Mention Bali and images of sculpted rice terraces, gorgeous sunsets, turquoise waters and hundred - year -
old temples come to mind.
Not exact matches
God started with a small party in a garden, moved on toward some pow - wows at alters in the desert, then moved into a moveable tabernacle (kind of like an
Old Testament RV), then reigned in a
temple (especially the God - cave of the Holy of Holies, then disappeared while giving the Jews the silent treatment for some 400 years, then
came back to the
temple, then traveled the highways and byways with anyone who wanted to join the fun and whooped it up with society's outcasts and wedding attenders, then moved on to some public forums, then into some clandestine home groups and a few jail cells, and eventually made his way into traditional church as we now know it.
That is why I believe that this
coming together, from all four corners of the intellectual world, of a great mass of naturally religious spirits, does not portend the building of a new
temple on the ruins of all others but the laying of new foundations to which the
old Church is gradually being moved.
Elsewhere, Ephrem says that it is the
old man Simeon in the
temple (Luke 2:25 - 32), regarded as a priest, who communicated to Christ the Priesthood that
came from Moses.
All of these may
come to the same
temple room together: the king who counts too heavily on his liturgical legitimacy, the Deuteronomist who knows better and debunks, the janitor who finds only Torah tablets and seeks to obey, the little
old lady who has nowhere else to turn, and holds desperately to the place of the liturgy which she regards as the place of presence.
The
old widows believed the promises of the liturgy and they
came to the
temple as the place to reenact the hope that kept them free and sane.
In the
Old Testament, Jewish people didn't just «
come as they are» to the
temple in Jerusalem.
I could literally name nearly 100 cafes off the top of my head, have visited just as many
temples, have been lucky to get massages in the region's nicest spas, have walked every little soi in the
Old City, and generally can
come up with at least a couple recommendations in response to any question I get asked from visitors.
If your trip is lengthy enough, there may
come a day when those 800 - year -
old temple ruins simply don't excite you as much as they should.
It seems, the Besakih
temple is
coming from very
old era which is far before the existence of Hinduism influence.