The Return of Buddha — Part 1: A Return

Jacob is an interesting friend of mine. I met him back in 2015 through the walk and talk events that he used to organise. The goal was to walk and talk freely in small groups. In every event, he prepared a few absurd questions for the participants.

Last time that I met Jacob (before the pandemic), he asked me another absurd question:

“Which one do you prefer and why?
1- Living for a month in absolute bliss and pure ecstasy and then die
2- Living for several years normally and then die”
And by absolute bliss, he meant something live Nirvana, an ecstatic state of pure transcendence.

I told him I’d go with the 2nd one but before telling my reasons, I like to know how other people responded. He said the majority voted for the second one mainly because of the fear of death. I told him while I, too, am afraid of death, that’s not my reason. I chose the 2nd one because I value a life with all of its ups and downs more than a life of pure ecstasy. Don’t get me wrong; I value all the ecstatic moments that I ever had, but at the same time, I absolutely cherish all the moments that I was so heat-broken that I had to take refuge in the arms of nature; and the moments that I have wept under the moonlight. I’m quite certain that without those moments, something essential would’ve been missed in my life.

A while after my conversation with Jacob, this question started to occupy my mind: “Why did Buddha return?” For he reached Nirvana (a state of pure bliss and without any suffering), yet he returned.

In his return, Buddha embraced the earth with all of its attachments, with all of its sufferings.

[to be continued..]

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Painting by Martin Beaupré