To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

The Two Paths / 135
Buddha’s renunciation or a Christ’s sacrifice really transform
human nature and e¤ectively change a world situation
which grows more parlous with every decade? We believe it
can, though not immediately. Where will energizes the
heart’s intent, nothing is impossible. The very process of
deep reflection on what the coming to earth of a Christ or a
Buddha can mean to an aspiring soul, indeed to all humanity,
exerts a refining and purifying influence on all facets of
one’s nature.
What is more, we can identify with Gautama because
enlightenment was not conferred upon him; he earned his
buddha-stature step by step over many lives. Yet even in
this latest incarnation, after he had determined to penetrate
the hidden causes of su¤ering and death, it took him several
years of trial and error before he learned, almost at the cost
of life, that the ‘‘middle way’’ is best; that nature has provided
us with a marvelously tuned physical instrument
which, if cared for and respected, may serve as the means of
doing great good.
In a profound sense the path of compassion, of renunciation,
is a path of sorrow because it means living in and for
the world when one has long ago finished with the trials of
earth life. Still a bodhisattva returns, impelled partly by
karma and partly out of a deep love for his fellow humans.
To each of us the choice is given, whether to advance for
ourself and at last slip into the ocean of infinite bliss, forgetful
of the world, or whether, when illumination comes,
to resolve: ‘‘I cannot keep this wisdom to myself; I must
return and help my brothers who need what light I have.
They are sorrow-filled, confused, crying in the wilderness