“And so the Buddha told me, the human condition is like the condition of a man who has been struck by a poisoned arrow and if it is not removed immediately the man will die. Would it be reasonable for the man to enquire where the arrow came from? Which tree the wood was procured from? Who crafted the arrow? How was the iron put into the tip of the arrow? Which poison has been put on the tip of the arrow? So, it is not for us to enquire how the universe began, how was life created and how man came into being. We must accept that and then follow the middle path to attain salvation, to remove the arrow from our breasts,” the preacher concluded.
The crowd was dispersed.
I found myself with Kapila who seemed extremely disturbed.
“There is something that is bothering you Kapila,” I said to him.
“Yes, there is. I am a Buddhist, I believe in Dhamma, I believe in Sangha, I believe in Buddha and yet… and yet… I cannot stop myself from wondering how the world was created, who created it and why; whether anyone created it. Why is there something rather than nothing?”
“Kapila, my friend, it is no sin to think”
“But, Anant like this preacher said, and I have been told many times, metaphysical questions should not be allowed to occupy the mind”
“Do you believe that a doctrine is to be followed in totality or not at all?”
“I do”
“And therein you falter…”
“I wonder …”
Kapila was perhaps one of the best friends I ever had, and he was perhaps the only one who believed me when I told him my secret. This is what he said –
“There is no miracle that you can show me that will astound me more than the very existence of anything at all …”
No comments:
Post a Comment