Stairwells and Philosophy

One of our destinations this past summer was the Ci'en Pagoda overlooking Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan.  The view was simply spectacular:

Our tour guide casually remarked that Buddhist temples are always an odd number of flights.  This one had nine stories.  It was, of course, an octagon as well.  I asked him why always an odd number and he said he wasn't sure (side note:  I really appreciated his honesty because I have had many tour guides over the years simply make up things on tours which is something I really can not stand). A bit of cursory research tells me that, in Buddhism, odd numbers represent becoming whereas even numbers represent completion.  Human, of course are in the state of becoming.  Nine is especially auspicious as it is the ultimate and final level of consciousness.  An octagonal shape, of course, reminds one of the Eight-Fold Path of Buddhism.

As we walked up for the view, I found the eightfold symmetry of staircase fascinating and took several pictures:

Taking these pictures reminded me of another vacation stairwell shot I took over 20 years earlier in Barcelona of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia.  The entire architecture being nature inspired, the design of the stairwell is snail shell inspired:

(not my pic, but similar to the one I took)

Although the odd number numerology is missing, the Sagrada Familia is famously always in the state of becoming and seems to never be complete.  

We humans are always battling two competing, useful, but ultimate incorrect viewpoints:  that nature is continuous and that nature comes in categories.  Snail Shells and Octagons of Nine Stories may not have the final answer but they can tease us into contemplating big thoughts if we let them...

So, as I contemplated these East-meets-West architecturally inspired thoughts, I turned to our tour guide and said, 

"Will we have to fight an enemy at each level in the Octagon?"

He smiled and said "I think you watch too many movies."