Into Orbit

The past two days have been days of wonder. The first source of wonder and awe has been in the world of science — particularly space exploration. The second was my first experience of sheer happiness that I can associate with beginning the Buddhist path. Yesterday was the first night launch of the Space Shuttle in many years, and because of the launch direction, much of the eastern United States would be able to see at least part of the launch. I live only about 265 miles (as the crow flies) from Kennedy Space Center, though I’m very well within the state of Georgia. I turned the television to NASA TV, and watched for the two hours preceding the launch, and finally, the launch itself. As soon as the Shuttle had cleared the tower, I raced outside and looked to the southeast to see if indeed the launch would be visible. The air was cold and sparklingly clear. There wasn’t a sound, and only a whisper of a breeze. Suddenly, there appeared what seemed to be a red glow to the east-southeast. The glow seemed to leap into the air, and soon it was an orange fireball with a brilliant trail of yellow fire behind it. How can this be? It seemed the shuttle was only a few miles away as it climbed to orbit. Thrilled and awestruck, I ran the few steps back inside and yelled to my mom, “You gotta come see this!” We both ran back outside, and the shuttle continued to climb towards the stars. At first Mom didn’t see it and asked where it was. “Over Anne’s barn,” I said excitedly. She spotted it and clapped with joy. A few seconds later, the solid rocket boosters cut off, and it was lost. Sadly, my eyes were not dark adapted, and I couldn’t see the much dimmer main engines. I stayed outside a while and looked for the shuttle, but never saw it. To the south, a brilliant blue-green meteor streaked through the sky. For a moment, I thought it might be the external tank falling back into the atmosphere, but realized it was in the wrong direction. It was an early Geminid meteor, tracing and extending its path back led directly to the constellation Gemini. I stayed outside a bit longer, gazing up into the clear, dark, cold sky, the stars twinkling brilliantly. The shuttle was up there, somewhere, entering orbit above the sky itself. It was a page right out of the grandest science fiction novel. I was humbled, thrilled, and awed all at the same time.

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Before the launch, and the day before, I had been going through all my web bookmarks and searching with Google, trying to find some way to begin to study Buddhism seriously on my own. There is no Dharma study group or center anywhere near, so my only option is to find something online. I finally found BuddhaNet’s ebooks page, and on it was a title that looked promising: Fundamentals of Buddhism by Dr. Peter D. Santina. I downloaded and printed it, and finally after 3:00am, I took it to bed with me to read a bit before sleep. Today I turned on NASA TV and watched the mostly silent images of the Shuttle maneuvering in space, and read more of Dr. Santina’s work. The book has given me a stronger sense of where to begin, how to take my first steps towards stream-entry. From it I have learned that one begins by following good conduct (Shila) in life — practicing Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood. This shall be my first tiny step towards life as a Buddhist, not just as someone interested in the philosophy of Buddhism, as I’ve been up until now. How do wonder and awe fit in with this? Of course, there is the thrill (and yes, fear) associated with committing to such a major change in life. What made me think of this, though, is that as I was looking for some software to help me print these ebooks, I stumbled upon a site for a group called Emirates Mac, which is a Mac user group in the United Arab Emirates. I was suddenly struck with the feeling of, “Here are some people very different from me, but we have a common interest in Macintosh computers.” Being an American, one sees the word ‘Arab’ and, thanks to conditioning by our media and government, we immediately feel fear. Even though we’re told the UAE is a friendly nation in the Middle East, I think many Americans, myself anyway, feel a strong mistrust. I’m certain that such mistrust is undeserved, and is a byproduct of the fear-mongering in our media and by our government. Today was different, however. That fear was strongly muted by the joy of seeing someone far away with a shared interest — I was filled with joy on recognizing our similarities, rather than being filled with fear over our differences. That change in attitude is a wonderful thing, and I can’t help but wonder if subtle changes are already happening as I begin to immerse myself into the stream that leads to Enlightenment. Can this be happening already? Is it possible to reap a reward so soon? Can merely setting one’s will toward the practice of the Dharma so quickly bear fruit? I’m not sure, but I am going to let this surprising feeling encourage me as I set upon this path. I am going to consider this to be the tiniest taste of the joyful happiness that awaits as I make my way along the path. I still don’t understand much, and some things are very confusing still, but I have the sneaking suspicion that once those things become clearer, I will truly know the unbounded peace and happiness that others on this path promise.

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More Study Guides at Access to Insight:

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