Siddhartha, Jesus, and Muhammad, and the Busniess of "Prophecy" and Professed Love

Siddhartha, Jesus, and Muhammad, and the Business of "Prophecy" and Professed Love.

We all die in one way or another. 
To live is to die a little before dying decisively. 
Some die by drowning 
Others of insanity
Some go up in flames of fire
Others perish in the solitude of ice 
And many others have a languishing death because of stupidity
I know I will die with a smile
I will tell Death, "Hello, what took you so long?"

Wissai
June 19, 2013

A woman once arrogantly and stupidly told me that I only understood her "superficially". Even if what she said was true, it was high folly for her to say so. I wondered what she thought she would accomplish by having that stupidity coming out of her mouth. Did she insinuate that she was too complex and multidimensional that I was incapable of knowing her inner core? You see, she was vain and stupid at the same time. The combination was not unexpected. Not really. The same woman told me when I first met her that she felt secure that "God" would take care of her. I rhetorically countered her inane statement by asking her what was so special about her that "God" had to devote His personal attention to her, to the neglect of those who perished in Nazi concentration camps in Europe, in the Killing Fields in Cambodia, in famines in North Vietnam (in 1945) and Ethiopia, or the genocides in Armenia, Rwanda and Bosnia. 

Another woman deliriously told me that I was "Gold's gift" to her. A couple of years later, when I walked away from her, she denounced me in vile terms but conveniently omitted any reference about once I was a gift from "God" to her. Apparently "God" changed His mind. 

My point is that people use words carelessly, reflecting a messed-up and stupid mind. I just finished reading a book ("Tripping with Allah") by Muhammad Knight, a novelist and a scholar, whose books are used as textbooks in some colleges. At the end of the book, Knight, a white Catholic turned Muslim, confessed that he loved Muhammad, the "prophet". That statement bothered me a great deal as it reflected stupidity and facile sentimentality. To my way of thinking, to love somebody involves more than just a respect for that person from a distance, through legends and hearsay. It requires close interactions with the person to the point that I conclude that the person complements me and cares about me. 

First of all, leaving aside if there is really such an organism deserving the cognomen "prophet", the Muhammad of Mecca didn't know the converted Muslim, Muhammad Knight of America. There was no direct, close interactions between them. Second, I think Knight confused "respect" with "love", a tendency that is shared by Christians and Muslims. Third, the grand business of "prophecy" all started, or at least given wide currency, with the Jews. Strictly and scientifically speaking, there is no such thing as "prophecy" and consequently there are no "prophets". There are "leaders", "thinkers", and "teachers". This business of inflating and blowing up the status of individuals like Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and Joseph Smith (a Johnny-came-lately) was really a turn-off and an affront to freethinkers who were not brainwashed into accepting nonsense and superstition. Curiously, in Buddhism proper, the kind understood by elites, Siddhartha was considered only a teacher, a man, not a prophet nor of any lofty, divine origin bullshit. Maybe that was why even though Siddhartha was a prince and was used to being kowtowed and venerated, he left all the trappings of a pampered court life behind and went in search of truths and salvation of mental sufferings. Once he found them, he humbly told his disciples that he was nobody special and that anybody who was willing to work hard could be just like him. His dying words were something to the effect that "all compound beings disintegrate. Work out your own salvation with diligence. Don't blindly believe in what you were told." 

By the way, Buddhists usually don't say that they "love" Buddha. They merely say they respect him.

Love is a serious and complicated business. Don't be a copycat and loosely throw the word "Love" around. I cringe whenever I see stickers declaring "Jesus loves you". Jesus didn't know me. He died nearly two thousand years ago. I didn't believe he "rose" from his death and ascended to "heaven". He died meant he died. As simple as that. He is not coming back. Science told me so. I am inclined to believe in what is logical and verifiable. I have not met anybody who came back from death. Death is an end point. 

Wissai
June 19, 2013