Becoming a Buddha (Part 1)

I started to write this while my Facebook was charging up and then this appeared from my spiritual teacher (my Guru) DarmaYasa.

Life should be about play and laughter when we’re younger. I have many kids, when I’m asked “How many children do you have?” I think “Oh no here we go again”. Because I’ve been blessed with many, at my last count 11 (that I know of). Wow people say eleven, then I have to explain (which in my case could take a lifetime), and at 66 I don’t have all day ha-ha. So before I go any further I will explain.

In my first ‘true marriage’ I first ‘inherited’ 6 children, sure I wasn’t the sperm donor, but I happily ‘took on’ at 23 Oh My God, the Joy these kids brought me. I then had my ‘own’ daughter Sarah (who’s the light of my life). It gets even more complicated ‘cos before Bobbin (my daughter’s nickname) came along I had a relationship with someone else and she gave me another daughter Elizabeth, so Elizabeth is the eldest of my ‘personal children‘. Later my wife and I divorced (long story too long for this post) and I remarried someone with 3 kids, so 6+3+2 = 11 numbers are important…. see Angka meditation for more info.

I’ve learnt a lot as I’ve enjoyed teaching and being taught by my kids through the years, such as ‘I too can become a Buddha‘ and kids know when there’s a swimming pool around especially when they want to go swimming, (I’d be driving along the road and Bobbin would say “wimming pool” she couldn’t pronounce the Ss but she could smell the chlorine in the air, and wanted to go for a swim with her big ‘smiley face’). Even now after some 35 years makes me smile just thinking about it.

So yes I have lots of kids, I don’t like calling them my ‘step children’ ‘cos I knew what I was doing when I married their mothers I ‘adopted’ them, and it’s been a Joy watching them all grow up have their own children, some of whom went on to have even more children. There are now more children bearing my name in the world than ever before (my dad would be proud of his son getting our family name re-established tehe). Sure they don’t have my genes but I hope in some small way I can contribute to showing them the true path, the middle path no extremes are necessary to attain happiness (Buddhahood).

So I call myself a Christian Buddhist, I was born a Christian but later became attached to Buddhism (which to me isn’t a religion but a way of life). It was Bobbin that was instrumental in in bringing me that realization and Leigh her brother that developed it, (long story). But because of all of my ‘earthly’ responsibilities I put this ‘self-realization’ on the back-burner (I had all these kid’s to provide for and what a journey it’s been).

So to the original point I was going to make “You too Anya can be a Buddha” that’s what Chuthima (Anya’s mother) said to Anya when he started moving off that ‘middle path‘ (Anya is my Grandson). It was said on Facebook so everyone saw Chuthima teaching her son a lesson. It amused me at the time but also gave me one of those Aha moments (and there have been many since). Could I become a Buddha? Surely that’s a bit like saying I’m Jesus, and that in Christianity would be a heresy, you’d be burnt at the stake for saying that not so long ago. But Buddhism is much different, The Buddha wanted to teach everyone that no need to go through all these trials and tribulations to reach your Nirvana . I’ll cut through the crap, he would have said in today’s modern lingo and then you can experience true bliss much earlier in this thing we call life (which is just the blink of an eye). So for now its goodbye from me and goodbye from him “all the best”