I looked and looked, but for a long while could only see the framed photograph of a colourful pieces of jade on display. The pictures were indeed beautiful, and I have never seen jade stone splashed with so many varieties and shades of colours and contrasts. I tried to see the monkeys playing, tried to spot the dragons descending from the heavens, tried to decipher the faces of happy and hapless beings, or the apparition of the Holy Mary from mere glares from the flashlight of the camera. But I really had difficulty seeing what I was supposed to see.
Maybe I lack faith and am plagued by doubt. Or perhaps my practice is not 'high' or refined enough to see such divine revelations. People around us on the tour seemed to be all nodding with contented and inspired looks on their faces, and all seemed to be so fascinated by the guide, who with a laser pen to highlight the signs and messages left behind by higher powers, took us on a tour lasting almost two hours. Even though mum was enthusiastic about the exhibition, towards the end, she felt exhausted and we left the tour and left the rest of the group who seemed so absorbed by the pictures.
I guess people see what they want to see. And it is easy to see something when you believe that it is there, and even easier to see something when you are told that this is what you are supposed to see. I don't doubt what people were seeing, but as I walked from picture to picture I could not think back at philosophy lessons I had back in high school about how people often don't just see the world, but tend to "see-as".
A few weeks ago, mum received tickets to go see an exhibition entitled "Colours of the Sky in Jade Paintings". Thinking it was an exhibition of different magnificent jade rocks, I was kind of disappointed to see only framed pictures of low-resolution close-ups of various rocks, each with very elaborate and poetic names. The event was organised by a spiritual guru, who in recent years has become famous with his weekly lectures on TV. He-- who calls himself "professor", even though he only graduated from elementary school-- talks about spirituality, about Buddhist practice, Taoist philosophy, and is known to have an ability to predict the future and read people's lives, because of his advanced level of practice. Though he began on TV, he has grown into a cult of some sort, with a lot of followers/believers.
This "professor" does possess great oratory skills, and some of the things he talks about share roots in my own spiritual practice. But more and more, I'm disturbed by the fact that his talks and events are always so commercial. He may be well-intentioned, wanting to spread the word and benign benefits of having a belief or having faith, but on the side he sells a range of 'holy' products, from mineral water, to incense, to blessed rocks to face masks and various blessed potions and lotions. Even my mum has begun to feel skeptical about his true intentions, as she recently attended a lecture which was supposed to be about the end of the world in 2012, but turned out to be more like a tel-sell programme. I do wonder what this guru does with all the money he and his troupe gains from all the lectures and products they sell and promote...
We left the exhibition hall, exhausted, and drained by the bombardment of what we should see in the framed photographs, and by the shameless promotion of various products and merchandise on offer. There is a way to happiness and to enlightenment, as the Buddha once taught, and it begins with yourself, with the calming of your own mind, and with the spread of compassion and kindness toward yourself and toward others.
And then there is another way, which is more costly, rests blind faith and following someone who claims he knows the way...
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