Is There Real Value in Sacred Space & Time…. ?!

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

‘Earliest shrine’ uncovered at Buddha’s birthplace (Thnx to BBC News)

 The remains lay buried beneath the present day Maya Devi Temple.  Archaeologists digging at Buddha’s birthplace have uncovered remains of the “earliest ever Buddhist shrine”.

They unearthed a 6th Century BC timber structure buried within the Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini in Nepal.The shrine appears to have housed a tree. This links to the Buddha nativity story – his mother gave birth to him while holding on to a tree branch.

Its discovery may settle the dispute over the birth date of the Buddha, the team reports in the journal Antiquity.

Radiocarbon has highlighted that every year thousands of Buddhists make a holy pilgrimage to Lumbini – long identified as the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha.

Lumbini

• Located in the south-western Nepali plains 300km from              Kathmandu and very close to India’s border
• Birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, who later become the Buddha
• Designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1997
• Surrounded by large zone in which only monasteries can be built  and no commercial premises
• The site has a number of ancient ruins of monasteries, a sacred Bo Tree and a bathing pool

Yet despite the many texts chronicling his life and teachings, it is still uncertain when he lived. Estimates for his birth stretch as far back as 623 BC, but many scholars believed 390-340 BC a more realistic timeframe.

Until now, the earliest evidence of Buddhist structures at Lumbini dated no earlier than the 3rd Century BC, in the era of the emperor Ashoka. To investigate, archaeologists began excavating at the heart of the temple – alongside meditating monks, nuns and pilgrims.

They unearthed a wooden structure with a central void which had no roof. Brick temples built later above the timber were also arranged around this central space. To date the buildings, fragments of charcoal and grains of sand were tested using a combination of radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence techniques.

“Now, for the first time, we have an archaeological sequence at Lumbini that shows a building there as early as the 6th century BC,” said archaeologist Prof Robin Coningham of Durham University, who co-led the international team, supported by the National Geographic Society.

The holy site remained open for meditation while archaeologists excavated.  This is the earliest evidence of a Buddhist shrine anywhere in the world. It sheds light on a very long debate, which has led to differences in teachings and traditions of Buddhism.

“The narrative of Lumbini’s establishment as a pilgrimage site under Ashokan patronage needs to be modified since it is clear that the site had already undergone embellishment for centuries.”

The dig also detected signs of ancient tree roots in the wooden building’s central void – suggesting a tree shrine. Tradition records that Queen Maya Devi gave birth to the Buddha while grasping the branch of a tree within the Lumbini Garden.

The discovery could aid conservation efforts at the holy site – which has been neglected despite its status as a Unesco World Heritage site.

 “These discoveries are very important to better understand the birthplace of the Buddha,” said Ram Kumar Shrestha, Nepal’s minister of culture, tourism and civil aviation. “The government of Nepal will spare no effort to preserve this significant site.”

Archaeologists hope their discovery will aid conservation efforts at the site.

And for better understanding, here’s  Buddhism At A Glance! …a more academic notion really 😉

So for your next Pub Quiz nights ( a common weekly pass-time in the UK), or game of Trivial Pursuits(common in the US)…you’ll be equipped to win, at least a point.

However, more importantly, discoveries like these are great historical snapshots into the human psyche across the ages. It goes to show the importance Belief….Spirituality …. Faith is to human beings. Yes, Buddhism is considered a religion, yet it’s very essence is almost ‘a-religious’… which is is significant, to me anyway, in that people can and do blindly follow what is too-often dogma instead of a spiritual experience of their own.

We as ‘Beings’ seem to have a need to belong as well as need external validation, in the form of acceptance, yet like many organised efforts….politics takes over and the true essence of the belief and practise are overwhelmed by emotional leveraging…and people shift from ‘believer to follower’…not necessarily a bad thing, but interpretation is key….and the ‘true-value’ too-often gets lost in translation of an agenda.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe Spirituality is essential to a balanced and harmonious existence, afterall we are but specks in the scheme of life, the universe and everything….who is anyone to say they have all the answers and/or the chosen way…. The spiritual journey is a personal one.

Of course, it is necessary to be considered and learn form others and to share ones insights, (if one wants?) but to recruit or overshadow or dismiss another’s experience and views is in my perspective wrong….but I wish to focus on more of what is right here….

Some food for thought…. Generally religious dogma will have folks driven by guilt and shame, as opposed to freedom and joy…. And even more Love. 

Not to be ‘pollyana’ about it, but the more one focuses on what is good and best for themselves (not selfishly in a negative sense, but in a responsible sense) then does it seem more plausible that the conditions in the world as we know them now can be as good as we dream about them.

The most truly happy people I have met, and I have met a lot of people in my 46 yrs of overseas upbringing and travels…. There were too many more caught up in illusions of it due to their placing more emphasis on external signs and validation, and I am happy to share…I think that this is changing much more and more frequently.  Just look around the world and how many are going for positive change, albeit not always easy nor without huge upheaval and unpleasant in nature….and that’s life.

The message here is keep going, don’t give up… tap into your inner power and strength and know that you are not alone in this pursuit…it’s been going on for centuries, as evidenced now again in the archaeological finds mentioned above.

‘Believe, Seek,… Even Ask and You Shall Find!’ ~ Our Goodness Exists!

That’s What I Believe, and I Believe In All of Us, even with all the challenges that come with that….

I Believe In You!…. As Do Many Other People ! J

Enjoy The Journey, …And To Do So… We All Must Take The First Step!

Happy Trails! 🙂

‘Your Partner In Freedom’

 ~Ray Monde~

PS: Meanwhile hear on the material-earthly plain, …discover your wealth.