concentration.
MS: I’m sorry, what was that last one?
B: Proper concentra — HA! A joke from a young mind. This is a beautiful example of proper effort, but your understanding is faulty. This will take time.
MS: So the Buddha goes into a pizza shop and says, “Make me one with everything.”
[There is a long pause. Like, painfully long.]
MS: As a prince, you had it all. Your father, King Suddhodana, even arranged a marriage to a wonderful gal. But you left it all behind. Why?
B: At the age of twenty-nine I finally looked beyond the walls of the palace. There I saw the four sights.
MS: An old crippled guy, a diseased dude, a decayed, nasty corpse, and an ascetic, right?
B: The truth of life: that death, disease, age, and pain are inescapable. Poor outnumber the wealthy, and the pleasures of the rich eventually come to nothing.
MS: That is deep. Though I’m not sure if I saw these things I’d leave all my possessions — and inheritance — to become a monk.
B: You may or may not choose to walk in my footsteps. Remember that thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
MS: Apparently — Buddhas crop up like weeds. Some say you’re the seventh Buddha, others the twenty- fifth, and maybe the fourth. Which are ya?
B: The incarnation of a Buddha begins long before his birth, and continues moons beyond his death. In fact, millions of lives have walked the Bodhisattva path on the road to nirvana. If you want a number, simply pick one,