Praying to Buddha

         I like Buddhist culture. Listening Buddhist lessons was my routine in every weekend in China. When I was worried about my life, I would like to go to a temple where I could pray to Buddha. Since I moved to Chicago, I could not continue this habit. There are not many Buddhist temples in this country, and each of them is far away for me to go a Buddhist temple in Chicago. At the same time, there are not as many Buddhists as in China. Due to this reason, I have forgotten the feeling of praying to Buddha in a temple since I immigrated to Chicago.

        When I was in China, I liked to explore different Buddhist temples in Guang Zhou. In the Buddhist customs, different Gods control different magic, so during the Chinese New Year, some people have to visit three or more temples to ask for good health, good fortune, good wealth and good job in the coming year. I like this tradition and I always follow people praying in Buddhist temples one after one. Praying in a temple could make me feel stronger and energized. Buddhists liked psychologists who often gave me good suggest for my life. After praying, I felt my wisdom has increased and I had more energy. That was why I liked to go to the Buddhist temple. I found a Buddhist temple near Chicago Chinatown, but the decorations did not as great as the traditional Buddhist temples in China. They are too simple. So I could not have the same feeling and I was disappointed.

        In addition, I used to cook vegetarian food and buy flowers for worshiping Buddha on the first day of Chinese New Year and some special days on the Lunar calendar in China. I was so excited to prepare vegetarian food, flowers, and incense sticks to the Buddhist temple. In Chicago, even though I live in Chinatown, it was easy to forget the traditional days of Buddha customs. On the other hand, I liked going to the temple with my family or my friends before I moved to the United States. Right now a few people could share the emotion with me on those special days. Most of my friends and relatives are busy in this city. So I really miss the relaxing moment with my family when praying in the Buddhist temple. 

        Beside the worship, I loved to go to the Buddhist store to look for small meaningful trinkets. I like to smell incense, because when I light the incense stick, I can feel peaceful and relaxed. Also, I like to buy books about Buddha, because some books can inspire me about how to live my life. In the Buddhist store, I always bought some little gifts for my family. For example, when my mother had some health problems, I bought a wooden necklace for her which was written some symbols that means be health. With the gift, I hoped she would get healthy and happy as soon as possible. However, now that I’m in Chicago, it seems difficult to find a Buddhist store near the Buddhist temple. It is not convenient to me to buy something in the Buddhist store. 

    Since I left China and moved to Chicago, I could not go to the Buddhist temple frequently. I visited the Buddhist temple only twice in the past two years. One of the reasons is the trip took me too much time to get there, the second reason is the temple gave me strange feeling not like in China. Finally, when I prepared the worship food, there were some materials that I could not find and my worshiping felt lonely. Therefore, I think I lost my way of praying to Buddha.