The five Buddhas

“The five Buddha’s of Confidence, Longevity, Wisdom, Inner Beauty and Peace grace the shrine with 10,000 smaller Buddha’s, showing that everyone can achieve Buddhahood.

Li-Bu-Wei Buddha

Amitabha Buddha

Tuo-Pao Buddha

Miao-Se-Shen Buddha

Gan-Lu-Wang Buddha
This Buddha’s symbolic direction is east. He signifies confidence and fearlessness. The hands are in a mudra of appeasement or consolation. With the daily occurrence of violence and natural disaster around the world, many people find it difficult to face the future. The tranquility gained from following the Buddha’s way better enables one to remain calm; like a mountain unmoved by ravaging elements, one can approach each day without fear.
This Buddha’s symbolic direction is west and his hands are in a mudra of concentration. He signifies infinite light and boundless life. Amitabha Buddha presides over the Western Pure Land. Praying to Amitabha Buddha improves one’s constitution and increases longevity. With sincere and continued practice of Buddhist principles, upon death one will go to the blissful Western Pure Land to spend each day learning and living the Dharma.

This Buddha symbolizes the central direction and represents wealth. The hands are in a mudra of the ceremony of unction. Humans’ craving for material wants is often a futile exercise. At best, the joy derived from materialism is short lived. Developing wisdom through following the Buddha’s teachings, however, can attain true wealth and fulfillment.

This Buddha’s symbolic direction is south. His hands are in a mudra of touching the ground, which symbolizes Sakyamuni Buddha’s resolve to overcome the temptations of Mara and thereby gain supreme enlightenment. He represents beautiful things, and is physically beautiful. The practice of Buddhism cultivates inner beauty and sincerity. This in turn results in a more relaxed and pleasing outward form.

This Buddha’s symbolic position is north. He signifies calmness and purity. His hands are in a mudra of casting out fear. Life’s problems can overtake the mind. In the interest of survival, one must seek escape. Unfortunately, running away offers only temporary respite and is not a true solution to life. The teachings of the Buddha can purify and calm the mind so that former problems no longer seem so wildly out of control.

http://www.nantien.org.au:88/en/facility/main-shrine

Main Shrine is the most important building and also called the Great Hero Hall. When we see the steps before the shrine, it reminds us of our aim to gain enlightenment. One cannot be given enlightenment, we have to gain it ourselves. It might take many many lifetimes and we have to take each step at a time steadily, it will be a long way but we ought to make those steps ourselves.”

I copied the above from the Website of the nantien.org.

Below is the picture post card of the five Buddhas which I already published previously.

Towards the End of May

This is near the entrance of the Great Hall where the five Buddhas are.

I bought a card with the five Buddhas on it. So this is just a copy of the card. At the back of the card it says:

“Nan Tien Temple is the largest Buddhist Temple in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also known as ‘Southern Paradise’. The Temple has evolved into a harmonious place where the East and West meet and merge. . . . .”

Nan Tien Temple, Berkeley Road, Berkeley, NSW, 2506, Australia, http://www.nantien.org.au

We’ve seen David yesterday. The place where he’s staying is called Nursing Home now. I think previously it was called Age Care Facility. David is still in te same room where we’ve seen him before. He was asleep when we arrived. The first thing he said when he woke up was: ‘I have a Mother’s Day Gift for Mama.’

I was thrilled that he had thought of me. And he had waited since Mothers’ Day for our arrival so he could hand me his gift! He wrote out a Mothers’ Day card for me as well! Well, Mother’s Day had been more than two weeks ago. His birthday was on the 8th of May. On the same day it is also his sister Kathy’s birthday. Kathy is ten years younger than David. His brother Anthony has been appointed David’s guardian. Anthony told him that Kathy was going to visit him soon. She lives a bit further away from Sydney now. David is very much looking forward to his sister’s visit, I think. His friend Steve had also seen him a couple of times already. And of course Anthony would see him on a regular basis.

We were able to sit with David outside in a sunny courtyard. A nursing help ask him whether he’d like to have his lunch outside. David did like it that lunch was brought there. The friendly help wanted to tie a large bib around his neck. But he indicated that he didn’t need it. David ended up not eating very much.

Today we started trimming some of the trees. After about one hour we thought that we had done enough gardening for the day. Tomorrow we are going to do a bit more gardening.

Diary, Autumn 2013

This picture was taken on Sunday, 26th May. We took lots of pictures walking around the grounds of the Nan Tien Temple. The view across to the escarpment was excellent on this crisp, sunny autumn day.

Off and on we heard the sound of a bell. And then we saw this sign pointing to a walkway up the hill. Peter was straight away keen on going up there. He asked me: ‘Can you make it up there?’ I assured him I could. I didn’t regret it that I walked all the way up to the Gratitude Bell. It was a great experience to make the bell sound over the landscape. Heaps of younger people overtook us on the way up and sounded the bell before us. Others were on their way down already. Once we were up there we were soon the only ones left. We hadn’t noticed anyone walking up there a bit closer to our age. Everyone seemed to be a lot younger than we!

