Since we're still in the midst of Vesak, I thought I'll attempt to answer something relating to The Great Teacher (ie. Buddha) and hopefully shed some light on a particular subject and remove any misconception about Him.
Many people ask, "If Buddhism is about compassion, why did The Great Father leave his wife and son on the night of his son's birth? Isn't he selfish?"
To me, it was the most compassionate and kind thing that The Buddha did. ( read "Attachment vs Freedom" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2007/01/attachment-vs-freedom.html )
It was the highest of the highest of compassion.
Think about it :
How many of us would be able to sacrifice our families, our friends, our loved ones, a life of luxury and abundance to seek a way out of darkness ( delusion/ignorance )
For the benefit of All sentient beings? ( read "Saving Others" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2008/07/saving-others.html )
If that's not compassion, I don't know what is.
Ask yourselves : Would you do it? Would you sacrifice/give/exchange your family, your friends, your life of luxury and comfort to one of simplicity, renunciation, having little, being alone and solitude, for the sake of others?
If He did not make that difficult and world-changing decision,
Heart-breaking as it is for him ( read "Mynah and Her Nestling" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2007/11/mynah-and-her-nestling.html ),
We'll still be bound by the chains and bonds of Mara;
We would not have benefited from His Wisdom, His Discovery and His Teachings ( The Dhamma),
Even up to this present day - some 2600 years later.
We'll ALL still be in darkness.
If not for His sacrifice to seek a way out,
Many beings would still be wandering around in samsara, in vain.
There would be no Enlightenment, no freedom from samsara, no freedom from suffering, no freedom from the cycle of birth and re-births.
As Bhikkhu Visuddhacara said so aptly,
"The Buddha wants us all to reach the end of suffering. That is the real inheritance He wants to hand to us."
It's the compassion of ALL compassion, and NO being can surpass that.
The reason we think it's selfish is because we're using our own perception and (past) conditioning to judge Him and interpret His actions.
( read "Perception and Perspective" - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2008/06/perception-and-perspective.html )
The reason we think He's selfish is because we are selfish -
Our reactions to things tells more about ourselves than the thing itself.
And, the reason we think He's selfish is because we're looking at it through the telescope of the world, which is very narrow.
We ought to be thankful and grateful for the sacrifice that He, Yasodhara (His wife) and Rahula (His son) made on our behalf, and not criticise it.
This, is the reason why He left;
And this, by the way, is also the gist of all the answers to last year's entry "Questions and Answers (Part 2) : The Core of Buddhism". - http://maitre-light.blogspot.com/2008/12/questions-and-answers-part-2-core-of.html)
Think about it. Reflect on it.
Have an investigative week, Everyone !
With Metta,
Maitre-light
"Through many a birth in samsara have I wandered in vain,
Seeking the builder of this house (of life)
Repeated birth is indeed suffering !
O house-builder you are seen !
You shall build no house again.
All thy rafters ( defilements ) are broken,
Thy ridge-poles ( delusion, ignorance, Avijja ) shattered.
My mind has reached the Unconditioned;
I have attained the destruction of Craving."
- The Buddha, Dhammapada verse 153, 154.
"In desiring that people should be good, NO one can surpass The Lord Buddha.
The Teachings which He gave the world was only so that everyone could be be virtuous, good and happy.
He did not want the world to be troubled and harmed, which results from wrong-doings due to ignorance of the way of conducting oneself."
- Ajahn Maha Boowa
"If one wants to render a high service, one must undergo suffering.
One must give up luxuries.
One must come down to the level of ordinary folk.
Must witness the suffering endured by the masses.
One must taste that kind of life.
The sufferings of others CANNOT be eradicated unless one endured that kind of suffering.
If one were to serve mankind genuinely,
One must possess experiences acquired through suffering,
Like The Buddha."
- Venerable Weragoda Sarada Maha Thero
"In The Buddha you see clearly a man, simple, devout, ALONE, battling for light,
A vivid human personality, NOT a myth.
He too gave a message to mankind universal in character.
Many of our best modern ideas are in closest harmony with it.
All the miseries and discontents of life are due, He taught, to selfishness.
Before a man can become serene, he must cease to live for his senses or himself.
Then he merges into a greater being.
Buddhism, in a different language, called men to self-forgetfulness 500 years before Christ.
In some ways, He (i.e. The Buddha) was nearer to us and our needs.
He was more lucid upon our individual importance in service than Christ
And less ambiguous upon the question of personal immortality."
- H G Wells
"There is NO other human being with the exception of Prince Siddharttha, who made such an overwhelming sacrifice,
In the whole of human history.
He made this unparallelled sacrifice,
This incomparable renunciation,
NOT for anything else,
But for Supreme Enlightenment
For the welfare of others -
For the service to the world,
In quest of Truth."
- Venerable Weragoda Sarada Maha Thero
