Experiencing Simplicity at Hsi Lai Temple

The temple experience varied dramatically from person to person. It even drove one among us to leave early. Unfortunately, I identify with those who were uncomfortable with the experience within the Hsi Lai Temple. This is not to say it was a negative experience or that there was nothing to learn from it, but there are multiple versions of simplicity and this was only one of them. It just happens that this is not the example that I perceive as true, nitty-gritty simplicity. It was chock full of “affairs” to worry over. For example, the simple yet ever-looming stress of keeping our water bottles in a straight line. In Thoreau’s understanding of simplicity, this is the polar opposite of simple. “Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest

I find a lesser-known trail that has few people and I set out alone. “The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready” (Thoreau). There are few words to say to one another when there is no one there. Of course, talking to yourself is always an option, but that remains only the definition of “thinking out loud”. A cramped feeling filled the temple air, to be in tight quarters with other souls exerting different energies. One’s energy can flourish in Nature alone. It can fill the spaces between the air particles; it can climb trees, run with animals, fly with the birds. It has so much space to carry on with thoughts or lack thereof. It involuntarily frees itself. Your focus becomes on Nature Itself, listening to the trees whisper in the wind, watching the way the shadows change with the passing time, hearing one pair of footsteps on the ground, realizing that you may have no idea where you’re headed and knowing you’re okay with it. You are flowing with your own soul, chasing your own mind, following the call of the wind. There is nothing simpler or more liberating than that which is found in a less than civilized