This story, which is popularly known as “the story of the rich young man,” reminded me of three Buddhist concepts. The first is the bodhisattva principle. A bodhisattva is someone who has attained enlightenment but puts off their own entrance into nirvana until all sentient beings have attained enlightenment. And they do this out of compassion for the suffering of the world. The bodhisattva vow is: “sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them all.” This is done in imitation of the compassion of the Buddha himself who, after achieving enlightenment, did not simply enter nirvana but spent his life teaching people what he called the eight-fold path, the way beyond suffering. This compassion, which is called karuna in Sanskrit, is always based on and linked to wisdom, prajna. Wisdom and compassion are always tied together in the Buddhist tradition. And wisdom is knowledge of a fundamental concept of Buddhism, one of the Four Noble Truths that the Buddha taught, namely that suffering––dukkha is caused––I have heard it translated two ways––either by selfish clinging, or clinging to self. So an enlightened Buddhist sees people suffering and has compassion because he or she knows that the reason that person is suffering is caused by this selfish clinging, or clinging to self: whenever we cling to something it will eventually cause us pain, because that which we are clinging to will change and pass, because the nature of reality is impermanence––annica.

Now, there is a fundamental thing here that we Christians do not agree with, at least as it is usually explained––that there is no self, no personal self nor any Self of God. But it seems to me that the rest of this explanation has resonances with what Jesus is getting at today in dealing with this rich young man. He tells him first to follow the commandments, and the young man proudly says that he has done so! Then Jesus tells him, “You are lacking one thing.” You might recognize this phrase; it’s the same thing that Jesus says to Martha after she complains that her sister is sitting around doing nothing while she herself has been preparing for the meal. “Martha, Martha, you are busy doing many things. Only one thing is necessary.” A common interpretation of that is not simply that Mary had chosen the contemplative over the active, but that Mary was totally absorbed in God and so totally available to God, whereas Martha is caught up in what she is doing: “Look at me! Look at me! Look at everything I’m doing!” Contemplation is not just about sitting still and doing nothing. As Bede Griffiths taught, what contemplation really involves is the “perfect detachment which enables one to act freely.” Contemplation is to be in communion with God’s Spirit, God’s will. As it is said so beautifully in the Third Step prayer of AA: “Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do your will.”

And the same thing that was going on with Martha is going on with this rich man (Mark does not specify that he was young). Basically he is saying, “Look at me! Look at me! Look at all I am doing!” But he is lacking the one thing. And what is that one thing? Total poverty, total availability to God. He was all caught up in self. Jesus tells him to sell everything he has and give it to the poor and then to come and follow him. This is the phrase from the Gospels that sent St Antony out into the desert to be a hermit––totally available to God. And the same phrase that sent St Francis of Assisi to strip himself down and spend his life as a hermit, preacher and wandering beggar––totally available to God. The material renunciation, outward poverty is an important concrete action and sign, but it is only a sign of a deeper renunciation––being relieved of the bondage of self. Antony and Francis both had discovered the one thing necessary, and that one thing necessary is the real renunciation––the renunciation of self.

Here is where we are actually very close to the Buddhist wisdom that suffering is caused by clinging to self, or selfish clinging. Notice this rich man went away sad. Why is he sad? He is sad because of selfish clinging that is the cause of suffering, clinging not just to his riches, but clinging to his own agenda. Each of the Gospels reports Jesus saying, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” and “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” This is somehow the key to the beatitude that Jesus promises. This is why he inaugurates his ministry by saying absurd things such as: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek and the persecuted, and blessed are you when you are reviled.” Blessed are they who have been relieved of the bondage of self.

In the lectionary the church pairs this with Solomon’s ode to Wisdom (Wis 7:7-11). In the 1st Book of Kings early on in his reign as king of Israel the Lord had appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and said, “Ask what I should give you.” And Solomon asks for an understanding mind, for wisdom––prajna. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies … I give you a wise and discerning mind; I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life. “ It’s interesting that God gives him the riches anyway, but is that because with wisdom one can handle riches? As G. K. Chesterton said about Saint Louis the King, a saint would never want to be a king––and so be surrounded by riches and treasures and power and luxurious living––but a king could be a saint, if he has the one thing necessary, this wisdom. But what specifically is this wisdom, this prajna? To learn that we have to turn to Jesus. True wisdom is renunciation of the self; true wisdom is knowing that there is something beyond the self, something beyond the small self that we usually identify with. What is beyond the self is the Spirit of God, the will of God, the kingdom of God, all three of which are the same thing. And they are none of them so far away, they have been planted, breathed and poured into the depths of our heart.

One last step: karuna––compassion. Jesus is the great Bodhisattva. Mark is not usually known for details. His Gospel is pithy and to the point. But here Mark adds one detail that Matthew and Luke leave out. “He looked at him with love” or “Looking at him, he loved him.” Could we also say, as is said of Jesus many times in the Gospels, “he had compassion on him”? Jesus knew that he was suffering and why he was suffering: because this man was clinging to self, to self will, to the small self, and unable to make the deepest most exciting journey of all, to his own real self that was hidden in God, the one thing, the one thing beyond change and death. This is exactly what Paul tells us that Jesus did not do––cling to self; rather, he emptied himself. And therefore God raised him on high and gave him the name above all other names.

This is the wisdom we need to know, that our suffering is caused by selfish clinging, our clinging to self. When we look around us, we need to recognize that others’ suffering too is caused by this bondage to self. Let us pray that God in compassion, through the grace of this feast on the Word and Sacrament, would gently lead us to our real selves hidden with Christ in God, and that we in turn would have compassion on others and lead them to the Father, through with and in Jesus.

cyprian 15 oct 06