Today is the most solemn observance in the Catholic tradition, whose mythology and scripture tells the heart-wrenching story of the Suffering Servant, the Great Rabbi Jesus, whose love for humanity compelled him to accept the suffering and torture described in the texts, for the "remission of sins".
Far too often, people become distracted by the extremes -- either focusing on a mistaken and literalist interpretation of the story, imagining that these things, for which there is no credible historic evidence, actually occurred; or focusing entirely on the absurdity of those who believe such myths to be literally true... in either case, missing the point of these days of sacred contemplation.
In the Satasáhasriká Prajñapáramitá, we learn that a true Bodhisattva shows his or her compassion by choosing to suffer the pains, torments and passions... even the agony of death, so that he or she might lead all beings to perfect Enlightenment. Such a person, we are told, becomes consumed with grief over the suffering he or she sees among others, and desires to take such suffering upon himself or herself, for the sake of freeing others... literally, saving them, from torment.
This description could perfectly describe the two central figures of the Passion narrative of the Christian faith: Jesus and his Blessed Mother, Mary.
Both Jesus (Rav Yeshua) and his Mother (Miriam) willingly surrender themselves to great suffering -- both physical and emotional -- out of an overwhelming sense of longing to free the world of suffering and death for innumerable æons.
For the Catholic-Buddhist, the story of Good Friday and Easter can be seen through the lens of the ancient mystery traditions, which recognise the stories as a ways to fill in the gaps science leaves with symbolism and myth, for the purpose of illustrating the importance of the gaps themselves -- those empty spaces in which ultimate truth (Emptiness) exists.
The apostle wrote that his desire was "to decrease, so that the Christ Consciousness in him could increase". This consciousness of which he speaks is the awareness or awakening that Buddhists call "Enlightenment". It is an awareness of the ineffable, ungraspable, groundless reality, which the primitives called "God", and which the mystics and Desert Fathers knew could never be named or quanitified.
For me, the Liturgy of Holy Thursday, in which we strip the altar of its linens, its candles and empty the tabernacle of the sacramental presence that usually resides there, has always been a powerful and emotional symbolism. I've always returned, as was the case of the elders (episkopi) in the early Jesus Movement, to sit in silent contemplation in that empty church... and turned my awareness to the profound experience of that emptiness.
The period of time from that Paschal meal that Rav Yeshua would have shared with his disciples and their families... during which his Mother must have been keenly aware that something was troubling Her beloved son... bring a mindfulness that there is a pain inherent in being alive. We read about the "agony in the garden", and find the tremendous sadness and agony Christ experienced, when contemplating the suffering of others, and during which he seems to have resolved to identify solely with that sovereign value in the identification of one's own suffering with the sufferings of all beings.
This ethic of sacrificial compassion is at the heart of the Bodhisattva ideal. And I find meaning in contemplating not only the staid story of Rav Yeshua and his passion and death, but the frequently overlooked, and equally courageous role of the co-redemptrix, Mary, his Mother... who becomes, by adoption, the Mother of Us All. For a mother to stand by and watch her child suffer must be a terrible thing. I know that when my late partner was dying, who for the last year of his life, was more like my child than my lover, it was one of the most emotionally heartbreaking experiences I had ever known. Yet to compound that experience of watching a loved one die with watching them die a savage and brutal death is even more extreme.
A Mother, barely older than Her Child, stands on the step, watching as Her Son is ridiculed, beaten by a crowd, tortured and hanged upon a tree. These words seem inconceivable, and we imagine that is because they are part of an ancient legend... a sacred myth... and that is why we cannot begin to understand. But those words were not a description of our Blessed Mother at Calvary... they were the words used to describe the experiences of a 23 year old Black woman, in Selma, Alabama, who watched her son being beaten and hanged by a mob of racist terrorists in 1962.
Suddenly, when the context changes, our hearts begin to feel the terror, the agony and the grief.
We reflect on the meanings of the story... on the meaning of Pilate, the representative of the "great civilisation", which was threatened by the radical message of inclusion and equanimity being preached by this revolutionary Rabbi of Love. "What is truth," Civilisation (in the person of Pilate) asks of the Anointed One. In the end, Civilisation washes its hands of the responsibility to uphold social justice.
Then there are the high priests... the ones charged with upholding truth and who became caught up in the literalist interpretation, the ritiualistic practice, and the lust for power and authority that comes in every institutionalisation of spirituality. In the end, they too were threatened by the suggestion that compassion calls us to erase the lines the priests had drawn in the sand, dividing "us" from "them"... "pure" from "ritually unclean".
