2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Bayon Wat (IV)

 In an era where most structures (like most places in the ancient and medieval world) were measured in terms of a single story, the scope of Bayon Wat must have been stunning to those who came here.

"Brooding" is not a term I use often.  But the ruins here definitely brooded over one as you made your way through them.

Access to them ruins is surprisingly (unless the West, where we seem to be kept out of anything that would be remotely dangerous).

I can imagine these passageways, roofed and filled with people.

Bayon Wat - like Angkor Wat that we will visit soon - is still considered an active place of worship.

Even from a distance, it is impressive.

Good Gifts

Occasionally a sermon is so good that it smacks you right in the fact.

Such was the sermon at my church a couple of weeks ago on prayer, using the text of Psalm 27.  The psalm, written by David, is divided into two sections.  The first, verses 1-6, is a backward looking song of testimony, where David is remembering what God has done in his life.  The second, versus 7-14, is a song of requesting help ("Panic", as our pastor put it).

The key to the Psalm was found in verses 4 and 8.

Verse 4:

"One thing I have asked of the LORD,
that I will see after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD,
and to inquire in His temple."

Verse 8:   

" Thou has said 'Seek ye my face.'
My heart says to Thee,
'Thy face, LORD, do I seek."

The key to all of this is found in the phrase "The beauty of LORD" - the Hebrew for "beauty" not being that of  "attractive" but rather of "favor, the kindheartedness of God, the good intentions of God", "friendliness".   Thus, we seek the Lord not for his appearance, but for His favor, his kindness (not as if that has not come recently), His good intentions.

The rub?  We need to do this first, before we start making our list of prayer requests.

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Many - and by many, I include myself here - treat God as a sort of vending machine, a genie as it were:   we lob our asks into the air, pray fervently, and then wait, hoping that God comes through exactly as we have asked.  And then, of course, we come to worship those things that God has granted us, rather than the God who gave them to us.

If we do not get those things we pray for, we come to mistrust God.  I mean, sure, I can ask for some selfish things - we all do, do we not? - but things like health and intact families and rewarding careers and meaningful relationships, those are all good things, right?  If God does not answer prayers, how is He even really interested in "good" things?

That is not prayer at all.  As said by my pastor, Prayer is entrusting ourselves to God, not praying to have Him do our will.  

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We get the process and order reversed.  As said by my pastor, Prayer is entrusting ourselves to God, not praying to have Him do our will.   And we entrust ourselves to God by first seeking Him, and then asking about our things.

Here is the funny thing:  David recognizes that God is good, that God has all those things - favor, kindheartedness, good intentions, even friendliness - towards us. It just may be that we do not recognize them as such because we are looking for the other things, the things we want.

The challenge from our pastor for a week was to start our morning prayer with these words:  "Father, help me to see the good gifts You have for me."  And then, after we have seen those good gifts, to ask about other things.

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One of the things that I am coming to understand as I get older is that a great many of the things we ask for - even if they are good things - never come to pass in our lives, at least not to the degree we desire.  As I think through the requests of myself and my close friends, over the years we have asked for strong marriages, intact and close families, rewarding careers that used our talents and were engaging, perhaps living in a particular location and in a particular manner.  Of maybe being truly serviceable or reaching fame via the arts or writing, of making a significant impact.

I do not wonder if - looking back at least for myself - that had these things come to pass, I would have worshipped them and myself as the person who brought them to pass.

Instead, God has given us - and me - other things.  Maybe things that are not those things, but things that are truly good and are in His will for our lives.  Things that hopefully advance the Kingdom, even though we do not always see it as such.

It has been revelatory to ask, every morning, "Father, help me to see the good gifts You have for me", and then see what actually comes to mind.

A Year Of Kindness (V): Melt The World

 

(Source - Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910),  Pastor, Union Baptist Chapel  Manchester [1858-1903])

I struggled to find something to write after this.  It is so deeply profound to me.

But then I realized that this is precisely what Paul was saying in 2nd Corinthians 6:6 from last week.  The very way of life he expressed that he was following - including kindness - was specifically meant to do this thing: give evidence to how the love of God had melted his sinful heart and, in turn, work to present God in a way to melt the sinful hearts of others.

Do I seek to melt others hearts? Or do I hammer them? 

Cat And Rabbit

Not quite enemies

nor quite friends, cat and rabbit

share a morning nap.

 

A Brief History Of Haiku (II)

 At the end of the Heian Period (A.D. 794-1185), a new poetry trend developed among the aristocracy of Japan:  the renga (連歌).

A renga (Japanese:  Linked Poem) is exactly that:  a set of linked verses. Two or more poets would create the poem:  the first poet would choose a theme and create a hokku (発句), literally the "starting verse" of 5-7-5 syllables. The next poet would have to continue the theme, using a verse of 7-7 syllables.  The next entry (be it the same poet or a new one) had to continue on the them, but again create a verse of 5-7-5; the following poet with a verse of 7-7, and so on.

A gathering of poets for such an event was called a renju, involving up to 7 or 8 poets.  There was a Master, who would set the tone and oversee the aesthetic progression of the poem.  There was a scribe, whose job it was to both write down the verses as they came as well as enforce the rules the particular genre.  Each participant would recite their verse to the scribe, who had to check it for infractions of the rules before inscribing it (Often younger aspiring poets, they had to have a prodigious memory to quickly remember every verse and compare the current verse to the previous verses.  They also had to serve as a master of ceremonies, as unlike earlier poetry, reiju could be attended by multiple social classes of people). 

There, were, of course, multiple conventions:  How the poems were to be transcribed (typically 4 sheets of paper front and back, with the first and last pages having 8 verses and the others 16 verses), the use of particular words such as a kireji (cutting word) and kigo (seasonal word).  Some phrases could only be used once, some had to be repeated if the theme demanded it.

In A.D. 1356 the first renga anthology was published. The great rengu masters often traveled from place to place and were sought after as guests of honour for renga writing.

A renga from Willian Scott Wilson's A Beginner's Guide to Haku.  This renga involved six poets:

The moon on the dry beach
where geese return
full of peace.

The boat beckons them away

with trailing white waves.

Today, leaving the capital,

how many days

has it been?

More and more the storm

on my sleeves of the journey.

On faraway fields

the sun burns the haze

at the beginning of dusk.

But with what colour,

the cloud-darkened pines?

Works cited:

Renga

Wilson, William Scott.  A Beginner's Guide to Japanese Haiku:  Tuttle Publishing, New York:  2022.

A Year Of Haiku (IV): Mistaken Identity

Buff feathers capture

my eye on a nodding branch:

Raptor in Winter!

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Bayon Wat (III)

 More bas-relief.  At the bottom men fight as onlookers (perhaps supernatural beings?) look on:

Merchants?  Men playing a game?

Men - perhaps soldiers - marching through a forest:

More dancers:

One of the faces of Bayon Wat:

Another.  This (or a picture like it) may have been one you have seen before:

Even in decline, the temple is impressive.