One of the earliest thing I can remember was sitting on my father's shoulder, look at some parade. I don't think it is the National Day's parade, as Singapore was not yet independent. I cannot remember much, except that there was vehicles driving pass and my father would name them and the only type I remember is the fire engine. I saw the vehicles coming from one side and disappearing from view at the other side. In those days my would view is only restricted to what I can see. I wondered where did those vehicles went when they disappeared from my eyes.
Today, my world view is no longer so limited. On the big scale of things, I know the earth, the Solar System, the Milky Way and the universe. On the smaller scale I am aware that things are made of molecules and atoms and also the sub-atomic particles. I also know that the visible universe is not all that there is. There is still a God who created all things and is hidden from our view.
But such knowledge is not always available. Today, we are considered a very much more "enlightened" in our knowledge.
Going back a few centuries to the time of Isaac Newton, they only know the Solar System, but not all the planets, and some of the brighter stars and a bright band in the sky which some ancients correctly guessed that it composed of many faint stars. Today we know that the bright band is the Milky Way.
Here we want to talk about the first story of enlightenment under a tree.
We have the famous story of Isaac Newton, who sat under the apple tree and saw an apple falling. and he thought to himself, "Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground?" And he went on to develop the theory of gravity.
But for most of the history of mankind, men just thought that the earth is where men lived, and on top are the sky which have the sun, the moon and the stars and gods lived in the clouds above. Below the earth were the abode of the dead.
Into this world view came our second story enlightenment under a tree.
Siddhartha Gautama sought to understand why there were suffering in the world and wanted to solve the problems of disease, old age and death. After trying out many methods, he came to sit under a Bodhi tree to meditate, determined not to leave till he had found the answers he sought. He found it and became Buddha, the enlightened or awakened one. He then went to preach about the four noble truth and eight-fold path.
The story of Newton is quite clear. Newton had a limited enlightenment, basically about gravity. Buddha's enlightenment was more profound. However, I have some questions on Buddha's enlightenment.
When Buddha was awakened, did he knew, besides those that he preached, all the science that we know today and those that we are yet to discover? Or was he still thinking like men of his days, that the earth is where men lived, the heaven which the gods lived and below the earth where the dead were? If his world view was limited to those of India in the sixth or fifth century BC, how can I trust that his enlightenment is true? We have to remember that Buddha was from below. He worked his way up, gaining knowledge. Did he magically gained all knowledge, or just the four noble truth and eight-fold path? If he magically gained all knowledge, did he teach us the secret? I think he did not, otherwise science would have come from China and India. Since his enlightenment is limited to religious knowledge, I am afraid I would consider him unconvincing. I prefer the One who came from above, who created all things, than one who was from below, like me, who was born of a father and a mother, and had died, like all men from below.
If I have told you about things that happen on earth and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven? No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven - the Son of Man. (John 3:12-13 HCSB)
"You are from below," He told them, "I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." (John 8:23-24 HCSB)
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 HCSB)
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