The First Jewel

The suggestion of the website I am following and is my guide in this journey is to start my study with what are called "The Three Jewels."

The first is the Buddha himself.  I think the important thing about the Buddha is to know that he was not a god, he was a human being like you or me.  That means that this enlightenment that he experienced, everyone is capable of experiencing.  I agree he was a human being.  I am not so convinced that everyone following this path will or even can experience what he experienced.  I think there is some mystery, some magick and perhaps some luck or deity that controls our revelations.  Certainly, most Buddhists will not attain the enlightenment he did.  Even so, all are capable of making progress toward this ultimate goal.  I don't think that the ultimate goal is even practical or should be sought by all.  I think we get as much as we need and as much as we give to the quest.

The Buddha was a privileged young man.  He was a noble and affluent and I suppose naive.  He lived a good life full of pleasure.  Then, he was confronted by the suffering in the world and became obsessed with finding a cure. The compassion he felt, I think, was an awakening but not the great awakening he was later to receive.  Sometimes when we see people suffering we are compelled to help.  Sometimes when we see animals suffering we are compelled to help.  This is good and we can help sometimes.  What Buddha saw though was old age and sickness and death.  These are not problems that can be solved no matter how much we care.  All we can really do about those problems is change our attitude about them and comfort those who are afflicted.

So he decided to leave his palace and go out into the world to learn from those who sought a spiritual life.  He learned forms of meditation and became an ascetic.  It almost killed him until he realized that not only was his former life of pleasure not a path to what he sought but neither was a life of asceticism.  There needs to be what he called a "middle way."  I love this.  A Greek philosopher who taught about the same time wrote about a golden mean.  When we go to one extreme or another we miss the truth that lies between.  Some of his fellow seekers abandoned him after this; thinking he had given up.

Not long after this during meditation he had his great awakening and began to teach.  He was reunited with his friends and Buddhism was born. 

His story is not mine and I am not he.  I think we can all find similarities and differences.  I do relate to having had an attitude of a nobleman in my youth.  It is funny because I was certainly not from a noble family.  If I had been though I would have fit right in!  I still struggle with class distinction but I have flip flopped.  Now, I feel more like I am part of the working class instead of the upper class like I used to.  I have never been an ascetic.  I think my life has been pretty hedonistic.  I try and get as much pleasure as I can.  Of course, with older age that is darn little!  I don't feel guilty about it but I do realize how self-destructive it can be if one is not careful.  As far as an awakening I have had a profound religious experience in my life.  I may talk more about this later.  It certainly was not the experience he had because mine was short lived.  Although it did change me, it did not transform me into what I would call "enlightened."  Lastly as far as teaching, I am all for sharing but I do not have any desire to teach others.  I think it would be presumptuous of me to think I can tell anyone how they should live or even be an example of how one should live.  I am going to follow this path and if there is an opportunity to share what I have learned and someone else can learn too that is fine but I will not teach.