Today Peter announced we could go and see David tomorrow. I was so happy that we finally set a date for this visit, that’s been long overdue. Anyhow this leaves Wednesday/Thursday for us to do a bit of gardening. On Friday I’m going to have my friends coming over for our games afternoon. Last Saturday I managed to go to the pool for a bit. I wonder whether I’ll get a chance this week to do a bit of swimming. At the very least I want to fit in a bit of walking again, also the exercise class from 12 to one o’clock on Thursday.

About Me, Uta

“You’re so vain. You probably think Nan Tien Temple is about you.”

This is the message I just received from wordpress. And they are right, aren’t they? I am so vain that I think Nan Tien Temple is about me! It certainly is. Did you notice the little photo where I am just about to push this thing to make the Gratitude Bell go off? Well, this is about me!

As I did make the bell sound across the landscape I was thinking of my parents and all my ancestors. What a marvellous journey I’ve had to come to this bell on such a beautiful Day as we experienced yesterday.

A beautiful Day

It was great to see Baby Lucas on Mothers Day!

We saw ten family members, including Baby Lucas, for lunch on Mothers Day. Baby Lucas got all the attention. He is a little darling. Everyone loves him so much. He was surrounded by three aunties, one great-aunt, one uncle, one grandma, one great-grandma (that’s me!), one great grandpa, and of course his proud parents.

We went to our favourite Thai/Chinese Restaurant. The place was packed full for Mothers Day. However daughter Monika had booked a large table for us ahead of time. All of us were very comfortably sitting around a large round table. For Lucas a Baby chair was provided. He sat in his chair only to have a drink and a banana. I was surprised how well he was able to eat the banana out of his hand!

We all had plenty to eat for lunch. I always love rice and vegetables with a spicy Thai sauce and Chinese tea. As entree we all had some spring-rolls. For afternoon coffee and cake the family came to our place. I liked all this very much. My daughters gave me some beautiful gifts for my skin and for smelling nice! My son rang me from Melbourne later on in the evening. For afternoon coffee one son-in-law did bring along his mother as well as the mother of his deceased wife. The conversation around the table was quite animated. The other son-in-law arrived a bit later from Sydney after he had seen his mother. Ebony, the mother of Lucas, went after lunch with Baby Lucas to see her mother and therefore did not come to our place for coffee.

Everyone loved the cheese-cake that Peter had baked for Mothers Day. It was great to see so many family members in the one day. I feel blessed that Mothers Day had been made so special for me. And I greatly enjoyed seeing daughter Monika surrounded by all her five children plus Lucas, her first and so far only grandchild.

Daughter Caroline stayed with Matthew overnight at our place. We are always very happy when they can make the time to stay overnight. Caroline spoiled us by cooking an excellent supper and breakfast in the morning. After breakfast Peter took them to the train-station. They apologized that they couldn’t stay a bit longer but they have a busy week ahead of them.

I greatly enjoyed the breakfast that Caroline cooked for us.

Diary Update

This picture was taken by me five weeks ago as we had just returned from buying the Saturday paper. Today is Saturday again which means paper buying day! I love it when both Peter and I can walk together to the Newsagent’s shop which is close by at little shopping center.

Last Wednesday we saw a French film with English subtitles. The film is called AMOUR. We had seen this film once before a few months ago. It was shown in Berlin with no subtitles but in German. As I remember it the synchronisation from French into German had been done very well which was a relief. Usually I prefer to see a film in the original just with subtitles. So now we had the chance to listen to it in French. Both Peter and I agreed that it was great to see the film a second time.

This French film shows a couple in Paris in their eighties. Both are retired music teachers. They have a daughter who is also a musician and travels a lot with her English husband. She comes to see her parents in Paris only occasionally. The mother has a severe stroke, is hospitalised. Some time later she’s supposed to go into a hospice. She needs constant care. She begs her husband to take her home to care for her there. And this is what he does! He takes on to care for his wife who is very disabled. The film shows how the husband who is very elderly himself, takes on the task to look after his wife. It gets more difficult for him as her health deteriorates more and more. Despite some outside help this poor man is at breaking point in the end. Out of love for his wife he perseveres. The daughter urges him to give the ailing mother into a hospice. But the father doesn’t give up. He says he promised his wife to look after her at home. This is a very slow moving wonderfully acted film. Both Peter and I liked it a lot.

The husband is played by JEAN-LOUIS TRINTIGNANT, the wife by EMMANUELLE RIVA, the daughter by ISABELLE HUPPERT.

So this was our Wednesday adventure. While we were watching the movie, our car did get a big service. Luckily apart from the service nothing else needed to be done to get the car re-registered. On Thursday, while I was at my exercise class, Peter fixed up insurance and registration for the car. Last Monday he had to fork out a lot of money for the dentist in Sydney. It was a very expensive week for Peter but he’s glad everything is behind him now. From now on we can relax and enjoy Mothers’ Day and Peter’s birthday.

