{"id":4637,"date":"2010-01-05T18:11:02","date_gmt":"2010-01-05T10:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2010-01-26T00:13:24","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T16:13:24","slug":"india-adventures-2-the-weight-of-devotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/01\/india-adventures-2-the-weight-of-devotion\/","title":{"rendered":"India Adventures (2): The Weight of Devotion?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4638\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/16.jpg?resize=216%2C288\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/16.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/16.jpg?resize=72%2C96&amp;ssl=1 72w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/16.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The above is a picture of<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> a juzu (nianzhu; mala; prayer beads) holder we previously bought from Japan&#8217;s Daiso. (Yes, it&#8217;s designed to be the profile of a devotee with palms reverently together<\/span>&#8230; and last we checked, it&#8217;s not available in Singapore&#8217;s Daiso outlets&#8230; in case you are thinking of getting one here!) The below is how it looks like after it&#8217;s almost fully &#8216;loaded&#8217; with long and short juzus we somehow gathered from here and there. (We just got two more long juzus as gifts from our guide to &#8216;Buddhist India&#8217;. As we have long ones already, we&#8217;ll give them to friends who need them.)<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4639\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/17.jpg?resize=216%2C288\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/17.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/17.jpg?resize=72%2C96&amp;ssl=1 72w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/17.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The juzus are so many that you can barely make out the original design of holder. What&#8217;s the moral of this? Representing &#8216;one person&#8217;, the holder only &#8216;needs&#8217; to hold one string of juzu for use. Then again, even without any juzu, its simple expression of reverence is sufficient too, in reminding us to be likewise devoted.<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> The overloaded holder cautions us of how loads of religious paraphernalia, being only material, seldom equate to one&#8217;s amount of devotion; while they can hint of attachment instead.<\/span> Like the holder, are we too sometimes &#8216;weighed down&#8217; and &#8216;misshapened&#8217; by our greed for spiritual &#8216;stuff&#8217;, instead of simply being spiritual?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u5ff5\u73e0\u591a\u4e0d\u5982\u6b63\u5ff5\u591a<\/strong> ~ \u77f3\u5b50<\/p>\n<p>Having many [prayer] beads for [practising] mindfulness<br \/>\nis not as good as<br \/>\nhaving many thoughts of right mindfulness.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Stonepeace<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Next India Adventure:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/01\/india-adventures-3-monument-of-emptiness\">https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/01\/india-adventures-3-monument-of-emptiness<\/a><br \/>\nPrevious India Adventure: <a href=\"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/01\/india-adventures-1-mahabodhi-temple\">https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/01\/india-adventures-1-mahabodhi-temple<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The above is a picture of a juzu (nianzhu; mala; prayer beads) holder we previously bought from Japan&#8217;s Daiso. (Yes,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[341],"tags":[75,468,89,231,402],"class_list":["post-4637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photojournal","tag-attachment","tag-devotion","tag-mindfulness","tag-pilgrimage","tag-reverence","wpcat-341-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}