Tucked behind a line of trees and sandwiched between suburban apartment complexes, the stately building comes slowly into view, in
shades of white, red, and glistening gold.With its intricate, gilded
architecture, the pagoda-like ceremony hall rises unexpectedly in an
otherwise nondescript section of Bensalem.To get more
buddhist food, you can visit shine news official website.
A sign announces the destination: Wat Mongkoltepmunee. Buddhist temple.
Home to five monks and a community of worshipers who for more than three
decades have gathered at this cultural and spiritual enclave.Inside the
temple on a recent Sunday, the first women to arrive knelt in colorful
skirts, closed their eyes, and bowed low — once, twice, three times.
Soon after came others — more women, men, children.
And the monks.Sitting cross-legged before a golden Buddha that rose tall and
bright in the center of the room, they began rhythmic chants in Pali, an
ancient language, before the din dropped to silence. Then meditation
began, and longtime worshipers like Khanin Suvarnasuddhi, 69,
straightened their backs and closed their eyes to concentrate.On an
elevated platform in the center of a room, Chewa Skonsupaporn, a monk
draped in bright orange robes, sat in silence, like the three monks to
his left, as he led the group in meditation.
“We send love and kindness to whole people of the temple and all people and all animals,”
he said during a brief break in the session. “If some guy cross us, OK,
we send [love and kindness] to them first.”That message is the essence
of the weekly Sunday program at Wat Mongkoltepmunee, a Theravada
Buddhist temple that serves as a meeting ground for Southeast Asians in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and beyond, although people of all backgrounds
are welcome.As the lights dimmed and people sat on the floor of the
temple on a recent morning, Corinthian Rivera, 19, slowly pulled open
the door, unsure of what to expect. He’d only ever gone to Christian
churches. He padded in without shoes, as custom dictates, and crouched
to take a spot at a meditation mat.“I’ve come to a point in my life
where I want better for myself, and every other direction I was heading,
I was losing people left and right,” said Rivera, of Bensalem. “I
wanted some type of clarity, and I wanted to try something different. I
just wanted to, you know, shoot my shot.”Rivera took it all in: the
statues of Buddha, small and large, clustered around the front of the
temple.
Twenty-five white meditation mats laid over crimson-colored carpet. Vases of vibrant white and violet orchids, and leafy green
plants in wooden planters carved into the shape of elephants, the
national animal of Thailand. Two portraits of the late abbot Phra
Mongkoltepmunee, for whom the temple is named. Two portraits of the late
King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand and his son, Maha Vajiralongkorn,
the current king.Rivera’s eyes, like those of the dozens of other
worshipers in the temple, turned to the monks. Win Ajan, the newest
monk, sat at the far right. Ajan, 27, was born in Nepal, but his parents
sent him to Thailand to study Buddhism.
He became a novice monk at 14, went to college in Bangkok, and practiced meditation in the jungle
of Chiang Rai, a city in northern Thailand. He arrived in Bensalem 18
months ago.He and his fellow monks teach the basic tenets of Buddhism:
to live morally and mindfully in order to develop wisdom and
understanding. Buddhists follow five moral precepts, Ajan explained:
Don’t kill. Don’t steal. Don’t engage in sexual misconduct. Don’t lie or
gossip. Don’t get drunk or high, because intoxication takes away from
mindfulness. “This is a way of life,” said Suvarnasuddhi, a worshiper at
Wat Mongkoltepmunee for 35 years. “Be careful of what you say to
others. Free speech is good here, this country. But for us, it has some
line that you cannot cross — means you have to think first before you
say anything.”