On Monday, when Peter had his dental appointment, I went with Peter to Sydney to keep him company. Unfortunately we weren’t able to see David for his birthday as we had promised. I wrote him a card saying we’d see him as soon as possible.

Yesterday, Friday, we had a good time in the afternoon. We played Scrabble and Rummy at my place. Next week we are going to play at Irene’s place again. Peter had afternoon coffee with us. Marion who had an operation recently, is doing fine. Erika is overseas for the time being. So only three of us played instead of four. The ladies were very impressed that Peter had baked some apple turnovers for afternoon coffee. Isn’t he a dear! For Mothers’ Day he wants to bake a cheese cake.

P.S. Peter just pointed out to me that in English it’s called ‘dubbing’, when a new soundtrack is added to a film. In German it is called ‘synchronisation’. This film with French actors was actually a French/German co-production.
And there is something else I can add here: From 4 June – 20 July 2013 the SYDNEYTHEATRE.COM.AU is going to show a play called “THE MAIDS”. The housemaids are played by Cate Blanchett and French screen star ISABELLE HUPPERT. It says the housemaids fantasise about killing their mistress! You may recognise that ISABELLE HUPPERT is the actress who plays the daughter in the movie AMOUR.
Our daughter sees theater productions on a regular basis. Maybe we should ask her whether she would be interested in seeing ‘The Maids’ with us. Oh, what a bombshell!

DIARY

I think my poor husband has enough for a while of me always editing and uploading pictures for new blogs. I finally managed to put a stop to inserting pictures about our recent trips, the trips when we went about in this rental car. I am happy now that the task is finished even though it was great fun doing it. Writing about where we had been and what we had experienced is really good for refreshing memories. And to look at all the pictures really does help to remember more and more.

Yes, Peter for sure doesn’t like me to spend too much time with the computer. He always urges me to do something else. Ah well, I think we’ve been doing a few other things recently besides spending time with the computer. And for beginning of next week three more trips are planned: Two to Sydney and one to Warrawong. But more about this some other time.

Wishing now everyone a very good weekend!

A town called Hay

We had come from Gundagai along the Hume Highway. After a little while we turned into Sturt Highway where we went past Wagga Wagga. Then we reached Narrandera for our overnight stop. The next morning we were on our way along Sturt Highway towards the town of Hay. Before we left Narrandera we had to make sure that we ended on the right Highway, for we noticed all of a sudden that our motel had actually been on the Newell Highway and not on the Sturt Highway. There was a beutifully situated Information Centre on our way out where we found some toilets or should I say some facilities?

Arriving in the town of HAY — Arriving in the town of Hay.

This building in Hay is still being occupied by a bank as far a we could tell.

It was such a beautiful morning with a clear blue sky. We sat outside this shop were we were being served a nice cup of tea..

Above the shop counter it said: “Bringing the tastes of an outback experience to you.” So this was an outback experience. They also wanted us to enjoy

a long paddock experience whatever this is!

We thought this balustrade looked magnificent.

And here some displays in a shop window:

So it looks like that Hay is just a few years older than NARRANDERA!

Before we left Hay we had some gelato in a place that was crowded with seniors. It looks like a lot of retirees live in Hay. They told us more and more come because properties are still very affordable if you compare it with what you have to fork out for a place in a coastal town. They have just opened a hospital in Hay that is especially geared towards the needs of elderly people. But if you need an operation you have to be transferred to another town. This hospital in Hay doesn’t cater for operations.

NARRANDERA

We were in Narrandera on the 10th of April. So we missed out on the big celebrations. However it was quite interesting to have a look at this 150 year old outback New South Wales town where we stayed overnight in a motel.

This bakery opened at 7 in the morning. We had a lovely breakfast there.

These stood for sale in front the Chemist Shop.

This is the motel where we stayed for one night.

I guess the motel has been named after this monstrous tree.

Now, these roots tell you something about the size of the tree.

Peter ponders this section where obviously a branch was cut off that had been obstructing the neighbour's drive-way. — Peter ponders this section where obviously a branch was cut off that had been obstructing the neighbour’s drive-way.

This motel is situated right at Newell Highway. Till 2 am there was a constant stream of trucks going along this highway. I would wake every couple of hours as I heard the roar of the trucks. But I always went straight away back to sleep because I still was very tired.
When I woke at 4 am there were no more trucks. But I had enough rested by then. Peter had even woken up before me and had taken this picture:

Peter claimed he had never heard any trucks. So he slept well from about 9 pm to 4 am. After a good breakfast soon after 7 am at the NARRANDERA BAKERY we were on our way again heading towards the town of HAY.

Dog on the Tuckerbox

The Dog on the Tuckerbox is an Australian historical monument and tourist attraction, located at Snake Gully, five miles (8 km) from Gundagai, New South Wales.