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Visiting A Mosque in Cambodia
JohnC.Kimbrough
Explorer
Visiting A Mosque in Cambodia
This writer’s work in Cambodia as an independent volunteer over the last 15 months has involved teaching a daily Yoga and Buddhism class at the local provincial prison from Monday to Friday each morning at 9 a.m.
For many of the men who come to this class, it is their only opportunity to leave their large rooms that serve as a confinement area for them.
The conditions in which they must live are quite poor compared to what prisoners in the west experience. In fact, seeing how they are confined makes the prisons of the west look like institutions of enlightenment and higher learning.
My work in teaching these men has of course led me to get to know them and their situations and individual stories better and I have become interested in assisting them in other ways that are possible for me to do.
This has started to include things such as providing health and educational resources for them.
This includes actions such as providing notebooks, pens and English language material so they can learn and improve their English, talcum powder and medicine to deal with skin problems, mats for them to sleep on and shirts, blankets and jackets to keep them warm.
We have also, based on past experiences with life, men and prisoners recognized that every man be given the opportunity to learn about, study and practice his or her religion or spiritual belief.
It was with this in mind that during our recent stay there, we attempted to find a spiritual teacher and advisor for the five Muslims in the prison.
This necessitated a visit to a local mosque.
Having been involved with Islam in the past and visited mosques in Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, among other countries, I was quite happy with the idea of visiting a mosque, but my young Cambodian translator was quite nervous about it.
He had an unreasonable fear, as we all do or have had from time to time, in thinking that something was threatening to his person, that being visiting a mosque.
He was surprised when upon the visit to mosque and meeting with the local Muslims who were there that they were so friendly and supportive of both our idea and work.
This is the way it is in life, that being that when we overcome our fear and ignorance, we can see and learn something new, both about ourselves and others that is important to experience.
Any kind of fear, or anger and ill – will, or an ongoing critical attitude to and condemnation of others does nothing more then keep us and the world in ignorance.
If we can open our heart and mind just a little bit to others and see where they are coming from with greater compassion and clarity, we can experience something that will give us greater understanding about ourselves and life, and make us wiser and more peaceful and focused along the way.
©2007 John C. Kimbrough
John is a volunteer teaching Yoga and Buddhism and providing other health and educational resources for men and women in a local provincial prison in Cambodia. He has lived in Asia for twenty years.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT]
This writer’s work in Cambodia as an independent volunteer over the last 15 months has involved teaching a daily Yoga and Buddhism class at the local provincial prison from Monday to Friday each morning at 9 a.m.
For many of the men who come to this class, it is their only opportunity to leave their large rooms that serve as a confinement area for them.
The conditions in which they must live are quite poor compared to what prisoners in the west experience. In fact, seeing how they are confined makes the prisons of the west look like institutions of enlightenment and higher learning.
My work in teaching these men has of course led me to get to know them and their situations and individual stories better and I have become interested in assisting them in other ways that are possible for me to do.
This has started to include things such as providing health and educational resources for them.
This includes actions such as providing notebooks, pens and English language material so they can learn and improve their English, talcum powder and medicine to deal with skin problems, mats for them to sleep on and shirts, blankets and jackets to keep them warm.
We have also, based on past experiences with life, men and prisoners recognized that every man be given the opportunity to learn about, study and practice his or her religion or spiritual belief.
It was with this in mind that during our recent stay there, we attempted to find a spiritual teacher and advisor for the five Muslims in the prison.
This necessitated a visit to a local mosque.
Having been involved with Islam in the past and visited mosques in Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, among other countries, I was quite happy with the idea of visiting a mosque, but my young Cambodian translator was quite nervous about it.
He had an unreasonable fear, as we all do or have had from time to time, in thinking that something was threatening to his person, that being visiting a mosque.
He was surprised when upon the visit to mosque and meeting with the local Muslims who were there that they were so friendly and supportive of both our idea and work.
This is the way it is in life, that being that when we overcome our fear and ignorance, we can see and learn something new, both about ourselves and others that is important to experience.
Any kind of fear, or anger and ill – will, or an ongoing critical attitude to and condemnation of others does nothing more then keep us and the world in ignorance.
If we can open our heart and mind just a little bit to others and see where they are coming from with greater compassion and clarity, we can experience something that will give us greater understanding about ourselves and life, and make us wiser and more peaceful and focused along the way.
©2007 John C. Kimbrough
John is a volunteer teaching Yoga and Buddhism and providing other health and educational resources for men and women in a local provincial prison in Cambodia. He has lived in Asia for twenty years.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT]
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Comments
Peace comes about by people meeting each other and meeting each other's needs.
There must be many among the population that you serve who have discovered that Westerners are not as demonic as we are sometimes behaving. For that, you deserve our thanks and prayers. You and your work have become a regular presence in my thoughts and reflections. Thank you for the update.
I was always taught that in order to enter a mosque you had first to have [once] declared that "There is but one God, and Muhammed is his Messenger."
I took a college semester course on Islam and did not encounter that, but it's still hard to get that idea completely out of my mind, BECAUSE: Wasn't that indeed a belief many Muslims once had and many still do, whether a correct teaching or not? Religion is a strange thing.
On a parallel track (this exclusivistic thing) My paternal grandparents thought it was bad enough if you weren't German, but it was sure as Hades you were going to hell if you weren't Catholic. A lot of Catholic priests used to teach that, whether they were wrong or right. In similar vein, I knew a priest who refused to give communion to a woman friend of my mother's simply because she had filed divorce papers on a man who had abandoned her in the hospital while giving birth, in order to sleep with other women. That made no sense, was very uncivil and overharsh, since Church law did not ban divorce, but only remarriage.
One thing that I have seen and learned is that a country and it's culture has a major effect on how Islam is practiced and how non - Muslims are treated and perceived by Muslims within that country and culture.
I think and feel that if we carry ourselves in a polite, mindful and respectful manner, we will be greeted in such a way in all places of worship.
Your other points about the ignorant, dogmatic and legalistic atitudes and actions of some in the clergy are dully noted and sadly understood as being somewhat widespread.
Too many times we think of this as reflecting the teachings and disciplines of a religion or spiritual discipline when in reality it is only one person who may be acting in such a way for reasons that we may not fully know or understand at the moment.
As we both know, Buddhism is about working on oneself while being understanding and compassionate to all and others.