My God, would You please say something about someone who indeed was a good man on earth, but had very straightforward ideas. So for example a very orthodox believer, say a Buddhist. He for sure is expecting the Buddha Himself greeting him after his death, when he arrives in the spiritual world? But will this be the case?
So be it.
We take a true story.The man has been a good man, with his heart in the right place. He has always tried to take into account his fellow man, he has never duped anyone consciously and shared regularly some of his possessions with the poor. He loved life, he loved his family, he loved his job, he loved his country. But above all he loved his faith. And now there is the snag.
He loved his faith very much, but above all his
thoughts about his faith. With his faith he took the breath away from his
family, from his growing children into adolescence, from his liberal neighbour
and from other faiths. He choked everything and everyone with his
straightforward and clear-cut ideas about how everything should be. He was hard
then and ruthless and cruel and extremely intolerant.
He dies at the age of 80, in his own bed,
surrounded by his three adult children. His wife has already deceased.
Because he has lived rather lovingly and
without great physical attachments, a well-developed spiritual body is awaiting
him, without defects and an environment that reflects his attitude to life.
Because the spiritual world really wants to take in account his intense need
for a Buddhist heaven, his spiritual surroundings looks like a Buddhist temple.
To give him no offense in advance, everything is quite perfect spoken in
orthodox terms, like the arrangement of the images and the attributes and the
dressing on the Buddhist altar.
The man expects in his orthodox innocence the
Buddha Himself awaiting him.
It indeed happens sometimes in special cases
the Lord Buddha awaits an earthly newcomer arriving in the spiritual world, but
that's a big exception. When an earthly newcomer experiences an appearance of
Buddha, or Jesus, Mohammed, it is almost
always a temporary manifestation by a spiritual personality, showing up then as
the Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed. But only after a pure life or a great merit.In the case of this story it is not an option. Because our man has raped the pure faith. Buddha Himself looks with compassion at this cramped view of the great Buddhist faith.
Our Buddhist sir, I use this term deliberately,
is sitting there in his perfect temple impatiently waiting for his reward,
because that's what he actually expects, a reward for his strict monitoring of
the true faith. He waits and waits and waits, in his perfect temple. And
nothing happens. Just for a while, because the spiritual world likes to
consider his innocent live after all. He was not a beast,
just a fanatic.
In his temple he is punished for a while, not
for his faith, but by his faith.But this must not last too long.
Moreover, all of a sudden someone enters his
Buddhist holy temple. It is a Sunni imam (an abomination in the eyes of our
Buddhist sir) in full vestments. And it also happens to be that this imam is
the administrator of this Buddhist temple and is going to look after everything
with much love: all existing bowls, flowers and attributes, and is taking care
of all the Buddhist rituals, such as paritta ritual (chanting), completely
perfectly.
Our Buddhist sir is almost ready for a
respirator. He is protesting, and feels insulted, and is shouting the imam
should refrain from everything, that only a Buddhist priest may do this, but he
is not heard. Because he has never heard others, only his own rigid beliefs.
Full of frustration and anger and bewilderment
the Buddhist sir remains behind when the imam leaves the temple, after having
completed all his Buddhist duties.And this process is repeated three full months long, in earthly terms of time, until the Buddhist sir suddenly gets in his mind that the imam is performing everything very good and purely and really properly. And then he asks himself: "How can this be?".
This is the beginning of his spiritual
development.
The next day he receives a visit from his
spiritual guide, of course in Buddhist outfit, but ready to talk with him about
his question. Gradually the man is growing toward abandoning his rigid ideas
and thoughts, and learns in a group of Buddhist, but also other religions, to
talk about God, Buddha, faith, spiritual life and the Purpose of life, namely,
life experience and spiritual growth.
We do not mention the other opportunities and
challenges awaiting him, like a private place in the spiritual world, the
reunion with his deceased loved ones and further the good making of the serious
consequences of his rigid conception of life. Those matters are not really
relevant now.
Sir has become a blessed generous man in the
spiritual world and has left behind his limited attitude to life.My blessings to you all
Nr. 319
