So if you’ve stuck with me so far, you now know that I draw lessons and guidance from both the Bible and the Buddha. Here comes the tricky part (and yes, Apu, we do need the Kwik-E-Mart*): where I do my best to explain how the two sources come together for me. (*Hello Simpson fans!)

First, to the title of this post (yes, “idle” is spelled as such on purpose): the first two Biblical Commandments strictly forbid the worship of any deity, or creating graven images thereof, besides the one and true God of the Hebrews. Thus, my devotion to God alongside my admiration for the Buddha provided me a most distressing dilemma: did the little bronze Buddha in my backyard piss off the Jesus depicted above my bed in The Last Supper? A crass metaphor, indeed, but one that truly kept me up at night. And to be honest, it took me years to sort out this paradox, but with a whole lotta prayer, meditation and caffeine, I came to a reasonable resolution.

For you Christian believers out there, let’s start with the assumption (better yet, the exaltation) that Jesus is the son of God, or said another way, God in human form, as he himself says in John 8:19: “If ye had known me, ye should have known my father also.” With that said, and supported by similar passages like John 8:55, 10:48, 14:7 et al., and we’ll accept that Jesus is/was indeed a Divinity with a capital “D”, and worthy of our prostration.

My latest sourcebook for Buddhist study came from an unlikely source: the digital tablet given to every Connecticut D.O.C. inmate after their first 30 days. Past the many (paid) game apps there’s a free educational category where one can download religious volumes; the New King James Version Bible, the Quran, Torah and the Dhammapada, aka the book of sayings attributed directly to the Buddha himself, written as in conversation with his followers, or bikkhus (literally, “beggars.”)

The Dhammapada is contained in the Sutta Pitaka (“The Basket of Discourses”) the second of the three Pitakas, the volumes that form the foundation of Theravada Buddhism: the first book is known as the Vinaya Pitaka (“Basket of Discipline”) and the third is the Abhidhamma Pitaka (“Basket of Teachings.”)

Got it? OK, great. I felt it necessary to add a little background info, since most of us are more familiar with Biblical history than Buddhist framework. Now to the mind blower.

Insert here the “Aha” moment: Buddha, in any telling, was a man, not a god. Although legions of his followers may have considered him divine (with a small “d”) never once did he ever refer to himself as anything but human. Self-aware to the point of earthly enlightenment? Yes indeed. But capable of miracles like walking on water, giving sight to the blind or re-animation of himself or others? Not a chance. He was born a prince and died as a humble man, then buried under his beloved bodhi tree, with no rolling rocks in sight.

So guess what, gentle readers, skeptics, non-believers and Steely Dan fans? If one has their mala beads on straight, one doesn’t worship the Bodhisattva, just merely seeks to learn from his teachings; the same way one might be “enlightened” (small “e”) by Stephen Hawking’s quantum breakthroughs or Jacques Pepin’s technique for a perfect omelet. We don’t “Worship” (capital “W”) them, but we’re sure grateful they wrote down the recipes for us.

Support for my deduction comes via a quote from the introduction to a translation of the Dhammapada, by Buddhist scholar Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam M.A., found on my jail tablet:

“The Dhammapada verse lingers as a fountain of noble inspiration…almost too ethereal for human nature’s daily food, and is granted to few to realise (sic) in actual life these counsels of perfection unaided… Buddha failed to make allowance for the weakness of humanity. His stoic agnosticism and self-reliant courage ignore God, deny the soul, repudiate worship and prayer, (making) man the master of his own fate.

Alas, dear readers, for brevity’s sake and in the interest of keeping yours, I’ll close this post here. Please tune into Part 2 for the exciting conclusion; same Bodhi time, same Bodhi channel.

Ka-POW!