Mural painting at a Buddhist temple

For the last few days I've been cycling from the house I'm staying at with three fellow volunteers, to a Buddhist temple in Sigeria, Sri Lanka. The head monk there is rather fond of grey paint and so a lot of the time has been spent slathering the stuff on the floors of the various rooms. Thankfully, he was also up for me painting a wall mural, of a monk in the classic meditation pose, in a tranquil natural setting. So I painted that for him, and he seemed happy. My view is: "If the head monk is happy, I'm happy." Visitors to the temple also seemed happy, taking pictures and so on. The only creatures that didn't seem all that happy were the animals: emaciated cats and dogs. One kitten had the saddest eyes I have ever seen. I felt like ordering in an airdrop of Whiskers and Pedigree Chum. The human food was amazing, and shared generously with us. It was brought by the local people every morning for the monks. It was a real honour to be asked to paint this mural in this place. I respect the principles of Buddhism immensely- but I do feel the principles of kindness and generosity should extend to the animals too.

 Note: this post was originally published 6th October 2016.

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