The Buddha in the eyedropper

QUESTION:  How can an eyedropper help explain the difference between what happens when a Buddha dies and when an ordinary mortal dies?

DISCLAIMER:  (sigh) I’m about to use an analogy, knowing full well that some are better than others. This one might be particularly weak but I hope it contains enough to make the point.

What death means:

Imagine someone holding an eyedropper full of water, leaning over a ship’s railing while far out at sea. He extends his hand and squeezes the dropper so all its water falls into the ocean. Now compare that eyedropper with one individual’s physical body, and think of the water in that dropper as that one individual’s life-force. You can call it soul if you wish, since even within a Buddhist’s analogy that term will do.

For this analogy to work, think of water in that eyedropper in these two ways:

·       as ordinary molecules of water;

·       each molecule possessing the soul/spirit of that individual.

Once that dropper has been emptied, that person has “died.” His life-force joins the life-force of the greater living entity known as the ocean, which is the birthplace of all such uniquely individual life-forces. As time passes, all of those molecules will spread out and (given enough time) be thoroughly integrated into all the oceans of the world.

The deaths of an ordinary mortal and a Buddha can be described in such a way. However, the Buddha, faced with the prospect of his loss of identity (his unique water contained in that unique eyedropper being evenly dispersed throughout a greater whole) is not afraid because he’s done this before. The common mortal, facing such an unknown prospect, is terrified by thinking he’ll be spread out, diffused, and mixed with others.

What rebirth means:

The common mortal’s water molecules will eventually leave the ocean, evaporating to the sky above. Then they will fall as rain, mixed with other water molecules from sources other than his eyedropper. That water could go through a large variety of paths before it, once again, fills another eyedropper…only to be discharged again into the ocean. A long time will pass before that ordinary mortal’s water finds its way into an eyedropper, and a longer time before such an eyedropper gets emptied into the ocean.

To be sure, that second eyedropper will not contain much more than one or two molecules from that original eyedropper. Which is why the spirit of the thing matters. Just imagine that spirit was able to be conveyed to whatever alien water molecules that one original molecule was able to come in contact with, eventually ending up in that second eyedropper with them.

Of course, that would mean the other molecules from that original eyedropper would still be in the ocean or might have found other destinies. That’s one reason why, either common mortal or Buddha, there’s a little of each of us in everything – though that “little” is not always consciously aware of its former source or identity.

The common mortal is a slave to this never-ending cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. A Buddha is not. Because of his enlightened condition, he could remain forever in that ocean and never reenter mundane reality. He could but he never does. Because of his great compassion for others, he wills himself to be reborn and does so with great precision.

In fact, he could be reborn immediately. As soon as his water, released from its original eyedropper, hits the ocean, it could immediately reverse its path and reoccupy that same eyedropper! Or could enter another eyedropper which had just been emptied overboard from another ship.

Even harder to believe? Suppose there were 1,000 such ships and eyedroppers scattered all over the earth’s oceans, which all at the same time had emptied their individual eyedroppers. One Buddha, from one eyedropper, could immediately reoccupy all of those eyedroppers after their original occupants’ molecules had been dumped overboard.

Now you might think that would be impossible, for how could the molecules in one eyedropper disperse themselves in all directions and travel so quickly as to be in position to reenter those 1,000 remote eyedroppers at the same time? The key is to consider the spirit of the matter. Of course, the numerous molecules from that one eyedropper could not travel that fast. But the spirit of those molecules could be instantaneously relayed to other molecules in the vicinity of those other ships.

The scripture states that a Buddha has the power to manifest an infinite number of bodies (to make an infinite number of copies of himself), so that he can be in many places at once. If that’s what it takes to reach the people who need to hear his teachings.

Transmission of a Buddha’s life-force

That Buddha’s life-force happened to be in that one eyedropper, though we won’t consider for now where else his spirit might also be. We’ll just consider that one source – that one eyedropper. Once that emptied dropper’s water hits the ocean, the spirit of a Buddha could instantaneously be passed from molecule to molecule, even to molecules of rock in the center of the earth, if the Buddha chose to pass through the center of the earth in order to reach someone on the other side of the earth.

That person might end up with one of that Buddha’s molecules in his body, as part of his body, as the molecule does its indirect preaching within that common mortal’s body. That Buddha molecule could take any form – as a water molecule flowing in that mortal’s bloodstream. Or as a calcium atom absorbed into his bone tissue. Or even as part of his brain, which would start to make sense for most people (within the confines of this analogy). The form it takes is irrelevant. The fact that it’s there and can convey, in even the most indirect way, the Buddha’s teaching will bestow many blessing on that common mortal.

In closing:

This analogy is entirely mine, not coming from any of the Buddhist scriptures. Nor does it come from my teacher – since I don’t have one, except Shakyamuni Buddha himself. And, no, it didn’t come from him.

I am a Buddhist who is a member of a sect that contains only one member – me. My primary practice is to recite the English-language translation of the Lotus Sutra for an hour every day – though I often fall short of that goal. So far, I’ve read the entire 324-page volume of the Burton Watson translation over 130 times during the last five years. If you took only 120 copies of that book and stacked them up, that would make a pile ten-feet in height.

Now that doesn’t make me particularly enlightened, except I will claim such a constant recitation is the Buddha’s will. I can only take what I think I’ve learned and try to pass it on to somebody else. That “passing on” is important, for that will in turn refine my understanding.

As time passes and my practice deepens, I might conclude that this eyedropper analogy is profoundly faulty and unworthy of anyone’s consideration. That might well come to pass, but for now I offer it because I think it has value.

After all is said and done, that’s the best anyone can offer.

Steven Searle, just another member of the Virtual Samgha of the Lotus

“The basic difference between a Buddhist and an Abrahamist (Jew, Christian, Muslim, et al): It’s not a matter of life-and-death; it’s a matter of lives-and-deaths.”

Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com