Embrace Nothing......Buddha

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 5 May 2023 While studying Buddhism and the revolutionary thoughts of Buddha, I came across one of the most interpreted, misinterpreted and misconstrued statements made by Buddha: “Embrace nothing. If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet your father, kill your father. Only live your life as it is. Not bound to anything." Here, killing is not to be taken in a literal sense. Rather, it's to be taken metaphorically. The essence of Buddha's most famous and controversial thought is: Follow none and nothing. This boldest statement has no parallel in any other religion though Bayazid Bastami once proclaimed in a fit of spiritual delirium that Muhammad be removed ( read Nicholson's ' Ecstatic proclamations and their contexts', published by the Department of Persian and Central Asian Studies, Cambridge, 1964). Buddha's emphasis is on creating one's own identity and individuality. No one is worth following and nothing is sacrosanct. Quoting the Buddha and Bayazid, the legendary professor Reynold Nicholson wrote, “We all must have a little quantity of righteous impudence to reject all; religions, gods, books, so-called messengers, prophets, society and even the parents to create our own selves unimpeded by anything. Follow none. Worship no one. Accept nothing meekly and question everything." That's the essence of a purposeful human existence. Buddha was dead-against blind acceptance and grovelling servitude. He believed in walking alone and urged humans to venture into the unchartered domains. He (Buddha) accepted till the end that he too was liable to err and was open to rectifying himself. He proved that when Anand, his favourite disciple who was like a son to him, reprimanded the 'enlightened' Buddha in front of many monks and disciples that Buddha made a grave moral mistake by not accepting Mahaprajapati Gautami (Buddha’s maternal aunt and foster mother, who brought him up like her son) into the fold of monkhood just because she was a woman. Buddha thanked Anand and openly said that he made more mistakes than ordinary humans did. Pitakas of Buddhism obliquely suggest that toward the fag-end of his life, Buddha realized that he was actually an escapist who was harsh on his wife Yashodhara. “Never follow my example. Instead, follow your own path and own intuition, “he advised Vaishampayan. Humans are flawed. Whether it was your prophet or your papa, we all have feet made of clay. So, no one should be your idol or icon. You're your own idol. If Hindus follow Ram, should they kill a man of lower caste just the way, 'Maryada Purushottam' Ram decapitated an untouchable Shambook just for reciting verses from the Vedas? Valmiki's ' Ramayana' clearly mentions this episode. Was Muhammad an infallible human as to be followed blindly by all Muslims? He too was fraught with characteristic lapses. It's your unique life that matters as you too are a unique individual in the whole universe. So, why should you be a carbon-copy of someone else? Why should you follow Sunnah (Muhammad’s way of life) to lose your own identity? In these times of aping and imitating others, we must remember that Buddha's greatest contribution to mankind is- Exploration of one's individuality. “Call no one an enlightened being as his so-called enlightenment is subjective. It's not yours. Be enlightened “(Buddha, Dhammasutra). No experience unless you go through the same should be valid. What your parents, teachers, books, ancestors, religions and peers told you must be evaluated, assessed and measured by using your own intelligence. And if it doesn't gel with your wisdom, reason and logic, discard it just the way a snake sloughs its skin off. Albert Camus' famous exhortation, 'Accept none, for, you're the unique one,' encapsulates Buddha's wisdom. We all must follow this in toto. But is that possible for the unquestioning and slavish masses? That remains a Sphinx's question. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/embrace-buddha/d/129703 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism