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For six years, the Buddha wandered the forests, first mastering deep states of concentration (jhanas), but he wasnt satisfied, he had not yet achieved the deathless. Then he starved himself, spiritually making great strides but still not finding what he was looking for, mesothelioma settlement if he continued not eating, he would die before his quest was satisfied.

So he finally accepted some milk and rice from a maiden who found him close to death, which disgusted the ascetics that he was travelling with, and when they abandoned him, the Buddha promptly took a seat under a Pipal tree, promising himself that he would not move until he was either dead or enlightened.

But it wasnt working. Then he remembered the plouging festival when he was just a child, and how he fell into a meditative trance naturally, and this is what he tied his mind to. He battled fear, and doubt and temptations of all kinds, but kept his mind tied to his meditation. Then he was able to recall all of his past lives, and could see the endless cycle of rebirths ahead for all beings, as he understood the intricate workings of karma. Finally, he realized the all the complexities of his Four Noble Truths, and he became the Buddha, the enlightened one.

This story parallels Jesus life in many ways. Both the Buddha and Christ had pure mothers that became divinely pregnant from a vision, and wise men foretold that each child would become a savior. In the bible, the Holy Ghost told Simeon that he should see the Lord Christ before he dies, so he attended the Jewish temple when Jesus was there for his naming ceremony. At that time, Simeon said that Jesus was destined to greatness. The Maji structured settlement payments their predictions as well.

Both men began their epic journeys at about age thirty. They were both intelligent, surprising their instructors with their prowess. Both also traveled from Aquaman to location, preaching on the way with neither of them interested in gainful employment. Instead, they depended on the generosity of their supporters. The Buddha fasted in the forest, while Jesus did likewise in the desert, and doubt and fear haunted them both.

After their seclusion, the Buddha established his monastic order where he asked his followers to leave both home and relatives behind for the greater search, while Jesus did likewise with his disciples. Entrenched, close-minded, conservative politicians criticized both men, as both were extremely liberal, fighting against class prejudice and standing up for the poor and destitute, and both were pacifists, espousing peace, non-violence, and purity, a both men also suffered abandonment by their fellow seekers.

Both the Buddha and Jesus were non-conformists, straying from their religions. The Buddha sided heavily with the original Indus River Civilization, repudiating the caste system of India, the holy books, the gods and the Atman, all fabrications of the old Aryan priests. The Buddhas doctrine of Anatta (no soul . . . there is no separate soul that merges with the absolute) has befuddles Christians for years! Basically, the Buddha was saying that the absolute is ineffable, beyond description, and as long as we think that we are an individual, either in body or soul, we will never experience that absolute even though we might spend millions of lifetimes on earth or other planes of existence.

Therefore, he never said that God neither exists or doesnt exist, only that whether God exists or not matters not at all, what matters is our understanding of ourselves, which is so hard to look at.

He preached that we, ourselves, are the ones who directly affect our lives and our destinies, not some authoritative god, and because this is so, we forge our own future.

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E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com">www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the Serpo story northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit www.AYearToEnlightenment.com">www.AYearToEnlightenment.com