The Wisdom Path

When Beccy and Heather climbed Big Buddha ...

 Beccy and Heather 

take the pilgrimage; 

a journey of 1000 steps.

All uphill!

... Chris and I ran away.  No way we're taking those steps when we don't have to.

Instead, Chris took me to her very special place "just around the corner":

The Wisdom Walk:

 Young girls taking sexy photos

on the Wisdom Walk.

Yup, at my age I now realise 

there's a lot of wisdom in that!

Have you ever heard of this place?  I hadn't.  It's in the wilderness on the side of the mountain to the left of the monastery:

 

The Wilderness!

The Wisdom Path consists of a series of wooden stellae going up the side of a mountain, all together forming the shape of infinity ...

... each engraved with a "roan" that together make a very famous Buddhist poem known as "The Emptiness Sutra."

The explanation is here:

 Double-click to wrap your brain
around "The Emptiness Sutra".

Personally, I couldn't get my mind around what they were talking about because to me it seemed like Nihilism but Chris said no, so I pushed my very lazy brain some more and came up with Solipsism but Chris said no, and then Phenomenology but again no, and after that I was stuck except for the fleeting thought that it may have been something of what Mary Magdalene was talking about in her now-rediscovered Gospel; all about the interconnectedness of all things, which was, apparently, what Jesus used to talk about in his private down time.

Or maybe Ecclesiastes. Those verses someone turned into that "Turn, Turn, Turn" song.  Yes? No?

Whatever it is, I came away thinking I was exceptionally stupid, especially since, in light of "Emptiness" I couldn't understand why they were doing renovation work trying to save the stellae from those termite attacks:

Look Richard! Scaffolding!

Surely having it all vanish into dust should be the very essence of "Emptiness", but whatever!

However, if you want to visit The Wisdom Path yourself, you'll find it by going to "The Centre of the Earth" ...

 In front of Big Buddha.

Then, facing towards Buddha, turn left, go past the teahouse, then stroll along in front of the toilet block down that small jungle trail and just keep walking ... and walking and walking and walking.

 Past lots of friendly wild cattle.

Eventually - after you've long been thinking "Should have just taken those sodding steps afterall" - you see Big Bird ...

Finally decided it was a phoenix.

But the mosaics are lovely.

... stop there and look around and you'll see the Wisdom Path is right there on the hillside in front of you, only a little to the right.
 
And be careful because, if you miss it, there are other paths around that will lead you deep into the mountains and before you know it, voila!, you're taking a hike. And there's no way you'd want that, is there!