself to deeply experience the refuge of what’s here.
 
See what it’s like to truly open to the stillness & flow of this moment & the next moment…this open & fluctuating field of loving awareness.
 
Enter into the temple of your own spacious heart.
  
Hold No Fear.

 

Temple & Tree Become One

This temple, Ta Prohm is also known as the Jungle Temple. It is a 800 year-old Hindi temple & was built without mortar, so after it was abandoned, trees took root in the loosened stones.

In the Khmer language, "Ta" means ancestor or elder, and "Prohm" comes from the Hindu creator god Brahma. Together, the name means "Ancestor Brahma." Brahma is thought of as being the Creator and destroyer of the universe.

In my meditation practice, I often begin with asking myself, ‘What is here now?’…not what should be here; not what I want to be here…but can I meet what’s here as it is? 

The practice is not about creating a better moment, but awakening to the moment that is already here…and here…and here.

When I can be present for this breath, for this moment, for this experience in time & place, for whatever is here now with a receptivity to go beyond my thoughts about it and to open to really feeling & experiencing it, I become an extension of the temple and tree becoming one.

 

Temple Grounds at Angkor Thom

I took this photograph in the early morning light in and around the Ta Prohm Temple, feeling transported in time & space to a magical realm of crimson light. 

This area is registered in the World Heritage List given the degree that the temple has merged with the jungle growing in & out of its  many walls. 

In arriving in this ancient place at the start of day, I become aware of what is present in me…not only the history of the place, nor what I hope to find…but the felt experience of its spaces & light, inviting me into my own merger with body, mind, & heart.

 

Boundless Compassion

This image caught my eye inside Angkor Wat, the largest religious complex in the world, located in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and almost 900 years old.

I saw it as an expression of Boundless Compassion, a response to a deep knowing of suffering—a being able to feel, be honest about, and support awareness of our own pain, and from that, another’s pain. Essentially, compassion is a willingness to feel what’s difficult to feel without clinging to something else, and meeting it with care and tenderness.

Compassion begins with how we talk to ourselves.

Imagine in a difficult or stressful moment, being able to say to ourselves:

– This is a moment of suffering
– Suffering is a part of life.
– May I be kind to myself in this moment
and give myself the compassion I need.

As we are able to do this with ourselves, like the many arms depicted in this photograph, it extends to a growing capacity to meet pain in others…not because we can “fix” the pain, but can attend to the pain with courage, care, and kindness.

When love meets pain, it becomes compassion.