Hakone Gardens

We have lived in the bay area for almost 20 years and have known of the existence of Hakone Gardens the entire time. Somehow the motivation to visit this place was not there before. Maybe it was folks telling us it is too small or the ticket price doesn't jusitfy it compared to Filoli etc.. Whatever it be, this is one of those places we simply forgot to visit. (Winchester Mystery house and Hearst castle are two other places we still have not visited).

Given this was a quiet thanksgiving weekend to be spent locally, we decided to visit. We actually had a great time. The weather was perfect and the fall colors made for great photos! 

We did not do a "tea ceremony" but spent 3 hours there and were smiling through and through cracking jokes with family. 

The place is small but amazingly beautiful. Every stone is placed perfectly. 

Here is a slideshow of the pictures in vertical format..

and one in horizontal format..

Strongly recommend this place for timepass if you are in the bay area and have only a few hours. Nice and quiet with some beautiful views of the entire bay area as you walk around the hill on the garden!

Jing'an Temple

This month marked my 50th business trip to Asia. Given I have gone there 50 times, it has always been airport to hotel to work to a lunch or dinner (mostly at Bolloywood India restaurant) followed by rides to Airport on the Maglev train.

One deviation from this would be a post lunch walking through AP Plaza that doubled up as an exercise as well as a bargainig practice in the local marketplace for knockoff and reject goods.

Other than this routine, never ventured out to see anything. Recently, thanks to over booking at the hotel in industrial area, got to stay in the riverfront at a nice hotel. That in itself was a nice experience. So I made up my mind that this time I would visit the Jing'an Temple and pray for success at work and home. 

Buddhist temples are interesting. They are sometimes an oxymoron given the message of the Buddha was to give up material posessions and let thoughts wash over you like waves, good or bad and just let the moment sink in. When you see a tower of pure gold and a statue that is 20 plus feet tall made of Jade and Camphor wood, you just realize that maybe Buddha was wrong.. again, it is not a good idea to have me go off the philosophical deep end as it takes more than a few paragraphs to get back on topic! 

This is by far the most magnificent temple for the Buddha I have seen. I am told there are a few in Thailand that will take my breath away. My lung capacity has increased after seeing the Jing'an temple, so that visit to Thailand will hopefully happen soon and we get to see how breathtaking that is. 

All that said, to find a temple that is so quiet and tranquil in the middle of bustling Shanghai in itself is pretty amazing. The contrast between a structure that is a few hundred years old against the glass palaces of today in the background is striking! It was a 35 mintue train ride from the hotel. Funny thing is that there is a train station right under the hotel and the other train station is right under the temple. It was a freaking direct line and it took me 50 trips to go there!

This temple was apparently at a different location. It was built in ~200AD and stayed in that location till ~1800 AD. Then it was moved to this location. It was also converted to some kind of factory when Chinese took down all religious stuff and thirty or so years ago this was renovated again. 

I was suprised that this thing survived the revolution. There was a Jade stone at the temple on display that must weight a few tons. It was 8 by 6 by 4 feet and quite a sight. That stone alone must be worth a jillion dollars. Buddha must be laughing from above!

Two slideshows (all iPhone photos edited on Photoshop) horizonal pics..

Here are some pictures of this amazing place! 

A slideshow of vertical pictures..

I said my prayers for my companies success and for some personal peace and tranquility. Happiness comes from within.. is half the story of Buddha's teaching (just read that in the book "Sapiens" by Yuval Hariri). 

As soon as my colleagues showed me that picture on the phone was instantly drawn to the bald spot.. well it is not a spot anymore as it has pretty much taken over the head. Told him "seriously?" and they went into a long discussion in Chinese. Turns out they were trying to imagine me completely bald and were guessing if I was going to look okay or not given the shape of my head. I thanked them for the detailed laugh filled discussion and asked the Buddha promptly for this to end gracefully. The sooner I go fully bald the better off I am.

willing to let it all go! 

Praying always help me because while praying, I clear out the clutter in my head. Does not matter what the god is. It is like doing toe stand in the yoga class and blanking out, except I am nicely balanced on both feet!

The Buddha answered my prayer instantly. Felt at peace walking around the temple!

Now that I know how to get there from the hotel, will go visit again soon. Made that a conditional promise to Mahavira!

Deepavali 2017

It has been some time since a post came to the blog. Life has been busy .. but with plenty of happenings!

There was the Diwali that came and went during a weekday, and was celebrated over the weekend.

There was a special Yoga class last weekend.. More on that later.

But this post is to wish everyone on the blog space a belated Deepavali . . . Facebook takes over these posts now and then.

The photo below is a compilation of Deepavali (Diwali) celebrations over the years. We did not do fireworks in the early days for fear of smoke alarms.. a kid or two later and we go "bah!" 

There used to be no sparklers or the entire family posing around one single sparkler in the garage! 

There were years where we just cozied up and did not celebrate, or celebrated with the birth of a new baby!

The one year this was celebrated in India! 

Click to enlarge the image. . .

Got happy tears just looking at old photos and compiling this one!

This is one happy festival!