The Narrow Gate

Within the lore of Buddhism, rebirth as a human is considered very rare for someone located within the lower regions of the unwholesome, like a hell-dweller or a hungry ghost. In fact, there is a marvelous allegory found in the Majjhima Nikaya (129 Balapandita Sutta) that states it would be easier for a blind aged tortoise, rising from the depths of the ocean once every 100 years, to pass its head through a bobbling yoke on the tumultuous surface waves than for someone in these lower regions to experience rebirth as a human being. This is quite impossible, because as it states in the sutta, one is completely devoid of the Dharma within these damnable regions and hence no chance of ever gaining the proper buddha-gnosis to be reborn under favorable circumstances.

Consider the following variation revolving around that same splendid apologue: it would be easier for this singular blind tortoise, arising from the subterranean depths of the human psyche once every 100 kalpas, to pass its aged head through a bobbling lifesaver-mint amidst the turbulent waves of samsara than for the icchantika (those who turn a deaf-ear to the Buddhadharma) to transcend these vast created realms of life and death and cross over to the other, uncreated shore of deathlessness. Such is the sorry state of purported Buddhism today. The once noble path (ariyasāvaka) to nibanna has been sidetracked by the swift moving current of spiritual materialism that has desecrated the former primordial conduit that alone can reroute and awaken the dreaming dungeon mind that is in a perpetual state of regenesis (endless re-becoming). Today, sadly, the materialistic dungeon dwellers are in complete control of the keys that can unlock the nirvanic entrance to freedom and liberation in the unborn, uncreated, and uncomposed, supramundane-stature of nibanna itself. The key to breaking free from the chains of the spiritual materialists resides in the gnosis of the “word”, hidden from view of the icchantikas—yet revealed (within the Lankavatara Sutra) to those noble ariyans who have acquired the Dharma-ears (Dhammasota) that are attuned with the soundless sound of deathless suchness.

Jesus the Christ, the world-transcending one—in essence, an anointed light-bearer bodhisattva—this “word” made flesh, also expounded upon the wisdom of unlocking the narrow gateless gate to Noble self-realization. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” (Matt 7:13) A trillion constellations can safely pass through the narrow gateless gate of the “word”, yet countless wordlings bustle through the wide-gate that leads to perdition in the vast expanse of endless phenomenal dependent origination. Again, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25) The import of the Christ’s message here cannot be underscored enough, as it occurs in all three synoptic gospel accounts; its revelation is clear for those with eyes that hear and ears that see—spiritual materialists are missing the markless mark and leading Buddhism down the long and winding road to self-annhilation.