THEBIGGERISSUE.ORG: Budda. By Uncle Monty.

Budda. By Uncle Monty.

Budda Photos By Alex Albion.

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Now standing dormant and also “for sale” at the

real estate price tag of almost two million U.S.

dollars, The Linh Son Temple hasn’t been an

active religious centre of Buddhist worship

for over seven years now.
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One of The Many Buddhist Figures.

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Yet to visit the temple was an absolute treat

for a professing Anglican like me with its 250

Buddhist figures ranging from bigger-than-life

size statues to delicate miniature figurines all
found at the outdoor display. The Buddhist

symbolism was almost over powering as I first

visited the fascinating Linh Son Temple just

off chance as I drove by with friends going

elsewhere.
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Miniature Pagoda.

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When I saw the temple, I promptly had

to stop and then walk thru the beautiful
gold-leaf gates to explore the inner sanctum

of Ancient Buddhism. It was a whole new

adventure for me. And, I was the only visitor

there that day as my friends stayed in the

car. Thus, I had the whole temple, if you will,

all to myself except for the temple gardener

hosing down the white marble statues to

ensure that they stayed perfectly clean and

marble white. He openly and kindly invited

me in to explore the inner temple and I

most certainly did. It was fabulous!!
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All Gold Leaf Statue Standing at 20 ft. high.

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Lon Son Temple was the first temple I had
visited in Europe. Peace and quietude then
enveloped me. I was in a new spiritual world
that I had not experienced before even though
I had previously visited two ancient Buddhist
temples inside atheistic North Korea while att-
ending there the 95th birthday celebration
of its founder and dictator Kim Il Sung at
Pyongyang. Such North Korean temples did

not compare to the peaceful life force I

found while inside The Linh Son Temple

for perhaps 90 minutes undisturbed.
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Marble White Was He.

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What I also discovered was that Buddhism has several different branches of faith and practice
as is also found in other faiths like Christianity – Catholicism, Anglicanism, Orthodoxy, Methodism, and what have you. In all Buddhism of whatever kind the crucial center of its faith is obviously Budda or Buddha. Like Christ is the center of all Christian faith. I profess, however, that I have no knowledge or expertise on Buddhism. The world's most famous Buddhist is surely the exiled Dalia Lama and that is all I really know about Buddhism.
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To know that such a temple is for sale seems so odd to me for I would not have thought such would not be put on the real estate market, but rather disposed of privately. In any event it is for sale and I assume it will eventually be sold to some Buddhist group or faithful individual. For me to have a temple to explore all to myself was also quite unreal! Whatever, I had no fear and I was certainly pleased to be invited in at The Linh Son Temple. I had never seen before such an array of Buddhist religious imagery like I did there. To see some 250 images fills the eyes and minds of anybody, be they Buddhist or not. Such certainly filled mine.

Temple gardener hosing down one of the many statues!
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Standing 30 ft. Tall, The Statue Greets One & All.

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Tradition: Mahayana, Pure Land Affiliation: Linh Son

Temple, France. Spiritual Director Abbot Thich Huien

Huy. Teacher: Thich Tri Nhu.

Above: Buddhist Imagery In All Its Glory.

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So Huge & So Impressive in Gold Leaf & Pure Marble.

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I hope you enjoyed my simple story called
"Budda" as much as I have enjoyed telling
it and bringing such Budda photographs
for you all to share from me.
...
In Peace, Uncle Monty.
+St. Ambrose, 2010.
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Faith is now 'a consumer commodity in America', warns new book. New York (ENInews). In a culture that places a high premium on the consumer marketplace, U.S. churches have become too willing to embrace a "market mentality" in trying to attract followers, says a new book by a journalist who is an ordained minister. "Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul", by G. Jeffrey MacDonald, argues that faith "has become a consumer commodity in America". This, he says, is a grievous mistake, because the Church is not a business. "Unlike commercial enterprises that sell widgets or life insurance, the Church doesn't exist to satisfy the wants of customers," MacDonald writes in the book, which focuses on U.S. Protestant congregations. [Ecumenical News International - ENI - Geneva. Dec. 7, 2010.]
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No Olive Branch. By Uncle Monty.