Philippine E-Journals

Epiphany and Celebration in Asian Life and Aesthetics

Florentino H. Hornedo

Discipline: Literature, Philosophy

 

Abstract:

Upon reaching the top level of Borobudur in Java, Indonesia, on a cloudless day and only the great central stupa stands before you pointing to a sky that is pure light, you come to some analogical understanding of what “enlightenment” might be. You remember the deep darker alleys you have passed through with an infinite number of reliefs—quite distinct and more sensuous relief which tell the story of Buddhist spiritual ascent to enlightenment—and now this great illumination where physical sensation does not have much to do and there is only this mystic blending of light that is both of the eyes and of the mind. This great religious masterpiece in stone is at once an exquisite theological and an integrated technological statement.