Buddha at Borobodur

This photo was taken by me some time ago at the Borobodur temple in Indonesia. The Borobodur temple complex is a world renowned monument. Built between the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century, it was the spiritual centre of Buddhism in Java. During the the eighteenth century, it was rediscovered.

I am posting a great poem by Germany’s celeberated poet Rainer Maria Rilke that is a befitting tribute to Buddha

Buddha in Glory

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet–
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.

The Borobodur stupa also symbolises the universe -a micro-cosmos. The three levels: first, the world of desire influenced by negative impulses; the middle level, the world where man controls his negative impulses; the top level, where the world of man is freed of shackles of the worldly desires.