A monk begins a long pilgrimage to find the Buddha. He devotes many years to his search. Finally, he reaches the land where the Buddha was said to live. While crossing the river to this country, the monk looks around as the boatman rows. He notices something floating towards them. As it gets nearer, he realizes that it is the corpse of a person. The corpse drifts so close that he can almost touch it. The man, suddenly, recognizes the dead body. The corpse is his own! He losses all control and wails at the sight of himself, still and lifeless, drifting along the river currents. That moment was the start of his liberation.
The above story is a Zen Buddhist story. However, I recommend we read it, likewise, pertaining to Jesus Christ. So, read it, once more, each time saying “Jesus Christ” for “the Buddha.” When you get to the last word, “liberation,” read “salvation” or “reconciliation.”
The Zen story, like Zen typically, is ambiguous. So, the story has gotten a number of responses. One person gave a sensible response: “Many times I have found myself heading towards a certain goal and then realized when I almost reached it that it really wasn't all that important. It was what I found on my way there that was important." "I" reply, “But who is the 'I' this respondent keeps referring to?" “I” do not think the story is about that respondent’s “I.” Another sensible interpretation is: "Even when he was alive, he wasn't alive. He didn't realize that until he saw the corpse." “I” reply, again, “But who is the 'he' this person refers to?” But, then, one respondent observed: "I wonder if that corpse was his twin brother?" “I” reply: This is a weird response. Another: "Does this mean you can only find the Buddha after you're dead?" “I” reply: That depends on what you mean by “you” and “Buddha” and “you’re dead.” Another: "This story is very depressing to me—and it also doesn't make any sense." “I” reply, "This story is depressing to 'me' and will never make sense to that 'me.'” Likewise, another, "This story is unbelievable. If I saw my own dead body drifting down a river I would check myself into a mental hospital." “I” reply: The separate self, indeed, cannot believe nor can the separate self bear to observe its death.
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I read in the story an important point regarding Buddhist teaching, as well as contemplative teaching in Christianity, generally: impermanence. The man, in getting close to the Buddha, is given insight into the fragility and temporality of all he had identified as himself. We can read the story to imply that he can only enter the “land of the Buddha” or “find the Buddha” when he has died to his sense of being separate from “the Buddha,” which is, in Buddhist teaching, the body of everything, or the Whole.
So, the Christian is one who has died to the self apart from the Father, the Whole, through participation in the Body of Christ, which is the manifested Body of the Source. Then, the Christian is resurrected to a new being (II Corinthians 5.17), one with the Body of Christ, which is all in Christ, from God, the Source. Then, she is able to enter and enjoy “my Father’s house” (see St. John 14.2), now.
The Paschal Mystery of Christ, concerning Jesus’ death and resurrection, can be seen as a narrative on impermanence, the only way to be given realization of being part of God, the Source. Until then, using language from the reading yesterday, we live a mistaken identity, which leads to frustration. For one cannot live contrary to Reality, denying her true Self, and, at the same time, be at peace, really at peace. So, we can see the wisdom of this Jesus saying:
If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?(St. Mark 8.35-37, NLT)
Jesus, being Mediterranean, not Eastern, of course did not speak of Reality the same way the East Indians speak of Reality. Therefore, when seeking to learn from different Paths from different cultures, we seek to see, through spiritual discernment, into how they might be saying the same thing, in different ways. If Jesus had been born in India, for example, he would have used a different language, which is itself a major framer of thought and the Christian faith would be, as well as its Scripture, framed much differently. However, that does not mean the essential Message, or Wisdom, would have been any different.
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