Despite the flowery, romanticized musings of debatably-realized pundits: the present moment, for the part of us that has yet to give up self, is a real crucifixion. The truth is, the entirety of our incarnation is a cross to be borne--many who've longed to accept this have failed to. And it throws us back on the the shockingly conditional nature of our own acceptance. Jesus didn't say "life is suffering"--that was Buddha. There's a beautiful depiction, though, of Gautama weeping, and it scatters all the words. Whether pain and pleasure are the same, I don't know, God knows. This is the point: Buddha's anguish, Christ's agony in the garden, and the whole well of human sorrow--they are all one. And they are, at the same time, a death and a birth. ...
More »
