We Did It Baby!

Vol. 18. Bonus Issue. August 1, 2021

Milwaukee hasn’t felt this good in 50 years.

After waiting five long decades, Milwaukee Bucks fans everywhere tasted the sweetness of winning an NBA championship.

The ebullience was palpable. Tens of thousands of cheering fans packed the Deer District on the evening of July 20, then lined the city streets in jubilation for a celebratory parade two days later.

Milwaukee Bucks star and Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals, Giannis Antetokounmpo told a giddy parade crowd assembled outside Fiserv Forum, “Milwaukee, we did it baby! We did it!”

Not since the days of Lew Alcindor, Oscar Robertson and the colorful play-by-play of announcer Eddie Doucette have Milwaukee Bucks fans felt such joy.

A half-century is a long time to wait to reach the heights.

Imagine waiting 500 years.

For the first 500 years of its existence, Buddhist enlightenment was reserved for orange-robed, barefoot monks.

Only those lucky few who have left home, family and property behind could attain spiritual salvation.

Even today, Theravada Buddhist enlightenment is not for us. It’s only for them.

But in the first few centuries of the Common Era, somewhere along the Silk Road, free from the 500 year fetters of “monk Buddhism” back in India, the Buddhist faith inhaled fresh air.

A new impulse was born. Lay people began to question, why is enlightenment reserved for orange-robed monks? Aren’t we eligible for enlightenment too?

Thus arose Mahayana Buddhism — “Big Ferry Boat” Buddhism.

It’s big because all of us — men, women, lay and ordained — can attain what the Buddha attained in his Great Awakening.

Mahayana Enlightenment

The basis of Mahayana enlightenment is the realization of “prajna,” enlightened wisdom: Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

Anything you see, hear, taste, touch, smell and think of — including yourself — is a form.

What is emptiness?

Look around you. Look in the mirror. It is just these forms.

How wonderful that the human form can realize its essence!

Anytime you realize your essence, quite naturally you will be happy.

So, my friends, let the Mahayana achieve its victory.

Mahayana Buddhism won enlightenment for the little guy.

It feels good to finally win.

Not only a NBA championship, but also spiritual salvation.

We did it baby!