Confessions of a Drifter

Day 2 - January 27th, 2011

I walked slowly past these statues, observing their caricaturish facial expressions…

In all of the temples there was at least one monk guarding these spiritual palaces. They were much friendlier than the monk that had rejected us on the first night…greeting with a smile, bow of the head and clasped hands, wearing a brown over orange outfit… I imagined that some of these men would become Buddhist saints someday, and earn their place alongside Buddha, encased in gold forevermore for their extraordinary acts.

I’d heard of some pretty incredible tales about Buddhist monks: surviving without food or jackets for months in a cave during merciless winter—in a trance-like meditation; telepathy and telekinesis; a few Shaolin monks defending their monasteries from hordes of enemies with the bad-ass Kung Fu skills they’d invented.

These men had a reserve of spiritual power that I could perceive… I could feel their energy somehow just by walking by. I made a few friends among the monks, communicating with my more than broken (shattered) Mandarin, telling them where I’m from and that their temples were very beautiful.

-Seb