On the lap of the Buddha

Many years ago, I bought a book which tell the story of a western monk who sort the solace of the Buddha. The monk was the author of the book " On the lap of the Buddha". When I woke up this early morning, this book came to my mind and the thought could not be put to rest and the message continued to poke me to write something about it and share this wisdom with everyone of you who are fated to cross my path in life.

This man have HIV and he became a monk to find peace with himself. During his time, there was no cure for HIV and it was a matter of time before he die. He knows the reality and to keep himself in peace, he practice meditation and study the religious philosophy of the Buddha to make peace with himself and his disease. He learns to accept the facts and make friend with the disease instead of fighting himself or the sickness. He lives for a few more years and died a peaceful death.

The book tells about his journey through life and how he faced the illness and himself and letting himself go and accept the final goodbye. He tells about the peace and the goodness of Buddhism during this brief association with Buddhism.

The message in the book was a reflection of the basic Buddhist philosophy of impermanance and the nothingness. Everything in life is nothing, just an illusion. We see what we want to see with our eyes, we hear what comes to our ears and we believe what we read or see or heard without totally understanding it. We live in a make belief world of materialism.

We live as if we will never get sick and die and we can live forever and push the facts of life and death to the back of our head. We run and walk too fast and missed all the beauty and good things in life. We worked hard for our employers and seek recognition and monetary rewards for our work. We take care of our employer and others more than 80% of the time and spend less than 20% of our time on ourself. We run in circles everyday and came back to the same point in life and starts all over again. It is not that we are stupid but we refused to believe and face the reality. We believe that we have many tomorrows and things will remained the same. It will go on and on until eternity until we reach a point that we realize that all the good years in us is gone forever.

Maybe, it is good for us to go through life with this make-belief and not to see the hard facts of life like a dummy. Perhaps, to be a fool and to be happy is the best way to past through life. What is there to think or know ? Does it make any difference in the end result? Death is still waiting for us and we end in the same way. This is another selfish thought but does it matter?

What we do in life is our choice? Whether we live throught it consciously or foolishly, it is our choice. As long as we are aware or unaware, we should live through it our way and with no regrets. Again, why regrets? It had already done and gone.

Well, have a good journey and life is nver a destination but a journey. Your journey is make up of all your choice and decisions on the way. Look back to be wise but go forward with the wisdom.

Namaste.