Copyright © 1999 Ed Ladeur,

Monthly "Eddie-Torial"

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To carry on from the April Eddie-Torial, the rest of 1999 will focus on our attitudes into the new millennium. This month I want to address the question of 'beliefs'. It has been approximately 2500 years since Gautama walked this earth, 2000 since Christ, 1400 since Mohammed. In the history of the world only these three brought us a personal introspective type of belief in a power which rules us. Before and since we have had religions of community, organization and surrender, but these three preached a spirit of belief which is inward looking and personal. But of course, transcribing someone's thoughts and deeds will always bring about the inevitable organization with it's rules and procedures (dogma). We will try to get to the bottom of the original teachings, hopefully to see how have we fallen into the trap of organizing these free spirits, these freedom fighters who were actually rebelling against any organization of personal convictions within the sphere of the soul. In their day religions were already organized with their priests, sacrifices, offerings, votaries, and all religions were extremely hierarchical. This month I will concentrate on Buddhism, next Month Christianity, and the month after I will touch on the Muslim religion. It will be plain that the melding of religious thought, influences from earlier times is also at work. Although these three men threw off the old ways of belief it is plain that theocracy has played a large part in what our religions have become. All religions have this in common. I am only going to touch on the historical aspects, not on anyone's personal belief.

Guatama lived in India, being a member of a well-to-do family, upper class in our sense. The climate of the region gave over to vegetarianism, not for the aesthetics but for hygienic reasons, and a simple but abundant life. There were no powers making claims on the region, and life droned on without upheaval. Sometime about 600 - 500 bc Guatama was born in the Bengali region near what is now Nepal. The state was ruled by a family, as just about everywhere in those days, when royal families flourished because of their wealth and therefore importance. It was just before the Brahmins struggled to the top of society, and the caste system was already fast developing into uncrossable boundaries.

He was a capable and fortunate man, good-looking, and aristocratic. Oral traditions were the norm, and the Brahmins held sway as educators. He was married at about 19 to a cousin, probably an arranged marriage as was the custom, which even today is the norm among some families. Life of riches and plenty brought the inevitable boredom and personal discontent. With a mind that was wasting away and the feeling that there must be more to life than laying about his thoughts made him critical of his surroundings. He met an old man and was told that it was the way of life...to be decrepid, become old, to face death. For a young man of wealth he had never faced life in this manner, and it occurred to him that all life must come to this. He next found himself in the company of a man with disease, then he happened upon an unburied body putrefying and ravished by animals. This hopelessness of life is what changed him. He was not the first to realize this, as ascetics were extremely common as it is to this day. It is common in this culture to consider painful thoughts in need of healing, just as a body which is ill needs healing. This concept is just now is being addressed by the western world. To begin his healing he acquainted himself with a couple of these wanderers who lived life under extreme and austere rules, who studied religious thought and a way out of the humdrum of everyday existence.

Gautama adopted this lifestyle, and had the experience of being tempted by the Temptor of Mankind to stop his way and return, to be king with all the riches at his command...There seems a parallel here with another ascetic of a later date. Being a stubborn man he repelled this and forthwith cut off his hair, disentangled himself of all his ornaments and his previous lifestyle. He gave himself up to fasting and penance to the point of enfeeblement. In the end of this rigorous life he fell unconscious from weakness. After recovering some of his health he realized the utter preposterousness of attempting salvation this way. He started eating ordinary food and refused to continue his self-mortifications. He taught from that moment on that whatever the path to truth and salvation can best be reached by a nourished brain and body. This conception of asceticism was foreign to his countrymen, and his followers deserted him forthwith. He wandered alone for awhile, and after seating himself under a tree he fell under a sense of a vision...just plain and pure thought processes at work from a nourished and clear mind.

This is the story of the early writing from scribes which knew him. I am going to leave his enlightenment to be relished further down this article. First we must now jump to the excesses of men. The inevitable embellishments of his person, his works, and his 'ordinariness'. From a Pali scribe, relating the Temptor of Mankind vs Guatama's episode writes: "When the conflict began...a thousand meteors fell....Rivers flowed backwards toward their source, mountains and peaks rolled crumbling to the earth...the sun became an awful dark orb, and a host of headless spirits filled the air".

