If I could travel back in time to meet a famous person, I would most like to meet and speak with Siddhartha Gautama: The Buddha. If by "enlightenment" one means a complete understanding of the universe, then Buddha, having achieved "enlightenment", would be fully capable of answering all questions relating to the origins, condition, and destiny of the universe.
Perhaps the first thing I would like to discuss, upon meeting Buddha, would be the events surrounding the birth of the universe. How and why did the universe come into being? Are contemporary physicists correct in assuming that all matter emerged spontaneously from a single point beyond time and space? The Big Bang! And does this theory compliment or contradict the theories of other great religious thinkers who claimed that all life emerged from a primordial source. The "void"
Following our discussion of the origins of the universe, I would like to ask Buddha a number of questions concerning the "human condition." Why are Mankind, the planet Earth and the universe structured the way they are? What is the purpose of life? Why does existence contain such drastic opposites: love and hate, good and evil, joy and suffering?
Having gained an understanding of both the universe and the human condition, I would then like to move on
to a discussion of Mankind's destiny. What is then ultimate fate of the universe, and in turn, life? Is it true, as some great thinkers have suggested, that the universe and everything in it return to the void from which it emerged? And what about God? Is God a personal entity, as some religions claim? Or is God the impersonal source of all that exists? The impersonal source of the void!
Throughout history, intelligent men and women have thought deeply about God, fate, destiny, and the origins of the universe. The opportunity to have these questions answered by one who lived in the not too distant past, would truly be a remarkable experience.
Perhaps the first thing I would like to discuss, upon meeting Buddha, would be the events surrounding the birth of the universe. How and why did the universe come into being? Are contemporary physicists correct in assuming that all matter emerged spontaneously from a single point beyond time and space? The Big Bang! And does this theory compliment or contradict the theories of other great religious thinkers who claimed that all life emerged from a primordial source. The "void"
Following our discussion of the origins of the universe, I would like to ask Buddha a number of questions concerning the "human condition." Why are Mankind, the planet Earth and the universe structured the way they are? What is the purpose of life? Why does existence contain such drastic opposites: love and hate, good and evil, joy and suffering?
Having gained an understanding of both the universe and the human condition, I would then like to move on
to a discussion of Mankind's destiny. What is then ultimate fate of the universe, and in turn, life? Is it true, as some great thinkers have suggested, that the universe and everything in it return to the void from which it emerged? And what about God? Is God a personal entity, as some religions claim? Or is God the impersonal source of all that exists? The impersonal source of the void!
Throughout history, intelligent men and women have thought deeply about God, fate, destiny, and the origins of the universe. The opportunity to have these questions answered by one who lived in the not too distant past, would truly be a remarkable experience.
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