Jim Cogley: Postings 13 June – 19 June

The Buddha – Who was he?

Tues 13th June

The Buddha was born in India about the year 560 BC and given the name Siddhartha. His father, the king, insisted that he had a very sheltered upbringing that kept him confined to the palace grounds. There Siddhartha grew up, married, and had a son. Around the time of his son’s birth, he finally went into town where he was exposed to the real world for the very first time. On his first visit, he saw an old person; on his second visit, he saw an ill person; and on his third visit, he saw a dead person. He asked his guide if these things happen to everyone. Told that they did, Siddhartha became disillusioned and disheartened. He said to himself, ‘How can I live in palace conditions conducive to happiness knowing that so many of my fellow human beings do not live in these privileged conditions? How can I be happy knowing they are out there? And how can I myself be happy, knowing that all these possessions and all this wealth cannot protect me from illness, old age, and death?’

Buddha Story (2)

Wed 14th June

Siddhartha went into town for a fourth visit and he saw a sadhu (a wandering ascetic monk). The monk, although dressed in rags, radiated an inner peace and was not dependent upon the usual conditions conducive to happiness. Siddhartha felt a call in his heart to go on a quest to come to an understanding of liberation from suffering, and to come to true and abiding happiness, for himself and others. So, around age 29, he left the palace and his family to begin a six-year inner journey in search of enlightenment and lasting peace.

Buddha Story (3)

Thurs 15th June

First, he joined a yoga community that practiced deep, meditative states. But Siddhartha came to see this as a rarified version of a life based upon conditioned states. So, he joined a wandering group of ascetics who practiced severe fasting. But he became so emaciated and weak that he was in danger of dying. He realized that since his goal was to discover freedom from suffering and to learn the nature of true happiness, things weren’t going well! So, he started to take food. The other ascetics were scandalized and left him.

Buddha Story (4)

Fri 16th June

Then Siddhartha, utterly alone, stopped and calmed himself and looked deeply into his situation. Stripped of all superficiality and adornment of the extremes of wealth and poverty, his situation is our situation. He reveals us to ourselves. He is the human being who has discovered the bankruptcy of the ego’s agenda to come to abiding happiness. He made a vow to sit there under a Bodhi tree until he resolved the human dilemma of suffering and the search for inner peace and fulfilment in the midst of life as it is. Throughout the night, he was tempted by the demon Mara, but he was unshaken in his resolve.

Sat 17th June

Buddha Story (5)

At first light, Siddhartha turned and looked at the day star with awakened eyes, as the Buddha—meaning “the one who is awake”—seeing life the way it really is, free from all projections, all distortions, all delusions, all belief systems. He saw, we might say, the boundary-less, trustworthy nature of what is. He sat in the bliss of his enlightenment for some days. Finally, he realized that although many would not be ready to hear his teachings, some would. The Buddha’s first words to someone after his enlightenment were, ‘In this blind world, I beat the drum of deathlessness.’

Sun 18th June

The Call to Discipleship

The month of June was traditionally when most ordinations took place. Today they are few and far between. As a result, most of us in priesthood find ourselves reflecting at this time on that mysterious reality we call vocation. I wonder when they came to the end of their lives how did those early disciples reflect on that time mentioned in the Gospel when Christ first called them to be fishers of men. It was a very brief window of opportunity that demanded a radical choice where their lives could have been very different. They were the most unlikely and motley group that anyone could imagine. Had they undergone any kind of psychological assessment, like students for the priesthood undergo today, there is not a hope that any of them would have passed. Judas may well have been the only one in with a chance. Yet, by the grace of God, once they gave their yes to Christ, miracles happened, and their influence stretched so far that it even reaches us today 2000 years later.

Not so long ago someone handed me a copy of the leaflet I had printed for my first Mass which was held in Rosslare Harbour. 43 years ago. On it I had a poem that expressed my sentiments at the time, and it still expresses much of what I feel to this present day:

I know that I am called,

The message was quite clear,

And yet I cannot see the how, the why.

I feel so small, so weak,

So ill-equipped for such a task.

And yet I am prepared to say my “YES”

And undertake the risk and enter the unknown,

Responding to the call.

Trustfully treading my way,

 the only way, that leads to life,

to HIM.

I still think of myself, even after 43 years, as being one of the most unlikely candidates on God’s earth to be called to this way of life. On my list of career options priesthood never even featured. To this day the element of surprise about my vocation has never left. Yet I know and accept fully that by God’s call and God’s grace I am what I am. If I were never to receive a cent for what I do, I would still be doing it, and that itself is a good indication that I must have found my calling.

Just prior to ordination my class in Maynooth spent a few days on retreat. I will always remember the retreat master asking what became one of the most relevant questions of my life. It wasn’t are you ready, or are you strong enough, but rather ‘are you weak enough to be a priest?’ It was an utterly liberating question. By nature I was the kind of person who didn’t like the limelight. In the area of public speaking in particular I felt quite inadequate. Somehow that question gave me the freedom to have confidence in the Lord knowing that whatever I was being called to do I was also going be empowered to do. Amazingly, over the years, the areas I would have regarded as my greatest weakness become my strength. Particularly in the area of preaching, God has blessed my ministry in abundance. Now nearly 20,000 sermons and talks later the Word of God is still fresh on my lips and able to transform lives. And, thankfully there is more fire in my heart for the Lord and the work of the Kingdom today than there was 43 years ago.

I look back with gratitude, not for anything I might have done, but with satisfaction at what the Lord has done through me and even in spite of me. What he wants of any of us is neither our ability or our inability but simply our availability. I have always told him that I never wanted to be a pillar in his temple but if he just let me be a drainpipe instead, I would be delighted. That way there’s not nearly as much responsibility and there’s a lot more fun.

One of the big discoveries for me over the years has been that whatever gifts and talents the Lord has blessed us with are ideally suited for the work that he has called us into. For me even working with wood and creating symbols has taken on huge spiritual significance for writing, preaching and teaching. It’s as if from the very beginning he has already fully equipped us for the tasks he has in mind for us. It’s simply a matter of walking in his will and discovering our true lives. His invitation to come follow remains the same and is extended to all of us

One thing I have found for sure is that to love the Lord is life’s greatest romance, to work for him is life’s greatest privilege and to follow him is life’s greatest adventure.

Buddha Story (6)

Mon 19th June

Later, the Buddha spoke to five hundred of his early followers and told them that each one of them would become a buddha. According to tradition each of them eventually became enlightened. The question was, did the Buddha see into the future as to what they would become or were his words an enormous act of faith that encouraged each of them to become their best selves and what they were capable of becoming? It seems most likely that he saw in them something that at the time they were incapable of seeing in themselves just as we all need someone to believe in us when we may be incapable of believing in ourselves.