I had just started reading the Bible and did not know anything about it when I came across the words With joy you will draw water from the well of salvation (Is. 12:3). My heart leaped. Like Julian of Norwich, who believed that all God's works had been done especially for her, I felt that these words had been written just for me. Later on, when I read John 4:10,* I immediately connected the two passages. (* If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.)
This morning, I was praying and reflecting on the twenty-third Psalm (The Lord is my Shepherd) when for some reason, I had a flashback to being at a Buddhist temple in Singapore. I had asked the guide what one had to do to reach enlightenment according to Buddha. He explained the seven tenets of Buddhism, which basically can be achieved by right thinking, ethical living, and meditation. (These tenets differ according to the forms of Buddhism but come down to purity of heart, mind, and action -- do no harm, do good, and embrace suffering.) As I listened to the guide, I recognized that some of the "virtues" he described did not come naturally to me and hardly accounted for the greed, avarice, pride, and just plain meanness that are part of the human experience.
"If these are not part of you, where do you go to acquire these qualities?" I asked the guide. "No one ever asked me that question!" the guide responded. Later on, I read that one is supposed to meditate oneself into a state of nirvana, or stillness, in order to overcome weakness and suffering. "And if we fail to reach enlightenment, then what?" I asked. "The Buddha will give you a second chance," he replied. "Ah, reincarnation!" I said.
I have friends who are Buddhists, and I have to say that they do make every effort to live according to the principles of the Buddha. But when I enter into the twenty-third Psalm, I just have to be extremely grateful for the Gift I have been given: He leads me beside restful waters; He restores my soul!
The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want; he makes me to lie down in green pastures....He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for YOU ARE WITH ME; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the midst of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Notice the Psalm begins in with the third person, "the Lord....He..." but switches to the second person, For YOU are with me, when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. There is no other name by which men willl be saved; no one has seen God, but God, the only Son, has made Him known......The Buddha would have said, "Live by these principles; follow my teaching.".. but he would not have said, "I am the Way."
We don't have to reach nirvana by our own efforts, knowing that we are "sinners," or "natural men" who struggle with our own weakness; we have Someone Who shepherds us and Who makes us to "lie down in green pastures," Whose Holy Spirit in us leads us to peace and to the love of God for which we are made. Alleluia! Alleluia! Thanks be to God! It is done for us and in us by Jesus who loves us and shepherds us by His Own Holy Spirit!
