Wat

I'd like to visit Angkor Wat before I die.

Myself, I have been involved with essentially two Buddhist temples, the Wat Yanviriya, a Thai temple in East Vancouver, BC, and the International Buddhist Temple, a Chinese temple on Lulu Island, BC. The latter was on Steveston Highway. The former was Theravāda Buddhism, and the latter was Pure Land Buddhism, also known as Amidism. I started Buddhism with Zen, many years previously.

At the Wat Yanviriya, a Thai temple in Vancouver, there was a girl named Nicole in my meditation class. She had long blonde hair. She showed me and other meditators a photograph of her with a bunch of orange-robed Thai monks all bathing in a river during her visit in Thailand.

At Wat Yanviriya, my Thai temple in Vancouver, orange-robed monks whiled away meditating long afternoons in a garden gazebo.

The interior of Wat Yanviriya, my Thai temple in Vancouver, was a spacious hall with hardwood flooring, where meditators would sit. A Buddha shrine was in front.

Pedro is my mocha-toned Spanish-speaking friend form Ecuador. He is part-Inca. He lives economically, but has political ambitions. He partook in my meditation classes in the Thai temple, Wat Yanviriya, in Vancouver, BC. He once knew Esperanto and felt like a reformist of it.

Back in 2002 and several years thereafter, I regularly attended meditation sessions at Wat Yanviriya Buddhist Temple in East Vancouver, BC. I came to know the Thai culture more because of it. Pāli chanting, moon festivals, relics viewing, et cetera were part of my life then. I remember a spacious hall with hardwood floors and a Buddha altar in front. In summers, the doors would be open to the sunny green outside. In the wetter seasons at night, candles would be lit in the silent darkness inside. (I wore a black Australian Outback jacket then.) Omnipresent was the Ajahn Bhoontam in orange robe, he conducting the rituals. Our saṅgha or congregation was medium-sized and multiethnic. A real saṅgha full of Thais allowed us to share the rustic building. The two groups met at different times.

I've extensively visited two Buddhist temples, the Thai Wat Yanviriya in East Vancouver, BC, and the Chinese International Buddhist Temple on Lulu Island, BC. I learned Zen Buddhism on my own before any temple visits, but in Japan, I toured some temples and shrines. At the Thai temple, Theravāda Buddhism influenced me. At the Chinese temple, Pure Land Buddhism influenced me. These three kinds of Buddhism influenced my thinking.

After 18:00 on the 15th of April of 2025, on Lulu Island, I walked to Tim Hortons café, there to meditate whilst having an iced coffee with oat milk. Joanne my Ukrainian-descent neighbour popped in to buy a Wild Blueberry Muffin, for her neighbour Eve. With the brown paper bag in her hand, she sat for a moment at my table, and we talked about meditation. I said that I used to go to meditation classes in a Thai Buddhist temple, Wat Yanviriya, when I lived in Vancouver, BC. Joanne said that she meditates every morning, but without formal postures. Joanne is the wife of my friend Rod. Joanne likes astronomy. I like women, and men, of course, who like astronomy. After Joanne exited, by then it was about 19:00; I watched the glow of the sun behind the townhouses outside the bay windows. The sky there was cloudless. There were a few brown men in the café.

This 21st of May of 2025 is a sunny, yet cloudy, day. I went walking in the morning to Tim Hortons café to enjoy an Iced Coffee with oat milk. The other day, I tried their pink-looking Pineapple Dragon Fruit Frozen Quencher. 'Twas more like icy candy for me! Later in the morning today, I went walking to the Roman Catholic church on St. Albans Road. On the way, I gazed at the big purple-bloom Empress Tree, near Bowcock Road. The blooms are starting to fade. In the big worship hall was a small class of little boys and girls, dressed in uniform, students practicing bowing at the altar and oration at the microphone. They looked like mostly Filipino kids, this time. It reminded of my private school days at La Salle Green Hills in the Philippines. Even then, our liturgical language was also English, as here on Lulu Island. It was despite that our household and street language was Tagalog. In the 1960s, the Church globally changed the liturgical language from Latin to the vernacular language. I remember my Thai Buddhist Temple in Vancouver—Wat Yanviriya. The wonderful liturgical language was Pali. It was the language that made the temple stay magical! We learned meditation, which is what I do in the church on St. Albans Road. I try to go when the big worship hall is mostly empty. At home, I try to learn more Esperanto vocabulary.