You Can’t Always Get What You Want
I’ll let you in on a not-so-secret fact about me: I’m categorically bad with dates. I’m bad with birthdays and anniversaries. I’m particularly bad with holidays. I’ve been this way all my life. How bad am I, you ask? Let’s just say that I was raised in a church-going Christian household, but still get confused on the actual date of Christmas v. Christmas Eve. Fast forward into adulthood and life as a Buddhist convert, and it’s just plain challenging sometimes to remember holidays without the benefit of automated calendar reminders. (Bless you, Google!) At this point, however, I’ve come to terms with it. For me, the most important aspect isn’t remembering the precise when of a significant day; rather, it’s remembering the actual significance, itself.
With that in mind, let’s talk about Bodhi Day…
Some 2500 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama, a 35 year-old former prince and former ascetic sat alone under a tree to meditate in Bodhgaya, India. At the time he sat down, he was just a man (not yet a Buddha), and it was just a tree (not yet The Bodhi Tree). He couldn’t have predicted it, but that action changed both his own life and the course of history.
For years, Siddhartha had been seeking without finding – but that didn’t stop his search for meaning, his search to understand suffering and the path to the liberation from suffering. Similarly, Siddhartha wasn’t deterred by the need to change his path on more than one occasion; he didn’t let that stand in the way of finding Truth, attaining enlightenment, becoming a Buddha.
On that particular day, 2500 years ago, which we honor on December 8th, Siddhartha found the Middle Way – recognizing what would become known as the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Like most men, however, Siddhartha also initially doubted his own voice; he doubted whether he would be able to communicate his new understanding in a way that others could relate to – a way that would have broader meaning, a way that would help liberate them from their own suffering. It’s said that the Hindu god of creation, Brahma, persuaded Siddhartha to share the Dharma with others and that, through the sharing of Dharma, he, thus, became recognized as Shakyamuni Buddha, the Awakened One, by his early disciples, his sangha.
So what does this mean to me? In a nutshell, it means there’s hope – and potential.
There’s hope if you don’t get it right the first time.
There’s hope if you find yourself completely alone.
There’s potential in the even smallest, most mundane of actions.
There’s potential even if we doubt our own voice.
There’s potential even if we only hesitantly pick up the mantle to teach.
There’s potential for our sangha to serve as a mirror, revealing to us what we already are.
Namo Amida Butsu.
At the risk of being a little irreverent, I’m going to close with something from The Rolling Stones that I’ve carried on my heart for years:
“You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need”
© 1969, The Rolling Stones
