“My Connection – Disconnection”
Part 2 of 5
Place: Wat Wimuttayaram Buddhist Temple of Louisiana, Inc.
Shortly after arriving in New Orleans on Saturday April 25th, I found myself to be in an Asian town full of Vietnamese restaurants and food markets. However, despite my fascination for Asian cuisine, what caught my attention was to see a majestic Buddhist Temple right across the road. I was so excited because not only do I relate to many of the Buddhist teachings but also because I had never been to a Buddhist Temple in my life. So I immediately asked the locals if the temple would be open the next day for service, but my excitement didn’t last long as they told me that the temple was closed due to Covid-19 and that no services were being held.
However, I decided that I was going to make it my mission to find and visit a Buddhist Temple during (what I thought it would be) my short stay in New Orleans. I did an online search and found a total of 4 temples in the city, but there was one in particular that resonated with me right away, which also happened to be the farthest away and in the opposite part of town.
One thing that I learned while being in Sarasota, Fl. was that due to Covid-19 public transportation was free in many major cities and luckily for me New Orleans was no exception and I was planning on taking full advantage of it. However, there was no bus that would take me directly to the Buddhist Temple I wanted to visit and my only option was to get as close as I could by riding the bus and then to do the rest by foot by walking for 4 hours.
Since thanks to Dawn (the kind person who allowed me to stay at her place in Mississippi) I had the opportunity of resting and physically recovering (at least that’s what I thought) I didn’t mind the 4 hour walk one bit but my only concern was whether or not the temple would be open to the public and that I end up spending hours walking for nothing (as walking is certainly not something I do as a personal hobby). lol
So I called the temple to make sure they would be open the next day but no one answered. By that time I was as usual hungry and a bit tired, luckily I was able to get some tasty food from a local Mexican restaurant. So there I was enjoying my beans and rice while seriously considering whether or not I should risk it and walk the 4 hours to the temple and spend the night outside the entrance hoping that they will be open the next day, then something made me call one more time and even though it was already about 9:30pm. Someone picked up the phone and who identified himself as being “Master Jo” I immediately told Master Jo my story and that it would mean the world to me if he would allow me to come to the temple and learn from him even if it was for only a minute (I was obviously bluffing as my plan was to convince Master Jo to allow me to stay a couple of days so that I could learn as much as possible from the Buddhist teachings). 😊
Even though Master Jo told me that the temple was closed to the public due to Covid-19 he kindly agreed to see me the next day if I decided to come. I must say that at the moment I felt immensely happy as I was convinced that he was going to allow me to stay at the temple for a few days.
So I quickly finished my Mexican dinner and started walking towards the temple. After 2 hours of walking once again my feet, back and body started hurting and I began getting tired, but I was so excited that I didn’t want to stop and just kept on walking for another hour, until it suddenly started raining and I was forced to stop and find a place to hide and keep myself dried.
I was a little disappointed as I really wanted to keep on walking and make it to Master Jo’s temple even if it was in the middle of the night. However, as I was waiting for the rain to stop I was so tired that I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the sun came up the next day.
Since I was only an hour away from the temple, I continued walking as fast as I could, still being very excited about what I thought would be “the experience of a lifetime”.
As I was getting closer and closer to the temple I noticed how deserted and unsafe (perhaps full of wild animals) the area was and thought to myself that there was no way in heaven that I ever could have made it in the dark without being exposed to being attacked by some wild creature (Master Jo later corroborated my suspicion) and I immediately realized how God and the Universe had protected me by making it rain the night before which forced me to stop when I was determined to keep on going . ✨
Upon my arrival to the temple Master Jo came down to greet me while wearing a mask over his mouth, which I honestly found kind of disappointing as to me wearing a mask equals to fear and as I have stated throughout many of my post, “When one lives in fear, one vibrates at the lowest frequency making oneself vulnerable by attracting that of which one is afraid of”. (Which is something that I would expect from an ordinary human being but never from a Buddhist Master).
Anyways.. Master Jo kindly took the time to share some of his knowledge with me but without inviting me to come inside his temple as he said that due to Covid-19 and insurance liability reasons he could not have anybody in the building other than the monks. At that time I quickly realized that my chances of staying at the temple for a few days were zero to none.But I still decided to give it a shot and asked him anyway and his answer was indeed no (for the same reasons he had stated before).
Nevertheless, he was kind enough to offer me breakfast and allow me to shower. So after taking a long much needed bath I ate my breakfast and asked him if I could stay for lunch and share a meal together with the rest of the monks (not because I was hungry but because I really wanted to live the experience) he kindly agreed and invited me to roam around in the yard until lunch was ready.
So after doing a special meditation, I spent some time staring at a beautiful pond of white lotus flowers that he had by the temple, I had never seen real lotus flowers in my life and have always been fascinated with their spiritual meaning about transformation as lotus flowers literally grow from mud and turns into a beautiful flower which symbolizes rebirth and the final realization of oneself in many cultures and religions. So as I was enjoying the moment and taking pictures here and there a dragonfly came out of nowhere and landed on my hand and just stood there staring at me while blinking its eyes before it flew away.
Dragonflies as well as butterflies also symbolize transformation (which is something that I already knew from when a butterfly landed on my hand not too long ago) but not only did the dragonfly landed on my hand but what blew my mind was the fact that when I looked at the time of the first picture I took of the dragonfly, it was exactly at 11:11 which happens to be a very powerful angelic number that I frequently see almost everywhere and how my whole spiritual awakening started for me almost 3 years ago.
So despite me not being able to share a meal with the monks (which is what I was hoping for) as Master Jo brought my lunch outside and I ended up eating it by myself while sitting on the stairs.
My experience overall at his temple was simply amazing! Because even though I didn’t get to stay and learn from Master Jo and the monks, instead I received powerful and magical messages from my Spirit Guides and the Universe which reassures me now more than ever, that I am on the right path into fulfilling my mission. ❤✨
Apr 29, 2020, 5:51 PM