Everyone by now knows the full story of the Buddha. But to recap and for this post to make sense, He was born to a King, a prince destined to be the next King, to rule! Astrologers that the King consulted at the time of his birth, told him that the Buddha would either be a great King or Emperor or become a Great Saint.
His Father obviously wanted him to become a King, an Emperor and so he set out to fill his son’s life with luxury – kept him away from seeing any pain or suffering. The young Buddha grew up never knowing life could be harsh, difficult!
Now a young man, the Buddha one day, decided to go out for a ride in his Chariot, to see the outside of his gilded golden cage. He comes across a poor man and asks his Charioteer, why is that man dressed like that? He comes across an old man and again wonders why the old man is stooped and struggling to walk. His Charioteer enlightens him on the struggles that ordinary humans face in this life. How there are rich and poor, young, and old, that life is a struggle for most.
This changes the Buddha – he resolved at once to find a way OUT of pain & suffering, this painful life. He leaves his palace and becomes a Monk, travelling all over India, talking to Hindu sages and learning from them. But their answers were not what he wanted, first they told him that his quest was futile and second, that Hinduism preached a way IN to pain & suffering, not away from it. The very opposite of his quest.
Dissatisfied, the Buddha continued to think about his goal and most say He finally found the answer under a Bodhi Tree, in present day state of Bihar. He realized that the cause of so much pain & suffering in life was due to our Desires, Aspirations. Getting rid of them will end most of our pain & suffering. We become free, happy, and content with our lives.
And the Buddhists call this His Enlightenment. The Buddha then went around all over India and preached his newfound wisdom. Obtained so many followers, and these followers went around the world, preaching his vision. Today, Buddhism is one the world’s biggest religions, with followers all over the world!
The fact is that most of us are on the same quest – a way out of pain & suffering. The top two religions of the day preach running away from REAL LIFE as the solution. They have parked Sugar Daddy Gods, more Kings, Dictators really, who upon our belief, obedience, submission, loyalty to them alone, will GIVE their followers a life of ease & comfort! No more pain & suffering!
But the Buddha’s solution was to find a way out in THIS Life! Not imaging a fantasy land in the sky after death and hoping to run away & hide in it. His ideas appealed to a lot of people and they became his followers, Buddhists!
But a strange thing happened later in the Buddha’s life – He came up with the concept of Bodhisattva. Who is a Bodhisattva? A Bodhisattva is one who eschews the pleasures of Heaven and comes back to earth! Imagine that – give up a life of joy & happiness and embrace a world full of pain & suffering!
The very opposite of what the Buddha has been preaching – what he had set out to do, his Life’s work! And he was now preaching the opposite! Embrace pain & suffering! Exactly, what the Hindus were preaching!
What happened? Why did the Buddha change his views?
The Buddha eventually realized that having desires, dreams is what moves us forward. Yes, we face pain & suffering because of unfulfilled desires, but what is life without them? The Buddha saw that animals, birds and other life forms, had few desires, dreams. Their life was limited to the 4’s – Safety, Sleep, Sustenance and Sex. Their lives revolved around these 4, and nothing beyond that.
If we had no desires, aspirations, we too would descend to their level – no better than an animal or bird or even a bug! And that is what Hindus were trying to tell him – that those who chase after Heaven – the Barbie land in the sky – no more dreams, aspirations – will end up as lower life forms!
Pain & suffering were part of life – just like night follows day, we will have joyous days and days when we suffer. But we must not run away from our dreams because fulfilling them is hard. To strive to better ourselves, to reach for the Hand of God is what dreams, aspirations were all about.
And then there is another view of life – most people care only about themselves, their happiness, their joy. That is why when the subject of Heaven comes up, most “Journalists” talk of meeting their DEAD loved ones again but NONE, a frightening ZERO number of these “Journalists” ever ask – “How can anyone be enjoying Heaven while their LIVING loved ones are suffering, homeless, their children begging in the streets, worse, prostituting themselves to get some food! The country is at war, millions of their people are suffering!”
They do not ask because these “Journalists” know that there is no answer but to come across as uncaring, selfish – only interested in one’s self-gratification, self-pleasure!
And it was then the Buddha understood why Hindus were saying their faith asks us to choose a way IN to pain & suffering – Reincarnation! It is asking us to think beyond ourselves – our loved ones need us, so do our people, our country and God!
God needs good, strong, tough Heroes here on earth – to fight so much hate, poverty, disease, dictators and their needless wars, climate change, antisemitism (Are you listening Israelis?) and much, much more!
The weak, the lazy, the coward want no part of it and so they gravitate to the cheap promises of the top two religions – they care no more about anything or anyone, not even their OWN loved ones, but only their self-gratification, self-pleasure!
OR
They drool over cheap promises of a knight in shining armor coming “any day now” to save us damsels in distress! A Little magic, miracle and all our problems will go away! Done in 2 minutes! Yay!
Magic, miracle, prayer – yes that is how things will get done! The cry of the weak, the lazy, the coward!
Reincarnation is asking us to care – to be the Hero! When disaster strikes, everyone is running away from there as fast as they can, but what does a Hero do? He runs TOWARDS the site of the disaster, TOWARDS pain & suffering, to help others, to help those who are injured, hurt, bleeding! He is risking injury and death, but at that point he is not thinking of himself, his only thought is to help others. And this is what Hinduism means by losing the “I” – many, sadly, do not understand this.
We have all seen Superman movies – they all have disasters happening – people in trouble, needing help – and what does Superman do? He runs TOWARDS the disaster area, putting himself at risk!
And so, the Buddha, kind at heart, realized that choosing to help others, though in pain & suffering, is better than a selfish, uncaring life spent in self-gratification, self-pleasure. This view was echoed by John Stuart Mill in his famous quote – “Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied”! We see drug addicts choose the latter – they throw away life chasing after self-gratification, self-pleasure. Sadly, the followers of the top two religions are doing the same thing – they are on the same path as these drug addicts! They are choosing to be Pigs!
And so, the Buddha came up with the concept of Bodhisattva – come back, He said, come help make this a better world! And at that moment, the Buddha became Truly Enlightened!
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