What was the Buddha?
Was he a God,
an avatar of Vishnu
masquerading as a man;
as so many Hindus claim?
I hope NOT
for that could diminish
his achievement.
And what achievement
is that?
That a man,
born to wealth, privilege, and power
forsook his wealth, privilege, and power
to find peace, and love, and freedom.
But there are many of us
who prefer to think
of the Buddha as a God
in man’s clothing.
Why?
Why could many prefer that?
So that they might feel
that they are proverbially
off the hook.
For, if the Buddha
was NOT a mere man,
who became so much more,
then why should they
likewise evolve
to also become
so much more?
These are the same
type of folks,
who had they been born
into a so-called Christian culture
would have preferred to think of the Christ
as merely baby Jesus
that they might feel less threatened
than they would
by the Jesus who fasted,
or the Jesus who wept,
or the Jesus who rioted,
or the Jesus who was tortured,
or the Jesus who was killed.
Whether the Buddha,
sometimes known as Gautama,
or Siddhartha,
or Shakyamuni;
whether this Buddha was historical
or purely archetypical
he taught
a philosophy
of love and letting-go
as well as a set of techniques
with which to master it.
A tale is told
that a man approached the Buddha
peppering him with questions:
“Are you a man?”
Are you a God?”
To which the Buddha
is said to have responded,
“I am awake.”
Yet despite the Buddha’s insistence
that folks refrain
from ritual, and asceticism, and grasping
over numerous centuries
many have come to view him
as a god:
bowing, and offering , and mumbling prayers:
concise, middling, lengthy, very lengthy
or Bija, Mantra, Dharani, or Sadhana,
if you prefer Sanskrit.
Ironically they performed ritual
(which he taught
was a poor substitute
for mindfulness)
And with those rituals
they begging him
for the rich life
and auspicious rebirth
(that he taught could only come
though our practice of love)
and beseeching him
for the selfsame
liberation and enlightenment
that he taught
could only come
from our practice
of mindfulness, and compassion,
and love, and letting-go.
Now, more than ever,
when humanity is lurching
beneath the burden
of its ever increasing
sexism, and racism, and classism,
and fascism, and ecocide
we have forsaken
the Buddha of history:
his techniques
and his example.
And in our greed, and fear,
and superstition, and lazy-mindedness
have come to treat him
as just another
object of worship,
like Miriam and Aaron’s
golden calf,
or like the gods of Greece:
aloof, and far, and distant
within their ivory towers
upon mount Olympus.
Be he man,
or be he archetype
his instructions,
and techniques,
and example
could have the power
to liberate us
from petty lives
defined by: fear, and greed,
and completion, and cruelty.
But his instructions, and techniques, and example
could only benefit us
separately as individuals
and collectively as a species
when we metaphorically roll-up our sleeves
and do the work
of applying them
every morning
and every evening.
Come
to: class, or webinar, or livestream.
Ask
your questions
jot down
my answers
do
your homework
and evolve
to be the person
that your dog
already thinks
you are.
Let us conclude
with a simple
call to action
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