Visit To A Buddhist Temple

On a beautiful sunny morning of February 1, 2015, I visited a Buddhist temple in Riverside. It was called the Thich Ca Thien Sakyamuni Buddhist Meditation Center. It was about 20 minutes away from University of California, Riverside which was convenient for me because I didn 't have to worry about the distance being a problem. I didn’t know what to expect from a temple so I researched what to wear, how to act, what not to wear, what not to do, etc. Although I looked up a few things about the Buddhist temple online, I was still nervous about visiting the place.

When I first drove in to this place, I was lost. The front kind of just looked like a huge house. The front yard was made into a small parking structure for people to park when visiting.

statues of Buddha, I didn’t know what the purpose of its existence. I took a few pictures of the statues and decided to check out the building that looked like an octagon with a coned roof.

I took off my shoes to show respect and walked into the building. The temperature of the room was a bit chilly and the size of the room was mediocre. There were posters of information about the religion and Buddha on the walls. It information included Buddha’s date of birth and death, his location of birth and death, what he did in his life, etc. They were basic information of his background. After observing the room, I left to look for a monk for some assistance.

I walked back to the front where there was a house. Because this place was so quiet, I was even afraid to knock. There was a clear, sliding door with many pairs of slippers outside of the house. A few minutes later, a monk with a brown cloth wrapped around his entire body came out of the house. He didn’t speak fluent English but I was able to understand more than half of what he was saying. I briefly explained why I was there and that I wanted to learn about Buddhism. He was generous enough to show me around and he explained what some of these buildings were made