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Today I’m sharing the second excerpt from my memoir, where I talk about a special moment I experienced in Sri Lanka. If you’re interested to learn about some of my favourite places in Sri Lanka, check out this blog I wrote. If you haven’t read the introduction and first excerpt of my memoir, read this first! If you prefer to listen to me read instead, you can check out my Youtube video.
Funny enough, this story takes place in a city which is not on my list of favourite things to see in Sri Lanka. While in Kandy, I visited this popular temple, famous for the large statue there. The name of the temple is “Sri Maha Bodhi Viharaya” and it’s located on the west side of town.
There’s only one thing I want to note before we get to my excerpt from this chapter.
I’m not an expert on Buddhism. To be frank, I don’t know too much, even though I have travelled around Buddhist countries quite a bit. So, I made sure to do a bit of research before writing this for you.
Essentially, lighting of candles, and the presence of lights in Buddhist temples, signifies the illumination of wisdom from the darkness of ignorance. Light is supposedly accompanied by the transcendence into Nirvana, which is particularly important for Buddhists. Because of this, the use of candles, and the more recent use of LED lights has become very popular in many Buddhist shrines.
When I first started travelling in Sri Lanka, I was confused when I saw these LED lights flashing in bright colors. I didn’t understand them, and didn’t bother to ask anyone at the time. It wasn’t until I was in Kandy, that I found my own explanation for the seemingly obnoxious lights in the beautiful temple.
Below are some pictures of the outside of the temple, the picture of the shrine that I am writing about, followed by the excerpt. I hope you enjoy!
I had been to a few temples by this point, but this one in particular was significant. Like many other Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka, one of the shrines had an array of coloured flashing lights in a ring around the main relic.
Like every other time I had approached this sight, I thought to myself, this temple is so beautiful, but these colourful lights are really just so kitchy looking.
I loved how everything in Sri Lanka was always so colourful, but those lights reminded me of that neighbour that likes to keep the entire street awake through the night over the Christmas holidays. The flashing lights looked a little out of place among everything else that appeared so tranquil.
While I pondered my recurring thought of the lame vibe the lights put upon the shrine, I decided to close my eyes for a moment. In place of the annoying flashing that was an eyesore only moments ago, I saw what was left of the light after it made its way through my eyelids. A soft pulsing flicker of light, in faded hues of green, blue and red is what I saw through my skin. It was calming and beautiful. It also perfectly complimented a meditation session, if that’s what you intended on doing at the shrine. I realized that maybe this whole time I had been looking at these lights wrong—I was supposed to keep my eyes closed to see their purpose!
Though I still do not know why these lights are displayed, I like to think that it might be for the reason I described. Whether I am right or wrong, it still was a perfectly good reason for me that the lights were there. From then on, when I saw the flashing lights, I smiled, and briefly shut my eyes to see the soft pulsing light again.
The first time I saw the lights at a shrine, my immediate response was that they were unsightly. By chance, or perhaps inevitably—since I often relax and meditate in temples—they suddenly had a specific and logical purpose. I saw things completely different by looking at the lights from a different perspective.
My past thoughts of “Why would someone place these ugly lights here?” seemed judgemental and harsh in hindsight. Maybe if I had been thinking in this way before, I would have noticed the beauty of them sooner. The question shouldn’t be “What do you see?” but rather “How do you see it?” Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, if you will—whether those eyes are open or closed.
That’s a wrap on the excerpt folks! Now for a quick discussion about solo travel…
A lot of people talk about “finding yourself” when going on a solo adventure overseas. Well I’m here to sway your mind from that idea, which is the backbone of my memoir. Today is just one example of how solo travel can do more than just find yourself.
Solo travel is an opportunity to broaden your perspective.
When you are travelling with other people, you are always somewhat influenced by their mood, their energy, and their wants and needs. When you are travelling alone, you are more likely to be open to new and foreign things, because you don’t have that familiar friend drawing you in towards what you are used to. You are more likely to find yourself doing new things that perhaps you would consider strange, and wouldn’t try if your travel buddy was with you.
What is normal? What is beautiful? What is fun? What is tasty? These are just a few examples of some of the questions we can think about when perceiving the new things that confront us while abroad.
Rather than focusing on how we may change as an individual, we could instead be focusing on how we are perceiving everything around us, including aspects of our own life. Maybe with a different perspective we will view parts of our life differently, or we will understand them better. Maybe with a new perspective, our view of our accomplishments, our relationships and our experiences may change for the better.
In a sense, I suppose in being open to changing your perspective, you may find yourself. But there’s something more important. Being constantly open to seeing things in a differently light, has the ability to make us into more compassionate, understanding and happier people, for ourselves, and for the people around us.
Thanks for reading folks 🙂
I hope this blog helped broaden your idea to the lessons we learn from solo travel. Remember to subscribe to my email list for future excerpts and lessons, and for helpful travel tips!
