Editor's Note: Along with a congregational service on Buddhism, our Religious Education programming is devoting time to learning more about this major world religion. Youth in their Sunday classes will spend time this year on the religion, its tenets and practices - and adults are welcome to attend the five-week course led by Rev. Tom starting January 18th. Details available HERE
The Path of Buddhism
By Reverend Tom Capo
Preached on 1/11/2015
How many of you know the story of Siddhartha Gautama or as he came to be known, the Buddha? Well, just so we start in the same place, let me tell you the Cliff Notes version of his life. His father was a king, who believed that Siddhartha would either become a great king or a great religious leader, and since he wanted his son to become a great king, he kept his son secluded on their castle grounds. One day Siddhartha went outside the grounds, and saw old people, sad people, and sick people. He was greatly moved by this exposure. So he left the castle and started studying with great spiritual teachers and tried many spiritual practices to find how one might cope with the problems of this life. Eventually, he found himself sitting under a Bodhi tree meditating, and he realized, that is, he became enlightened, that there was a path to deal with suffering in the world. He realized that there will always be suffering; our lives have ups and downs—that is the way life is. And suffering is not intended to convey a negative view of the world or of life. Tibetan Buddhist monk, Pema Chodron (choe drun), wrote: “When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness.” In order to deal with suffering, one needs to have a down-to-earth, reasonable understanding of suffering, and see the world as it is—not as we want it to be. In other words one day or another there will be suffering in your life—so it is best to learn to cope with suffering without letting it control you.
