- by Tenzin Robert A. F. Thurman
Note: This is an excerpt from a talk for the B.U. Institute for Philosophy and Religion, held on December 8, 1993 - this explains the conversational style
Preamble
Lately I have been reflecting more often about a salient fact of Buddhist history; or it could be
myth - whichever it finally turns out to be, perhaps we'll never know, the ramifications are the same.
Siddhartha supposedly became a Buddha, a perfectly enlightened being, at the moment of greeting the
morning star in the pre-dawn twilight under the Bodhi tree on a full moon May morning in some year
round-about 528 BCE. To become perfectly enlightened is not just to slip into some disconnected
euphoria; an oceanic feeling of mystic oneness apart from ordinary reality. It is not to be invested by
some God with the final word, a message to believe in and to promulgate. It is not even to come up
with a solution, a sort of formula that can control reality. Rather it is supposed to be an experience of
release from all compulsions and sufferings, combined with a precise awareness of any relevant object
of knowlege. A Buddha should know everything that matters and the precise nature of it all - that is
how he or she is defined. Upon attaining this realization, the story is that Buddha smiled!
Fortunately for all concerned! The point is he could have frowned. Or he could have remained passive and inert. Or he could have beamed away like a Star Trek officer, turned into little sparkles - then to be no more. But the Buddha of our story smiled a cheerful smile. What a relief!
- :::continued next page:::