To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

96 / TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS
self at least by the third time, his teacher added, his wish
would have been granted. In actuality, Buddha had spoken
of this possibility on many previous occasions, yet each time
Ānanda had let the hint go by unheeded.
This is not to suggest that had either Ānanda or the
disciples of Jesus grasped the significance of the divine happenings
surrounding their teachers, they could have forestalled
the course of destiny. Even if there is scant historic
fact in the Christian and Buddhist accounts, this does not
negate the psychological truths they imbody. Neither story
ends ‘‘happily ever after’’; nor should it, for life is a blend of
good and ill, of joy and sorrow, from which we may distill
a tincture of wisdom.
If we find tragedy here, it is from viewing the events at
too close range. From the perspective of many lives there
is neither failure nor success, only learning experiences,
and in this there is comfort as well as challenge. Peter,
James, and John, and Ānanda too, are ourselves; we can
identify with them, for their frailty is ours. How often we
awake to the reality of a situation only after an experience,
aware too late of an opportunity missed. Opportunities
come and go for us all. Some we seize, almost by intuition,
and are the gainer; others, at times important ones,
we let slip through our fingers. Yet all is not lost as some
part of our consciousness does register the lesson; were it
otherwise, we would not wake up later, whether after a few
hours or, perchance, not until the better part of our life
has gone by. But wake up we do, ultimately, and this is
the triumph.
In the case of Jesus, the very betrayal or failure on the