Feb 57 min read

Did You Know That You Are Golden?

Good Morning My Confidants!

I wanted to ask you something.

Did you know that you are golden, perfectly and wonderfully made?

It's true.

Many years ago I heard a story of the discovery of a huge solid gold Buddha statue. Not much information, but enough to keep it on a back burner of my mind, About ten years or so ago, I found out the true story—or as much as can be pieced together—and it is truly amazing, for many reasons.

In 1801, the king of Siam, after establishing Bangkok as a new capital city of the Kingdom, and after commissioning the construction of many temples in Bangkok, ordered that various old Buddha images should be brought to Bangkok from the ruined temples around the country. One of these statues, a particularly large one, was made of stucco and was painted and inlaid with bits of colored glass. However, its size and plain appearance made it difficult to find it a home. The statue was moved to its present location in Wat Traimit in 1935, but since there was no place to keep the huge sculpture it sat outside, protected only by a tin roof for over twenty years.

This is where the story gets magical.

In 1954 the statue was finally, on 25 May 1955, while being moved to a new location, while they were attempting to lift the statue from its pedestal, the ropes broke, and the statue fell hard on the ground. At that moment, some of the plaster coating chipped off and what to their wondering eyes should appear...but a glint of gold. This wasn't a statue made of stucco, but covered in stucco. As they began to remove the outer layer, they discovered the statue was actually pure gold! A nine-foot tall, 5.5 ton gold Buddha, cast in nine parts, including a key to disassemble and reassemble the pieces.

Can you imagine?

They are not entirely sure of the origins of this Buddha, but their research turned up several probabilities. I was most probably created during the 13th–14th centuries, and then, covered in the thick layer of stucco in 1767 during the Burmese invasion so that they wouldn't know what the Buddha really was. However, all the monks were killed and so too, the secret of the golden Buddha.

When I first heard this story, I thought to myself.....

Wow. Isn't that just like me? Covered in mud and dirt, and not knowing the gold that is beneath? Forgetting that I am gold, and that judging myself by my appearance is silly. And a sign that I let other people forge my opinion of myself.

Shortly after that, Mike Irwin, the minister of my church told the story with photos, I had not seen them before that date, and sent me into tears by telling the same story, Not only about the origins of the Buddha, but the allegory of its worth, and how it relates to all of us. I was brought to tears. It was—for me—a powerful affirmation that I was in the right place. I personally believe that the Universe sends us all kinds of messages, it is our job to pay attention and hear those messages.

I was reminded of how I was raised. To believe that I was born into sin and that man's nature is a sinful one. That because Eve and Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, that forever after, humankind has paid for their mistake. It was never something I understood and asked every Sunday School teacher and pastor I ever met. Why were we paying for the "mistake" of Adam and Eve?

And what I really wanted to know was how could (according to my teachers) a perfect God make a flawed creation? If God is all-knowing and knows everything that is ever going to happen, that means he knew that Adam and Eve were going to fail his test. And then he went and punished them for a "crime" he knew they were going to commit. When I asked, I was told that Adam and Eve, like us today, have free-will, and it was their failure.

But that doesn't make any sense!

They failed because they were flawed. And if they were flawed, then God made them flawed!

If a potter makes a vase and it's flawed, is it the vase's fault? Of course not! If a painter creates a painting and the portrait shows a woman with two noses, is it the painting's fault? Of course not.

Am I suggesting that God is flawed?

No. Not at all! Let me make that clear!

What I am saying is that whoever wrote down the parable of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden got it wrong. That that person didn't understand the story. Didn't understand, whether the story is something that actually happened or whether it is allegory is for you to decide, that they weren't flawed. And we certainly are not born into sin because of what they did.

We are golden! We are born perfect and innocent, We are born exactly as how we were supposed to be.

Then we make our mistakes, our mistakes, and no one else's. We choose. We choose whether to love one another or to cause harm. We choose if we are going to reach out our hand and help a sibling, or to turn our backs.

And I am not making any judgements.

RBear once asked me why I never put anything in the Harvester's barrel (he always does, bless him) and I reminded him of all the other ways I try to help my fellow human. He smiled. Got it. Never asked me again.

We are not responsible from the things our parents did. Nor our grandparents or their parents before them. And we certainly are not responsible for the actions of two people who lived six thousand years ago, and what they did by eating the fruit from the tree they were commanded to leave alone.

Interestingly enough, the Christian Bible, according to Ezekiel 18: 20, says: "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." (NKJV)

You want to know something sacrilegious that I believe?

Above when I said that the person who recorded the original couple's story down got it wrong? I believe he interpreted the story that way because that was where he was in his life. I believe that Adam and Eve were supposed to leave the Garden of Eden. And if they were pushed out, it was the same way the mother bird sometimes needs to push her babies from the next. They are supposed to go out into the world and build nests of their own. I believe that God had a plan. A plan for humanity. And there could hardly ever be a humanity if that original couple had stayed in the Garden!

If leaving the Garden wasn't God's plan, then why did he give Adam a penis? Why Eve breasts? Why a womb? That would be like making two interlocking puzzle pieces and then not putting them together. Why give Adam and Eve the means to procreate if they weren't supposed to procreate?

The original scribe decided to attribute it all to sin, and that to this day we are all evil, nasty, degenerate, sinful creatures. Because that is how he saw his fellow man. This interpretation is also handy for Churches trying to control what their congregation thinks and does, and guilt is a wonderful tool.

Several years ago, missing the pageantry of Easter Sunday—some churches release doves and all kinds of things during that service—I decided to attend a different church for that day. People who hadn't seen me in years were really excited and welcoming and before I knew it, I was sitting in the middle of the pew instead of the aisle seat I wanted. Then, before I knew it, the sermon was being told about what evil, horrible people we all are and how deserving of going to the eternal pits of Hell, and everyone was weeping and smacking themselves and rocking in their seats. I was horrified! Then he went on to say how fortunate we were—that even thought we were pieces of dog shit—that God still loved us and gave his only Son to save us. This was followed by more weeping and moaning. One lady was tearing at her hair!

I wanted out of there!

But lodged where I was, I couldn't leave. I was stuck being told this message. I wanted to shout out, "What is wrong with you?" to the preacher. "What's wrong with all of you? Don't you know that you were perfectly made? That you were born the way God intended and not into sin? That any sins we may commit—and the word "sin" properly translates to "missing the mark" and not wallowing in evil ways—are the mistakes we made or make after we were born. And we have the opportunity and ability to change that any day. And for those who believe in the historical Jesus—and I actually do—the saving He was sent to do was to teach us to love God above all, and to love each other as we love ourselves.

To quote from the Christian's Bible, Jesus said Himself, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

(Matthew 22: 37-40, KJV)

I believe that Godvwho is perfect and cannot make mistakes—and who created the Universe had a plan all along. And that we were made perfect. That as a humanity, we are fulfilling that plan generation by generation as we wake more and more to the truth. To turn away from hate and war. To stop hurting each other. To love each other as we love ourselves.

But therein lies a big problem. How few of us love ourselves? I mean, I forget all the time. Fall back into thinking that there is something wrong with me or that I am not loveable. Which only causes me to spiral down into depression and hurt and anger.