Seeing and Siddhartha
There are endless perspectives to see a situation.
This statement actually challenges, our preconceived boxes of negativity or positivity or the mid-range spectrum in between. Technically, going by Gautama’s theory….the way you view a situation could change everything. Suddenly, the raindrops falling outside are not just a mere weather phenomenon, but also a scientific concern where acid rain could be a probability. The rain drops could be an artistic or poetic sources of reflection. The falling rain could also be a grateful meditation of mercy. Or a lovely way to getting drenched and be at one with the cooling breeze.
Would this make a difference? Then the question would be what is a difference and so forth? Perhaps a difference has already been made in the sense of empowerment in thinking, in having the integrity to question and challenge to being grateful for subtle, gentleness in the paths.
Think like the Matrix a little; knowing the path and walking on the path are entirely different matters. Perhaps you realize that the path you are walking on transcends the two worlds and what happens in the test of life is transient. Momentarily. Yet, the other world is forever, so why bother getting so upset?
The concept of detachment would lead to Nirvana right? Maybe so, yet it is equally important to be human. The word ‘human’ is light, but the meaning is immensely deep.
Let us digress a little. What was Siddhartha’s story? Siddhartha Gautama went in search of suffering…. leaving behind those he loved to experience suffering… to feel as a human. What would happen when Gautama’s world collided with modern times.
My foster mother is semi-Buddhist and had often tried to teach meditation and the stillness, with her singing bowl and ink brushes of contemplative strokes. The life within me resisted, falling over itself brimming with endless questions. Why did Nirvana mean going through so much pain when it was unnecessary?
The Nirvana is not always through suffering, history may praise Siddhartha’s self infliction and endurance… and yet we know that under the Lote tree, the expression upon enlightenment is that of a benign smile. Was it because he had distanced from those he loved, and knew they would be reunited in the next life? Was it because he realized he did not need to punish himself for the something he could not control? Was it because he had let go of the unnecessary? Was it because he was human?
Yet, we do know for sure that the concept of seeking suffering is perhaps an illusion to enlightenment, neither is hedonism a course to salvation. Buddha smiled throughout enlightenment, history perhaps forgot to emphasize that Gautama did not simply search for suffering as way of salvation, it was peace and contentment he needed to still the restless soul that had left the palace.
We are the generations after all that is dust, perhaps we could learn from Siddhartha… the calmness, gentleness and above all the peace. The peace in little things, and the peace in the world outside, the peace within us and the peace between us.
May a smile grace your soul, and may you live in a truly peaceful world.
May you enlighten the situation.
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