Tag: faith
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269 | Unexpected :: Evora, Portugal, 2013
OK so we did expect to see bones in the bone chapel, but that skeleton scared me 😛
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096 | Faith :: Cuzco, Peru, 2011
What do you see when you look up at the night sky? The Incas saw a shepherd, a fox, a baby llama and its mama llama, a toad, and a serpent. In addition to looking at the constellations, the Incas also saw life in the spaces in between, the dark voids in the Milky Way,…
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095 | Faith :: Tibet, China, 2012
At the Sera Monastery in Lhasa, you can watch Tibetan monks debate in the afternoons. It’s a lively affair, with the challenger standing, stating his argument as either a syllogism or a consequence, and ending each question with a dramatic clap and a stomp of his feet. The defenders sit quietly, contemplate the argument, then…
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094 | Faith :: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2012
The official religion of Malaysia is Islam, but given the multicultural mix of the population, the country is relatively tolerant towards other religions. It was not my intention, but I got a glimpse of the religious diversity of Kuala Lumpur, when I started the day meditating at the National Mosque, dropped by the Buddhist Kuan…
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092 | Faith :: Burning Man, 2015
Burning Man is all about finding the unexpected, and this was one such find. We were riding back from visiting a friend’s camp when the storm started, and soon we weren’t able to see anything at all. This ghostly structure appeared in the distance and we rode towards it, finding comfort in something that gave…
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091 | Faith :: Istanbul, Turkey, 2013
Not too far from Hagia Sophia lies Hagia Irene, a Greek Eastern Orthodox Church that had the luxury of not being converted to a mosque after the fall of Constantinople. Along with Hagia Sophia and Hagia Dynamis, these three churches were dedicated to God’s three attributes, peace, wisdom, and power. Hagia Irene had stood for…
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048 | Strangers :: Kathmandu, Nepal, 2014
Swayambhu Temple stood atop a hill in Kathmandu Valley overlooking the city. According to legends, the valley had been filled with water once upon a time, until a lotus flower appeared in the middle of the lake, which gave the temple its Sanskrit name — self created. The woman stood next to one of the…
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The Missing Wallet
The summer after my sophomore year in college, I made my first trip back to the motherland. As I gleefully embarked on a shopping spree in the underground market, a thief stole my wallet, which inconveniently contained my green card. The one month that followed was agonizing as I navigated the channels to somehow get back into the…
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The Road Less Traveled
It is not by chance that I stumbled onto this book, some may even call it serendipitous. The Road Less Traveled starts with this proclamation: life is difficult. It’s not a foreign concept, as Buddha has always taught us life is about suffering, and Christians are expected to endure tribulations on earth and suffer for…
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Proof of Miracle
I just finished reading Proof of Heaven, a neurosurgeon’s account of his near death experience where he claims to have seen, or better put, experienced heaven. It’s an interesting book, he wrote it from the perspective of a scientist who, while true to his faith as a Christian, was skeptical or at least uncertain when…