mybuddhist blog number 144

Hi Everybody,
Nice damp cool rainy day outside. It's always so much easier to sit down at the computer to write when it's raining, than when it's bright and sunny. So we're in the middle of this interesting issue of how we deal with the idea of Shakyamuni's enlightenment, which is the well-spring if you like from which Buddhism has flowed out into the world. A key point for me in coming to terms with this is that whatever elements of the enlighenment story we find difficult to grasp or to understand, perhaps...we do well to remember...simply because of the limitations of our own experience or our own imagination; whatever the precise nature of the truths that Shakyamuni came to perceive, the key thing to hang onto I would argue, is that what resulted from his experience is clear enough for all to see. The immense power of the experience that he went through changed him forever. He became truly a different man. In many ways it seems similar to the experience that Saul went through on the road to Damascus that transformed him from a fierce persecutor of the Christians into Paul, the great teacher and primary architect of the Christian Church. But in the case of both Paul and Shakyamuni the experience they went through was like walking through fire, and it lit a fire in them that was so strong that it was never extinguished.

Shakyamuni was never able again to separate his existence as a human being from his desire to teach the truths about the life we all lead, that he had come to understand. And his desire to improve the well-being of all of humankind. He set out if you like to reveal a new understanding of reality, which is what enlightenment ultimately means. And central to that new understanding is the seemingly simple, and yet truly revolutionary idea, that life is not a rehearsal for some sort afterlife. It is the real thing, and it makes sense therefore to learn how to build the best life for ourselves today, in the here and now.

Enough for today.
Back in the middle of the week.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon in paperback and as a download on Kindle.