Begining to grow weary and somewhat desperate, the Christians found Buddha in a diner somewhere in the Texas Panhandle. One of them asked him:

"Chuck Stanford says: "Like cloudy water, our minds are basically pure and clear, but sometimes they become cloudy from the storms of discursive thoughts. Just like water, if we let our minds sit undisturbed the mud and muck will eventually settle to the bottom. Once this happens we can begin to get in touch with our basic goodness. It is through this basic goodness that the Buddha discovered that we can lead sane lives." But, Mr. Gautama, what if you are wrong about our being basically good? The Bible says that we're conceived in sin. What if there is a personal God to whom we will all one day answer? What if your enlightenment (awakening) was really only a dream?"


The World-Honored One Answered:

"Christian friend, perhaps someone has misquoted me to you. I have never called human nature "basically good"; I have said that the true nature of all things is without character, is boundless and free, empty of any qualities you may wish to ascribe to it whatsoever. It is because your nature is purely and boundlessly free of any one "way of being" that you can be free of suffering. If your nature was innately "one way or another", freedom would not be possible.

I know that humans have boundless potential to express enlightened actions, actions which soothe suffering, show compassion, and bring peace and healing to other beings. Insofar as these things are preferable to causing suffering, breaking peace, and harming other beings, they may be rightly called "good". I say that humans have boundless potential for good acts, acts of compassion and kindness.

If humans lacked this potential, then not only would goodness be impossible, but the moral foundations of human life would be undermined. Every day world-renouncers, saints, monks, nuns, and laypersons of all faiths and countries express good acts. They have expressed countless virtuous acts long before the birth of your Messiah, or the writing of your sacred texts. This is evidence that their nature is capable of expressing goodness, for no effect can rise above its cause. If there is a possibility of goodness in the cause, the effects can be good and virtuous. If human nature were innately flawed or bad, no act of a person could ever be virtuous.

You now ask me "what if my awakening was a dream" and "what if there's a personal God to whom we will one day answer?" You now cite the authority of a holy scripture or a sacred book and say "I believe in these things because this book says so."

And to you, I can say: I have experienced freedom. I do not have "faith" in freedom, I am certain of the reality of freedom. I have no need to appeal to a scripture to validate my knowledge of freedom. Anyone who follows the way of awakening with great courage and nobility will find freedom.

You cannot respond by saying "I have experienced my Supreme Being", for in the same manner that you can doubt the Buddha's experience, others can doubt your statement- perhaps your experience of your God was a dream. How will you show that it was not? You ask me "what if" many times; I can ask you "what if" in the same manner. What if your God isn't what you believe he is? What if your sacred texts are just so many piles of paper and ink? What superior evidence can you show me for your claims that will render your positions more compelling?

You can say you have faith in your God, and indeed, you will happily admit to your good and virtuous faith, but you don't have certainty; faith implies that you cannot be fully certain. Where you are uncertain, and prepared to live in the shelter of your faith, all of the Awakened ones rest in the certainty of boundless freedom.

You appeal to scriptures for both evidence of your beliefs and authority, but this proves nothing, except that you personally choose to believe that this book has a sort of authority. In this same manner, many people all over the world have chosen to believe that their magical statues, idols, jewels, and scriptures had miraculous powers or were sources of spiritual authority. Your own sacred text does not stand out against those, except in your own opinion. But freedom is not based on opinion; it is a reality that all people can experience, and it is far beyond opinion.

Those who follow the path of Theism will not all find their God here and now; some will say "we only know the Supreme Being by his silence or mystery", and in this, they revert back to faith. To no Theist is given a shred of tangible evidence for their claims or the powers they ascribe to their deity. But anyone who follows the Buddha's way of awakening will find freedom. Do not course in the endless circles of suffering brought about through speculation, beliefs, and blind adherence to tradition. Stop and look, with clarity, and really see what is there."



* * *


Finding Buddha walking down a crowded sidewalk in Memphis, The Christians put their cinema knowledge together and asked him:

"In the film "Beyond Rangoon" Laura's guide says that the (Buddhist) Burmese expect suffering, not happiness. When happiness comes, it is to be enjoyed as a gift, but with the awareness that it will soon certainly pass. If the ultimate Buddhist hope is to just leave the present wheel of birth and rebirth and enter into the ineffable bliss of Nirvana, where is the motivation to do good, and to actively oppose injustice, in this present life?"


The World-Honored One said to them:

"Christian friends, I cannot answer to the accuracy of a movie created by a motion picture company, nor its ability to reflect the truth of my teachings. I have not seen this movie, "Beyond Rangoon", but I hear good things.

From what you say, it sounds as if a screenwriter has made a statement about what some Burmese Buddhists may or may not believe. For my part, I say that all conditioned things arise, abide, and fall away or vanish, and that includes all occassions of joy and sorrow.

In this light, people can be aided in enduring sorrow, knowing that the conditions that bring it about must eventually change or fade, and we can appreciate the joyful things that we experience, by not grasping on to them, or expecting them to remain unchanged forever. We can be fully appreciative of them while we experience them. In this sense, the Burmese Buddhists are not unwise to see occassions of happiness as gifts, but keeping the awareness that they must eventually pass.

Again you have come to misunderstand my teachings- my disciples are not enjoined to place their efforts into an "ultimate hope" for a great spiritual achievement one day. I have never taught that people should have "hope" that they can leave some wheel of rebirth and "enter into" Nirvana; Nirvana has no door or gate; one does not "enter into" it. Nirvana is not some world or paradise apart from the experience you are having at this moment. Anyone who thinks of Nirvana in these wrong ways will never know freedom.

The motivation to do good, to oppose injustice, in this present life, is born in compassion. All men, women, and children in this world suffer; all want to be free from suffering. All want to be loved; all want to be spared isolation and pain. Each person knows this is true about himself; it is equally true for all mankind, and for all sentient beings. This realization gives birth to compassion. The more we help others with kindness and compassionate acts, the more the world will become peaceful and the more likely it will be that happiness and joy will surround us, helping us on our own path of realization."



* * *


Realizing that their time was short, the Christians cornered Buddha in the Florida Everglades. One of the youth pastors asked him:

"How do we reconcile the Dalai Lama's observation that "Every human being has the potential to create happiness", with your own teaching that suffering is caused by desire? If one sets out to resist desire, why would one ever then entertain the desire for happiness, and thus work to create it?"


The World-Honored One answered:

"Christian friend, egocentric desire is not the only thing that can motivate the actions of human beings. For most people, it is true that narrow desires drive them from one action to another. But for some, compassion and love are what motivate them. Compassion is the wish for others to be free from suffering; love is the wish for others to have happiness. It is possible to wish these things for other people, without any hint of selfish desire.

Surely you have heard of the term "selfless love"- a parent, for instance, can love a child, putting that child's needs before their own, and even be willing to die to save the child. This parent's love isn't based on hope of personal reward, but on a selfless wish for the good of the child before their own good.

Just so, compassion can be selfless, and all of the Awakened Ones feel just this love and compassion for all other sentient beings. Without hope for reward or thought of personal aggrandizement, they express whatever they must express to help save other sentient beings from suffering; they do whatever they can do, with the boundless energy of bliss, selfless compassion and love to support them.

These Awakened Beings never want to create the "desire" for happiness in others, nor do they have it in themselves; they work to create happiness or the conditions for happiness in others, and they are themselves already perfectly happy and at rest, in the ongoing freedom of their own awakening. Those who walk the path of awakening are enjoined to work on laying aside egocentric motivations and embracing true, boundless compassion and love for all sentient beings. After they have done so, they work to create happiness and peace naturally and spontaneously."



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