Enlightenment?!

On Saturday morning, I headed out to fellowship at a local congregation. I thought, "Well, this will be good as I can hear the language and learn some more songs." However, there was a guest speaker again, who talked about tithing, based on Mal. 3.  So I understood the whole sermon and was able to take notes. It is interesting how God loves to remind you of His teaching, right when you need it.

Kids playing in spring water.

After the service, I meet a work colleague and her group. They invited me along for their afternoon entertainment, which first included seeking out a place to eat.  We found one eventually, (Saturdays are a day of temple visiting and so a lot of places are closed) and the food was great. I had chicken, rice, and paneer.  Plus, I tried something new - it has a couple names, "batuk" or "wada". It is a lentil-filled doughnut! Very mitho!

Swayanbhunath

After lunch, we headed out to the west side of town to visit  Swayambhunath. (A couple weeks ago, I went to the Boudha Stupa on the east side of town. See blog -City Tour 2)  It is up on top of a hill and the views of the city are stunning.  Swayambhu is also known as the Monkey Temple, because of all the rabid monkeys panhandling there.

Kathmandu Valley

Monkey

The story behind the stupa is quite entertaining. When a Chinese king came a'conquering, the valley was covered in water and a large lotus flower, that gave off a beautiful blue light, floated around the lake. This king, Manjushri wanted a closer look at the lotus flower, so he took his mighty sword and cut a narrow gorge in the surrounding mountains.The water flowed out of the lake and the lotus ended atop a hill on the valley floor. This become the site of the stupa. Apparently after all his traveling,  Manjushri needed a hair cut. So he had his hair cut right there on the hill. All of his hair fall to the ground and became trees and the lice became the monkeys.  And boy, are there alot! I was very wary of them, having heard the horror stories.  I actually watched a dog and a monkey sparring and the dog gave up. (I must add here that it does not sound like great public relations to talk about a founding father's lice problem... but you can understand why he needed a haircut.)

The tour was good but the whole time on the hill, I was humming the song, "God of the City".  I just felt that I needed to be praying. This country is very spiritual, but it is a very heavy spiritualism. They are looking for enlightenment, but they really need the Light!