To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

94 / TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS
disciples heavy with sleep. ‘‘What, could ye not watch with
me one hour?’’ Again Jesus said to them: ‘‘Watch and pray,
that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak.’’ A second time he prayed, and
once more the disciples slept. Even the third time, those
who had given their utmost in devotion ‘‘betrayed’’ their
Master, their strength not being suªcient. ‘‘Sleep on now,
and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son
of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners’’ (Matthew
26:37‒45).
Though di¤erent in externals, a telling parallel to the
Gethsemane scene is found in the ‘‘Book of the Great Passing,’’
a Buddhist Sutta giving the essentials of Buddha’s
teaching during the final months of his life. The Pāli text
narrates several conversations the Tathāgata had had with
Ānanda, his faithful friend and disciple. He told Ānanda
that should he desire it, the Tathāgata could ‘‘remain in the
same birth for a kalpa, or for that portion of the kalpa
which had yet to run.’’ The hint was there, but it passed
Ānanda by. Twice more the hint was given, but still
Ānanda was oblivious to the momentous implication that,
if the claim upon the Compassionate One was powerful
enough, he could ‘‘remain during the kalpa ...out of
pity for the world, for the good and the gain and the weal of
gods and men!’’*
Shortly thereafter Māra the Tempter — the name means
‘‘death’’ — approached the Tathāgata, saying it was time for
him to die and enter the nirvana he had renounced, for the
*Mahā-Parinibbāna-Sutta, ch. 3, §§3‒4, Sacred Books of the East
11:41.