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Some Ascension Day reflections
Simonthepilgrim
Veteran
ASCENSION DAY 2007
Today, Christian churches are celebrating Ascension Day to remember the story at the end of Saint Luke’s Gospel of Jesus “was carried up to heaven”. In past years, I have reflected on the various stories, biblical and extra-biblical, of people taken up into heaven, people like Enoch, Elijah, Paul or Mary the mother of Jesus, or, even, King Arthur, David and Frederick Barbarossa.
This year, my thoughts have turned to the disappearance of the two teachers, Jesus and the Buddha Shakyamuni. The accounts of their departure from the world seem to be very different in some respects. Jesus, it is asserted, had died weeks earlier, executed. He had ‘risen from the dead’ and now was finally going away. The Buddha dies in old age, possibly from accidental food poisoning, although he ascribes no blame to the donor. His death is natural and it is the end of his being seen alive.
There is, however, a deep connection between the two events. Both mark the completion of a mission and both mark the final perfection of the Teacher. Jesus makes the point in the account of his first resurrection meeting with Mary of Magdala when he tells her that he has not yet “gone to the Father” which is to achieve perfection. In that sense, the Ascension of Jesus and the Parinirvana of the Buddha paint a picture of completion and liberation. The sadness expressed by the Disciples and the Sangha are both depicted as unskillful: their Teacher has reached the desired outcome.
Both stories take place both within the daily world, samsara, and beyond it. Much of the emphasis is on those left behind, on the world now empty of the physical presence. Christian literature is pretty lacking in positive descriptions of the resurrected, ascended state. Not surprising, really. Both Buddhist and Christian writers have been obliged to use the via negativa and tell us what it is not. Thus, the Heart Sutra:
This may describe the basileia tou theou (Eng.: “kingdom of heaven”) too. It’s certainly my own clouded image.
For me, the Ascension and the Parinirvana both are statements that this great perfection is available to us, that we are not condemned but have a promise that has been fulfilled.
Today, Christian churches are celebrating Ascension Day to remember the story at the end of Saint Luke’s Gospel of Jesus “was carried up to heaven”. In past years, I have reflected on the various stories, biblical and extra-biblical, of people taken up into heaven, people like Enoch, Elijah, Paul or Mary the mother of Jesus, or, even, King Arthur, David and Frederick Barbarossa.
This year, my thoughts have turned to the disappearance of the two teachers, Jesus and the Buddha Shakyamuni. The accounts of their departure from the world seem to be very different in some respects. Jesus, it is asserted, had died weeks earlier, executed. He had ‘risen from the dead’ and now was finally going away. The Buddha dies in old age, possibly from accidental food poisoning, although he ascribes no blame to the donor. His death is natural and it is the end of his being seen alive.
There is, however, a deep connection between the two events. Both mark the completion of a mission and both mark the final perfection of the Teacher. Jesus makes the point in the account of his first resurrection meeting with Mary of Magdala when he tells her that he has not yet “gone to the Father” which is to achieve perfection. In that sense, the Ascension of Jesus and the Parinirvana of the Buddha paint a picture of completion and liberation. The sadness expressed by the Disciples and the Sangha are both depicted as unskillful: their Teacher has reached the desired outcome.
Both stories take place both within the daily world, samsara, and beyond it. Much of the emphasis is on those left behind, on the world now empty of the physical presence. Christian literature is pretty lacking in positive descriptions of the resurrected, ascended state. Not surprising, really. Both Buddhist and Christian writers have been obliged to use the via negativa and tell us what it is not. Thus, the Heart Sutra:
In emptiness there is no form nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness ;
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind ; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind;
No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to :
No mind-consciousness element ;
There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to : There is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.
There is no cognition, no attainment and no non-attainment.
This may describe the basileia tou theou (Eng.: “kingdom of heaven”) too. It’s certainly my own clouded image.
For me, the Ascension and the Parinirvana both are statements that this great perfection is available to us, that we are not condemned but have a promise that has been fulfilled.
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Comments
I always wondered about that "Do not touch me" statement by Jesus to Mary.