My World Is Mine: What I still don't know...

In the midst of his reflections on the loss of a very senior family member, the Teflon Man posted this-

"The last Buddha Gautama Siddharta gained Enlightment and then Supreme Nirvana after he realised that life is suffering and everything is caused by desire or clinging.So, when one can give up all desires or clinging, then one is supposed to be freed from the cycle of life and death.

My point is this: The secret about desires and clinging and life is suffering is out.What does the next Buddha have to realise before he too can gain Enlightenment and then Supreme Nirvana?I mean, if Siddharta were taught the lesson early enough, he wouldn't have to spend so much time searching for the answer, right?

We now speak of the Buddhist precepts to no end. Surely, there must be something else that is of the essence next.

I wonder what that would be."

I am not Buddhist. Let me very clear about that. I have read some of the teachings, particularly from Zen, in the same way as I have read the Bible and Gita. So I am speaking from a very unknowledgeable and simplistic soapbox on this.

I posted a reply to Tef ending with my recollection of a Koan which runs along the lines of "If you depart with a destination in mind then you will never arrive".

Since then, both Tef’s post and his response to my comment (to which I have further replied) have been bothering me; like that itch that you get between your toes in the middle of a long lecture and you just know that the whole theatre will know when you remove your boot to scratch it...

I haven’t quoted the comments here. That is a dialogue I hope will continue. Nor do I wish to critique Tef’s thoughts – he likely knows more about Buddhism than I have learned in 60 years. Perhaps I can glean some of that...

Out of the original post, I think that the itch is caused by the question –

Surely, there must be something else that is of the essence next.

I wonder what that would be."

I admire anyone who questions. I can’t provide the answer, Tef. I would be another Gautama if I could.

I can not help but feel that the answer, no make that the beginning of the road to the answer, lies somewhere behind you. You have missed it, passed it by. Perhaps the clue to where it may start is in two words –

"I wonder..."

Have you ever read "Monkey"? I thought it a marvellous parable of the conflict with "self", with emotions, and with outside world.