History has not preserved any of these phenomena, and this is extremely upsetting to have a man deified in this manner, through embellishments, lies, and second hand gossip. All we see is a lonely man under a tree wrestling with his thoughts. So taking himself to the town "Benares" Guatama searched out his former pupils, of which 5 could be approached. They were still leading the ascetic life and considered him an apostate, a backslider, with the usual disdain. They talked for five days, discussing enlightenment, and he was able to make his views known with a clarity that astounded them. But how had he attained his enlightenment without the extreme hardships was beyond them. In the history of the world, there appears ages of enlightenment, when extraordinary wisdom comes down to earth and is represented through some personage. Buddhas are aplenty. Guatama was just the latest. He himself never took on this title, because it was against his principle. A Buddha is an enlightened man worthy of veneration, of which he considered himself unworthy. He was a mere man with a vision which he now imparted to his five students. This fundamental teaching which is made quite plain by dancing around the later dogmatic writing and going straight for the original sources is an achievement of one of the most intelligent minds ever to have walked this earth.

We have here the closest we can get to the discourses which he held with his students. This essential doctrine teaches that all the miseries and discontents of life are traceable to insatiable selfishness. Suffering is due to the craving individuality, to greedy desire. Until a person has overcome all sorts of personal cravings life is trouble and the end of it is sorrow. The three principle forms that these cravings take are each an evil, the first is the desire to gratify the senses, (sensuousness). The second is the desire for personal immortality, the third is the craving for prosperity. All these must be overcome, to live not for one's self. The serenity of life which is searched for by all people can only be achieved by throwing off these evils and by that one achieves Nirvana (that is to say 'Serenity of the Soul'). Misunderstanding of this concept brings to mind that this is a religion, out of step with other Godly convictions, but in its purest form these precepts of life only serve to complement all our belief systems, whether Christian, Muslim, Sikhism...So the bottom line is that no person can achieve Godliness (the purity which God requires) but by giving ourselves over to a nobler and greater cause than that of self-importance, self-gratification. He does not teach about a God, as many would believe, but of a way of life which is in tune with all other creeds practiced today, and it is quite possible that the newcomers on the block were also affected by this teaching. Both Christianity and Mohamedanism are rooted in these precepts. The only difference is that Gautama never taught about any 'immortality' concepts, as these in themselves are cravings to be conquered.

To close this episode of Gautama, I must bring this into perspective regarding the the history since, and into the future. He himself had no knowledge of his history or that of the religious world in general. He had no concept of a God of Immortality or of Righteousness, and as is clear by now because of the precepts he taught there was no need. Even if one was totally ignorant of a God one could still achieve 'serenity of soul'. To wrap Buddhism up with a God, or to Deify him is flatly opposed to his teaching. Now just for interest's sake, lets call Gautama, let him visit our time for awhile and then invite him in for a chat....in the year 1999. I will let him explain what he's seen, what he has listened to and what his view is of the future.

"I suppose it was inevitable that I should be glorified. I am deeply saddened by this because you have turned my lessons around to serve yourselves...am not pleased. To give me homage as one would respect a teacher is one thing, but even that I did not crave for. The teachings which have imparted this to you are not my teachings. I have seen the temples, and I have seen the gold statues, fat and plump sitting serenely within and without. I was never a fat man, but you have made me fat with your cravings. I was born a rich man but I became a poor man by my choice. I threw off the yoke of possessions and wants, yet you have given me back all that and much more. I feel an unsurmountable weight upon me, one which I cannot bear. I say to you now; do not crave upon me what you crave for yourselves! You have made Nirvana impossible to achieve for yourselves. I cannot give it to you, no matter how much homage you pay me. You have put my personal Nirvana on a pedestal, yet this was not yours to take or trade, it was mine. You must find your own Nirvana within yourselves, not in temples or images made for me. I cannot intercede with your God, nor can I hand Nirvana to you. You have not learned anything from me. Each person must go through a personal struggle as I did. All I want from you now is to learn that each and everyone of you must do it yourself...other than that teacher who taught you this by his own example I am nobody. We must all come and go on this earth, but we come and go not for ourselves. My mission with you is at an end. Do not carry my mission, but carry your own. Be good to others without recompense to yourselves, give to the poor and infirm without a second thought. Thinking of others will help you in conquering your cravings, for it gives you no time to think about yourselves. The gifts bestowed upon me over the past 2500 years are not needed, they have no value...my lessons are free. You are making life more difficult by your dogma, the outward forms of reverence. I taught you to live without dogma, without a craving for self importance, without prayers for self-indulgence. I think the time has come for another of greater wisdom to walk among you, but I fear you would do the same. Each person must learn according to his own understanding, it is sad that previous lessons learned are so easily forgotten.

Well, don't know if you agree or disagree, or just find this a bunch of bunk, feel free to respond on the new The Eddie-Torial Message/Discussion Board
So until next month, play safe, surf wisely, and help yourself to a cookie
(make sure your dog gets one too).

*smiles*, Eddie

Previous Eddie-Torials
April, 1999
March, 1999
February, 1999
January, 1999
December, 1998
November, 1998
October, 1998
September, 1998
August, 1998

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Ed Ladeur
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