Again. It reminded me of the time I was having lunch with William oh so many years ago. We were at Lover’s Egg Roll – yum! – and I ordered the Buddha’s Delight. I just felt like something light – vegetables in a light sauce with brown rice. At one point during lunch, I giggled a bit at the irony of it. Buddha’s Delight is a vegetarian dish, while (in some texts) the Buddha died of eating bad pork. William asked what my private joke was, and when I told him he got all excited.
What do you mean he died?
Well, I mean he died. He got food poisoning and died.
So, he’s not immortal then. How can he be a god if he’s not immortal?
Uh… he’s not exactly a god. I mean, there generally aren’t deities in Buddhism, though there are some cultural exceptions to that. But Buddha was a man, not a god.
How can you worship someone that isn’t a god?
I don’t worship him. I read his words and learn from the lessons he taught. That’s not the same thing.
But there are all those statues of him that they worship.
William, there are statues of Abraham Lincoln, too. That doesn’t mean people are worshipping him.
Ah, the “good” old days…