Embracing the Smile That Is This Moment
by
Ian Black
&
I am Blue
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A Pure Land Sell Out
Down on my knees,
at the foot of the Buddha, a thousand miles from home, I was seeking
enlightenment.
Thankfully, It
didn’t take long.
No years of
chanting. No lighting of incense, sitting in uncomfortable
positions, or staring at walls for endless decades.
Rather, almost
instantaneously, a feeling of mirth swept over me. Suddenly, I
realized the Buddha was laughing at me... and the silliness of my quest.
As you can
imagine, I was enraged. Here I had come to worship at his feet
and he was laughing at me!
“I’m sorry, I’m
sorry,” the Buddha said. “It’s just your stupid western
clothes... and I know you don’t believe that the Spirit of Nirvana or
whatever resides in a fifty foot idol, so why are you even here?”
“Enlightenment,” I
whispered curtly, hoping none of the other monks would hear me... or at
least understand the language in which I was speaking.
“Oh right,
enlightenment,” the Buddha repeated in mock thoughtfulness as he
pretended to mull over the words as if I was the first pilgrim ever to
pray as his feet. “Um, let’s see. Enlightenment, eh?
Um, well. Have you tried embracing the smile that is this moment?”
“What?” I asked,
perhaps a little peevishly. “Is that it?” I had been hoping
for something more than a trite phrase.
“Well, I could
reword it if you like, but that might take a while.”
I looked around
the temple and at all the aging acolytes who filled the room. And
then I realized, “They’re waiting for you to reword it, too.
Aren’t they?”
“Yeah, but there’s
plenty of room,” he insisted, trying to make it sound nice. “I
can hook you up with a free bowl of rice every day and on Saturday
night there’s the chant-along, that seems to help make the time fly
by. Oh, and on your tenth anniversary, you get a nicely
embroidered cushion for your tush. Of course by then, you’re
really going to need it.”
He might have gone
on, but I’ll be honest, I had stopped listening. I wasn’t about
to waste ten years of my life waiting for the Big Guy to come up with
some clever rewording of “Seize the Moment” or “Be the Day” or whatever
he had in mind.
Besides, Embracing the Smile That
Is The Moment
had a sort of ring to it. It was catchy. I mean, I could
write a book based on that one saying alone and probably make a
fortune. And when you get right down to it, that had a certain
undeniable appeal to it, as well. So without losing a single second more,
I jumped to my feet and ran out the door, only pausing ever so briefly
at the threshold to cry over my shoulder, “Thanks, dude!”.
Sometimes when I recall that moment,
I think I can remember hearing the Buddha call after me, something
about, “Hey! If you’re make any money on that smile thing, make
sure you cut me in on the royalties.” But over the years, I’ve
come to realize that something as materialistic as that doesn’t really
seem like something the Buddha would say, now does it?
Darn tooting! Sounds a lot more like something your writing
partner might say. You know, he might say something along the
lines of
“This book wouldn’t be half the book it is without me. So fair’s
fair. Share the wealth and all that. Time to sign over one
of those royalty checks to your better half, don’t ya think?”