One of the warmest stories ever told on Wisdom Quarterly is the Citta Sambhuta Jataka, the true "rebirth tale" of the Buddha and Ananda in College in Gandhara, India. It is amazing to be able to tie a physical location to a past life story recounted by the Buddha himself. The ruins are now in Pakistan, a country created only a few decades ago as India was divided into Islamic and Hindu majority segments following the end of British rule, with its stunning history of "divide and conquer" by exploiting ethnic differences (a strategy it also with Iraq/Kuwait). The Buddha's former life seems to have taken place not too long before becoming the Buddha. After all, how long could Taxila have been a going concern? But judging from internal details of the story, it could not have been fewer than 66 years and at most a few 100. And just prior to his final human birth, the Bodhisatta (as the Buddha is called in lives before his enlightenment) resided in an exalted space world. This and other details suggest something the odd relative nature of time.
- COMING SOON: "The Second Coming."
