Wesak Day is coming

There is something about this year's Wesak that's different than the past ones I've observed. Not that I've seen many. In the US, Buddhism is not mainstream. Well, everyone seems to know the Dalai Lama but mention Siddhartha Gautama and you'll probably get a blank stare. "Sid who?" Haha.

Why is this year's Wesak Day different? Because in no other year has Siddhartha's musings struck a chord in me so many times.

Even way before I stumbled on his musings that were written down in so many places, I've always been drawn to look beyond the "Ooh its beautiful!" or "Ooh its ugly!" level that most people care to waste their time on. I can't help but look behind the first layer, the second layer, and so on.

I have this penchant to ask why and if I ask why enough times, I find myself waking up in the rabbit hole, facing things that ordinary people would rather not see.

There's a saying. If you know how hot dogs are made, you would never want to eat them. And its not just hot dogs in my opinion. Its more. A whole lot more.

But that's the beauty of living in this eat-first-think-later dimension. Here, ignorance is bliss. Knowing why spoils the fun, and wanting to know why makes you weird. "Don't think too much!," friends and family urge me. I just smile, knowing that awareness and mindfulness can happen when my brain is asleep.

But if there's a single biggest clue that I've gotten from Sid's musings this past year, its this: Nothing you have is ever truly yours, and your future is not carved in stone no matter how good or bad you have it today.

Okay that's 2 things, not one. ^_^

And these are not something that came out of faith. They are from repeatable observation, that incovenience required by empirical science, helped along by some mathematical modeling.

This is not to say that I disregard faith. I just find the language of mathematics more precise in describing "reality" so if something mystifies me, the first thing I do is try to reconstruct it in mathematical language. Then I use the rules of logic (as opposed to blind faith) to help me rationalize the picture.

As they say, whatever floats your boat.... and this happens to be mine.

Anyway, Sid's musings just affirm my own findings of what's behind the matrix, based on my limited ability to perceive. But like a giant video game, there are many levels to go, many planes of awareness that I'm not capable of jumping on yet. I am learning.

So for Sid's birthday, all I can say is thanks dude. You've left enough breadcrumbs in the long rabbit hole to give me a good start. And I have a feeling what I'll find at the end of it will blow me away.