The Journey to Understanding Suffering and Spirituality : หน้า 28/164

Suzanne Jeffrey Him with everything to meet His needs, but this was simply not enough for him to answer his true human need. And what were those needs? Well, one day, while He was still a Prince, He went out into His Kingdom, and saw four things: and old man, a sick man, a dead body, and finally, an ascetic. Because of these four ‘signs’, it dawned on Him that every person would eventually have to live with sickness, old age, and death and that life was, indeed, not without pain and suffering. So his real needs as a human became the answers or medicine that would cure everyone of these atrocities. Even though He had not realized the Four Noble Truths at that time, He did know that He needed to find a way to end suffering forever. Therefore, after seeing the ascetic and understanding the reasons for this type of life, He became a monk and went on His journey to find the answer to His questions. “And, so, in the end, He discovered the Middle Way: the path between luxury and self-mortification while using the Mind to meditate within and He became known as the Buddha, or He who sees and knows truly. But, remember, if you meditate, you will discover this for yourself!” And then, Luang Por smiles. Because Jon and I were both raised as Episcopalians, we have lots of questions about this teaching. We both, of course, are believers. So there was never a question about the actual existence of an Unknown Factor. Jon has been a theology student at Oxford University, so his knowledge is considerable and his own self-study has been with many readings on Tibetan Buddhism, Judaism, Zen, Gnosticism, the Bardo Thodol, various Biblical texts (of course), and assorted other religions. I, on the other hand, came to my religious beliefs through years of church training, biblical reading, and meditation. Always thinking of myself as a Jewish-Christian, because, after all, Christ was a Jew, I found myself here at the Wat on new ground, and the exploration of this particular teaching was pretty exciting. So here I am thinking that maybe I am a Jewish-Christian-Buddhist. Hey, why not? I like the idea of an “inside” Unknown Factor, because Christ said that the Kingdom of God is within you. Christ also, of course, taught cause and effect, you reap what you sow, and lots of other things that the Buddha taught 500 years before Christ ever existed. Where this all will lead me, of course, I do not know.