“If I could have dinner with anyone in history, it would be with…”
Wow. When I saw this Finish the Sentence Friday prompt, my first thought was, “How unfair for a HISTORY TEACHER!? How do I choose? It’s like asking me which child I love the most!”
My second thought was, “I don’t know if this fits with Left Brain Buddha… I mean, I write about the Buddha! …. The … Buddha? Could I have dinner with… the Buddha?”
Yep, I’m going big. Dinner with the Buddha. Way out of my league.
The Buddha. The “awakened one.” The “enlightened one.” I tell my children he was wise and kind, and a man who understood the nature of the heart and the mind. Many historians and religious scholars consider him one of the greatest thinkers to have ever lived. He discovered the causes of our suffering, attained enlightenment, and spent 45 years of his life teaching others how to end suffering. He taught us to see the divine inside ourselves, and all other creatures, and therefore live with compassion for all beings.
And apparently I am now having dinner with the wisest sage in history.
Appetizers
So the first thing I would have to tell the Buddha over hors d’oeuvres is how sorry I am that Keanu Reeves {really? Keanu Reeves?} portrayed him in Little Buddha {or, as I call it, Buddha’s Excellent Adventure. “But, … I attained nirvana, dude.”}
Why have dinner with the Buddha? I try to live my life incorporating his teachings, but as my blog title implies, it’s hard for left-brain me! I have so many questions… Let go of my thoughts? {Do I have to?} There is no self? {Definitely need to ask the Buddha to explain that one!} End craving and desire and attachment? {Really?} These are tough questions!
Main Course: In Which I Phone a Left-Brain Friend
I think I would like to phone-a-friend to join me at this dinner. For years, I have always told my students if I could have dinner with any person in history, it would be Voltaire.
Voltaire
{Image credit: Wikimedia Commons}
Ah, Voltaire! From a totally different Age of Enlightenment. The Age of “I think, therefore I am.” The eighteenth-century age of science and rationality, of intellect over intuition, of reason over emotion. A left-brain age!
I’ve always admired Voltaire ~ defender of free speech, advocate of religious toleration, and crusader against superstition and inequality. And he was hilarious.
“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.” ~ Voltaire
So what might these two men, enlightened in such very different ways, have to say to one another?
Voltaire might open with Descartes’ rational, Enlightenment assertion, “I think, therefore I am.”
Stephen Prothero, in God Is Not One, suggests the Buddha would probably respond with, “[I]f you think carefully enough, you will see that you are not.” Now that would be a mind-blowing conversation {pun intended!}.
But might the Age-of-Right-Brain-Enlightenment Buddha and the Age-of-Left-Brain-Enlightenment Voltaire have more in common than I assumed? I would hardly dare to put words into the mouths of such dignified historical figures by crafting an imaginary conversation… so I have combed through the quotations attributed to each of these thinkers. The similarities I found between these two enlightened men surprised me.
Well, maybe that one’s not so surprising. I did say they both taught toleration, after all.
Voltaire is definitely leading on the “funny” scorecard!
Yes, my kindred-spirit dinner guests! Work hard!
Okay, I get it, our feelings are important, too.
Wow, Voltaire, you’re starting to sound awfully Buddhist now. More wine?
That’s more like it. Left-brain celebrations all around! Let’s drink to evidence!
Dessert
I have a feeling, as our dinner comes to an end, that both Voltaire and the Buddha would tell this left-brain gal to stop thinking so much in dichotomies and opposites. “C’mon, left-brain Buddha! You can be rational and spiritual! You can meditate and read books! You can demand evidence and revere the numinous! It’s actually an awesome way to live, dude!” {Channeling Keanu-as-Buddha again there. I guess he was an okay choice.).
As we depart after coffee, I think Voltaire would likely tell me,
“Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.”
And the Buddha might add,
“As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.”
But I am absolutely certain Voltaire would have the last word:
If you could have dinner with any person in history, who would YOU choose? This history teacher would LOVE to know!!
This post is part of the Finish the Sentence Friday linkup. Click the image below to read about the historical figures other bloggers are dining with today!
- A Mindful Approach to New Year’s Resolutions - January 13, 2020
- Just This Next Step - December 16, 2019
- WAIT: A Mindfulness Practice for Waiting in Line - December 9, 2019
