Well, I imagine there are millions of people who could write an article under this title. Identifying the historical Buddha is hardly a difficult task after all his stories can be found in thousands of books and on even more Internet pages. Does anyone really need another brief summary of the Buddha’s life story?
I for one very much doubt it but I will leave that for you to decide.
So what then you may ask, am I actually here to write about then if not that?
Good question!
I think we can identify the Buddha in a way much more relevant to us as modern humans, in a way that really carries the form the Buddha’s life to us. To merely say there was a prince in ancient India who did this, that and the other is so terribly distant and well known to most of us that it’s about as interesting as me telling you that Christopher Columbus sailed a ship to America.
Who then was this man, this Buddha?
The Buddha was Bill Gates, he was Donald Trump and he was Hugh Heffner, all rolled into one. He was a guy right at the top of the game we all play at some point in our lives, the game of success and failure in search of wealth. He had it all, the latest and fastest transportation. Pleasure palaces in prime locations that went with each season, never mind fashionable clothes for each season I am talking entire palaces!
When this man snapped his fingers girls would throw off their clothes for him and start dancing, guys would bring him anything he could think of at the time of day or night. If he was cross careers were ended, if he was happy dreams came true for people. If he was angry he had the power to send men needless to their deaths in far of conflicts. As I said, he was just like our modern media moguls and corporate head execs, what he wanted he got.
That then is the life story if the man who became known as Buddha, he actually had the life most of us spend nights dreaming about, and that plenty of folks risks their very lives for in crazy schemes, crimes, and plans.
When he did the unthinkable
Then all of a sudden he did the unthinkable; he gave the whole lot up. I want you to think about that for a minute, imagine Bill Gates came on TV tonight and announced, “I have decided to give everything away so that I can spend the rest of my life penniless wandering the streets with only the clothes on my back. I have decided there is more to life than having absolutely everything and that this is the best way for me to find it.”
Wouldn’t people soon be speculating on his sanity, or figuring that the Mafia or something must have threatened him?
It would seem so absolutely far out and ridiculous to nearly every viewer on Earth.
That is the Buddha, a man that had every material comfort and possession, a man that had power over men and women, and then just walked away from it all to find a more precious treasure, his total freedom, and spiritual enlightenment.
