The Buddha used death as his last great teaching;
as did Jesus.
The Buddha didn’t have to die;
Jesus didn’t have to die.
Nay, Nay.
The kind Tibetan Monk warned us not to compare.
“Do not try to make different religious traditions fit.
Each has its own beauty, point of view, quality.
We should understand each one as it is.
It’s an insult to religious tradition
to make them the same.
to make them the same.
The Buddhist don’t kill any living thing.
That’s a tenant of their faith.
Other faiths believe differently.
Some traditions give up worldly possessions
and live meagerly.
Each morning they take their empty bowl
and wait for someone to put food in it.
Who would put food in the bowl if everyone did this?
Some live, permanently or temporarily,
in a little hut with a board for a bed,
A shelf for worldly belongings,
If lucky, a chair and table.
Jesus replied:
"Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests,
but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head." Luke 9:58
City Creek: Luxury living, temple views and 'new urbanism'
The Salt Lake LDS temple is shown through the window of a ninth floor condo at the City Creek Condos in downtown Salt Lake City.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published: April 25, 2011 06:16PM
When Matt Dickamore designed the decor of model units at the Richards Court condominiums in the new City Creek development, he found it helpful to envision imaginary clients.
For a 1,900 square-foot unit with a partial view of Temple Square, he named the imaginary clients “Bob and Linda,” envisioning a wealthy couple approaching retirement.
“All the kids have moved on and Bob and Linda have traveled the world,” explains Dickamore, creative director at Denton House, an interior design and architecture firm. “They have grandkids and they bought this place to be their second home. It will be their primary home when they retire.”
A few steps away from their door is the 900-square-foot abode of “David and Veronica,” a young couple with a “hip vibe to their life,” Dickamore says. “They like things simplified and streamlined.” And judging from the impossible tidiness of the model, the couple is “also a little bit OCD,” he says, smiling.
The two model units, whose interiors were designed by Salt Lake-based Denton House, offer a glimpse into the unexpected complications designers faced in selling and decorating these upscale condos. These urban homes are a key part of the rising multi-use development that will buffer Temple Square from the rest of the city.
On one hand, City Creek represents The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ monumental foray into “new urbanism,” with its emphasis on a walkable downtown where residents live, work and play.
On the other hand, local designers say City Creek’s Portland-based developers and architects, familiar with the Northwest’s urban scene, were thrown off-balance. They were surprised that buyers of City Creek condos tilted toward older couples wanting to retire near the spiritual center of their faith, rather than young professionals seeking first homes in a urban environment.
Instead of young professionals who want to live and work downtown surrounded by restaurants, clubs, museums and other amenities, buyers at City Creek tend to be aging baby boomers in their 50s and 60s. The condos are considered second homes or weekend retreats, she says.
No one familiar with Utah, of course, would be surprised. After all, these are pricey properties: Bob and Linda’s condo goes for $1 million, not counting the interior design, while a full-on Temple view costs upward of $2 million.
City Creek’s clients, so far, appear to be LDS members who want to live and retire near one of the church’s holiest sites. Denton House has yet to work with a non-Mormon client in connection with City Creek, Buchan says.
Moreover, designing for this older LDS group brings challenges, Buchan says. About 90 percent of the time, the condos have two residents, she says, but occupancy explodes during the remaining 10 percent.
“Especially on holidays and during [LDS Church] Conference, these things are really full,” Buchan says. “They want to have a lot of sleeping spaces. We had to get really creative in putting in bunk-bed spaces to sleep a large family.”
A case in point: One completed 2,200 square-foot condo in the 10-story Richards Court has a spectacular view of the Salt Lake LDS Temple through a 9-foot-by-20-foot panoramic window. An office, also with a Temple view, has a fold out double bed and a triple bunk bed concealed behind the cabinetry. “Whenever they have extra family visiting, they have the three-high bunk beds for kids,” she says. “That’s the kind of flexibility we had to design for.”
A visitor can’t help being struck by the irony of standing in a luxurious condominium, gazing down on the Temple and Tabernacle built by the sweat and faith of Mormon pioneers.
Anonymous Readers Reaction:
1. It's a new concept on Jesus’ teachings .. instead of chasing the money changers away from the temple .. you build them elitist homes next door.
2. "On one hand, City Creek represents The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ monumental foray into new urbanism". What the heck is a church, a tax exempt entity that is supposedly "spiritual" in nature doing "foraying" into ANY business venture?? I call it absolute hypocrisy.
3. Several years ago I had a friend who was dying and so was her baby. Her husband called the bishop and elders quorum president, and several others, asking them to come down to the hospital to help give her a blessing. Each and everyone of these people said they had to attend a stake meeting that day or evening. Finally, my friend's husband called my husband, and asked him to come down to the hospital to help give her and their baby a blessing. You need to understand they were dying...the baby did die later. My husband's mother was in the hospital with cancer, and they were considering doing bone marrow transplant...so he was under his own stress. He went...no questions asked. When I learned the details, of how the bishopric and elders quorum pres. were in a hurry to get to their stake meeting, here is the question I asked my home teacher and my bishop: What if the Lord had come to their meeting? What would he have said: I put forward he would have said something like this: Brothers why are you here, at this meeting, when your sister and mine, and her child are in the hospital dying. Why are you here instead of doing my work? Why is this meeting more important then doing my work among our sister and her baby? So tonight I ask the general authorities of the LDS church...what exactly would the Lord say to them...as they gaze out at the view of the temple, etc., in those multi million and multi hundred thousand dollars apartments. Would the lord be proud, or would he ask about the hungry child crying in the back room of some trailer house. Would he be more concerned about the father and mother struggling to pay their bills, buy food and keep a roof over the heads of their children. Just exactly where would the Lord rather have had all those billions invested...in tall buildings, marble hallways, and million dollars apartments...or in his brothers and sisters, who are crying in the night from hunger, cold and fear?
Wealth is highly valued and rewarded
in our religious culture.
posh red velvet seats in the tabernacle;
limousines, thick carpets, exquisite decorations;
1st class hotels, 1st class flights, entourage
While in Tahiti
We spent an afternoon visiting with the
Temple Recorder
He mentioned a recent visit of a General Authority
How the people planned and prepared for his visit
With luscious island food
Gifts a year in the making of quilts
And robes
lavished upon the visiting authorities.
“I wonder,” he pondered,
“if they stopped to realize how much these faithful
islanders sacrificed to do this for them.
They are so poor.
They don’t have enough food to eat;
Clothes to wear,
Or adequate shelter.
When I was a missionary here 40 years ago
everyone could pick
Fruit and have an abundance of food.
Not any more.
The French testing bombs
Has polluted the water
And the air.
The natural food supply has vanished.
They will go hungry for a long time.”
Truly no austere huts for us.
No alms bowls.
And I’m afraid some get puffed up with power.
What is it they say?
“Power corrupts.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
—Lord Acton
Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power. Walter Colto
That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God.
We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood only by persuasion by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile.—D&C 121
Sadly, I can never remember being interviewed by a Priesthood leader who I felt cared about me specifically. All followed the handbook; all asked the questions; but I felt no love, no concern, no interest; no genuine acceptance, understanding, or inclusion.
And in one tragic instance, I actually felt “the heavens withdraw themselves”. Was the Spirit of the Lord aggrieved?
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Luke 12:27
I’ll remain strong in the faith
of my fathers and mothers
Maybe turn to Yoga to cleanse and purify
Yoga is a science; not a religion
savasana – corpse pose – my favorite
here in these moments of stillness and silence
- rejuvenation; replenishment -
Namaste
(May the teacher and the light in me honor
the teacher and the light in you.)