Jake, Anya, Ernest and I had dinner on Tues at Newtown Thai and we were discussing about the earthquake in China. Anya was upset and was even more upset with God per se; for letting suffering happen and innocent children dead. She asked if these children, who have never seen God, will go to heaven or hell now that they are dead.
She reminded us that her grandmother is a devout Buddhist and would not believe that Christian is the way and she is very afraid that when her grandma died, she will go to hell because of this.
God, in His infinite wisdom has allowed so much pain and hurt, is only because He allows us free-will. We tried to explain to Anya that we will never understand what God has planned for everyone and even if we try as much as we can, we can only have faith that whatever God has allowed to happen, God meant the best for us.
And to emphasize the difference between Buddhism and Christianity, I just shared what I understand about Buddhism. I know that Siddhārtha Gautama was born a prince. From young he was shield from all forms of birth, ageing, sickness & death. One day, Siddhārtha Gautama went out from his palace and saw an old man. Then he saw sickness, death and a monk.
As he was really affected by what he has seen, he wanted to know more about life and left his wife Yasodharā, his little son and his entire kingdom in search of the meaning of life.
I was a bit disturbed by his behaviour. I can understand if you would like to know more about life, but to abandon his wife and his family to do that; is it worth it? The son will grow up without a father and Yasodharā will be without her husband.
I guess it must be coincidence, that I manage to catch this beautiful movie The Samsara on SBS channel the other night. The sypnosis of the movie was a monk (Shawn Yu), who came out of 3 years' worth of meditation but started to have a sexual awakening (oooh....). He had an affair with a village girl Pema (Christy Chung) and was asked by his teacher Apo to choose between his path to Nirvana and the woman.
One of many powerful scenes in this movie depicts how Tashi, the monk got into an argument with Apo about why Siddhārtha Gautama is able to give up everything and was focused on attaining Nirvana; is only because He had experienced before and therefore can give up. What is there to give up when you had not experience?
So in the end, he left monkhood, married Pema, had a son and had a relatively good life of a farmer.
But he is still plagued by his lust for women and got into an affair with one of the farm help Sujatha.
After one tryst, he was so overwhelmed by his own betrayal to Pema, that he decides to return to monkhood.
On his way back to the monastery, he was way-laid by Pema, who told him the story of Yasodharā. She said Siddhārtha Gautama was revered by all, but does anyone remember Yasodharā? What becomes of her when Siddhārtha Gautama left the palace? No doubt, she must be fearful and sad, and wondered what has she done to deserve this abandonment by her own husband? And while Siddhārtha Gautama is gone, she had to go on living the life and taking care of their child alone. What is Yasodharā's story?
You would be glad to know, that our friendly wikipedia told me that Yasodharā was a brave brave women who refuses to give into depression. She raised their son up alone. Refused all kinds of welfare and even hands of marriage. She even followed Siddhārtha Gautama's journey closely from home and rejoiced when he attained Nirvana. She herself even become one of history's most powerful female monk and even developed supernormal powers. Hooray for strong women!
Back to the movie; at this point in time, I am asking myself this question: is this what a responsible man should do? Tashi was so touched by the story that he burst into tears and vowed never to leave Pema ever again.
If I were Tashi, I would never leave Pema either. She's hot!
I guess there might be other underlying reasons and teaching with regards to Siddhārtha Gautama and his way of seeking the 'Truth' and the 'Way' but leaving Yasodharā and his son behind is something I can't even start to understand. I am just glad that God is very simple to understand. He loves us. He sent His son to die for us. We have freewill to choose if we want to love Him but He will have thousands of angels celebrating and partying it out when we decides we want to love Him. That's it!
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