Afraid that doing the "right thing" might upset the status quo (Rome), the few priests with a conscience, retreated in silence, and let fear and manipulation win, just as we find those dedicated and compassionate priests in the Roman Church often doing, in the shadow of the oppression, injustice and intolerance their institutional dogma puts forward. They know that women, gay and lesbian persons, and people from other faiths are being dogmatically marginalised by their religion, and in their hearts, they do not embrace such intolerant ideas... but they do nothing about it... and like the Pharisees, stand by in silence, and watch the torture unfold.
Now there was, at the time of Rav Yeshua, a tradition during Pesach (Passover), during which every observant Jew would bring a lamb or a goat to the Temple for ritual slaughter. The priests would first bleed out the lamb (poorer families would use a goat), and then offer the first portion sacrificially to their vengeful and punitive god, Yahweh. The families would not be permitted into the Holy of Holies, and would have to stand in a waiting area (actually only the men were even permitted to stand in this section). So a name tag was placed around the necks of the animals to be sacrificed.
As we read the story of the Passion, we find that the Jewish priests were horrified and appear angry, when they looked up at the Cross, and see the sign Pilate had inscribed in Latin, Hebrew and Greek.
Many are familiar with the inscription that is often seen on crucifixes today, with the Roman "INRI" appearing above the head of the Corpus.
This sign would have actually contained the entire message "IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM" -- meaning "Jesus the Nazarean, and King of the Jews" (contrary to the misinterpretation of many later scriptural texts, which claim it said "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews", since there was no such place as Nazareth at the time of Jesus' birth. The Nazarenes were a sect of Dharma adherents, who were trained in the healing arts by the Therapeutae -- Alexandrian monks, trained as disciples of the Tibetan Buddhists). Back to the story...
The Pharisees subscribed to a metaphysical method of looking at all written words in Hebrew as containing a literal meaning, and then a numeralogical meaning, followed by a "hidden" Kabbalistic meaning, which was derived from taking the first initial of every word in a passage, and looking for symbolism or words therein.
When the words "IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM" are translated into Hebrew, the first initials of the words would have been "YHVH".
There, before the eyes of those who were charged with the responsibility to protect the truth, was a sacrificial lamb... above whose head was his "family name" the name of their mythical god, Yahweh, whose name in Hebrew is "YHVH".
On a deeper level, there were other more ancient assignations, dating back to the crucifixion myths that pre-date the plagiarised version found in the Bible, in which those letters mean, "IGNE NATVRA RENOVATVR INTEGRA" -- "By fire is restored purity".
Thus we see in the story of Good Friday the Bodhisattva Path -- which represents the inner fire of the spirit, regenerates and resurrects Love and Life... much like the sun regenerates the earth.
Regardless of your personal spiritual path, I invite you to consider and contemplate this exemplary story of the Bodhisattva Christ (Aviloketesvara) ... and the Bodhisattva Mary (Kuan Yin).
Consider a love so great, that after becoming incarnate, was moved so deeply by the suffering of this world and others, that he gave his life in exchange (the Tibetan practice of tonglen) for the freedom of others. Each day, we too have an opportunity to take on the suffering of others, symbolically and in small ways, to alleviate the suffering they experience in some meaningful way.
We can let the desire for that pack of cigarettes die in us, so that the $5 can feed that homeless woman we pass on our way home from work. We can let the habit of Happy Hour with our friends die so that we can spend those couple hours visiting those in the coutnry home or cancer ward.
We can allow the need to be right die, and simply say, "I'm sorry", next time our wife or husband is bitching about something stupid.
And I'll promise you this, my friends... three days later, you will discover that there has been something in you that is indeed "raised up"... restored to life... reinvigorated.
I would like to conclude this reflection by sharing with all of you the grateful news we received today, that the neurologist is certain that whatever the disabling neurological condition is that caused my accident seventeen months ago, and which continues to cause some deterioration in my health is *not* Parkinson's Disease or ALS. For this I am thankful and relieved.
We are likewise thankful that the generous help from eleven of our readers allowed us to pay last month's rent, and avoid being evicted, and that this month we are only $375 short of having the money we need for the electric, phone and rent. The District Attorney is at work at trying to get the man who caused these problems for us to make restitution, and tell us that within the next 60 days they will have resolved the problem. So progress is being made!
And our company -- both the legal services division (http://prepaidlegal.comhub/fgsalvato) and the financial services company that I started (http://peoplesfinancialnetwork.com) are beginning to pick up enough momentum to start showing a profit 6-8 weeks from now!
For all of these things I am grateful... but most of all, for the times in my life when each of you has made sacrifices, in the form of a prayer, a smile, a donation or a kind word... and alleviated the pain and suffering of this simple monk.
May I find the strength, courage and awareness to do the same for you always!
In the Essence of the Paschal Experience,
Namasté!
-- dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda
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