The Story of the Golden Buddha.
Many years ago in Thailand there is a temple that was called the temple of the Golden Buddha. And there was a huge statue of Golden Buddha. And word came to this village where the monastery was that an army from a neighboring country was about to invade. And they got the brilliant scheme to cover the Golden Buddha, which is quite large, with mud and concrete so that it looked basically like a stone Buddha and then the army would perceive no value in it. Sure enough this army rolled in with it’s caissons and weapons. As they passed by the monastery they saw nothing but a big stone Buddha and they had no reason to plunder it. Years went by and because the army continued to occupy there was a time when no one remembered that the Buddha was golden. Until one day a young monk was sitting on the Buddha meditating on his knee and as he got up a little piece of concrete happened to crack off and he saw something shiny and realized it was gold under there. So he ran to his fellow monks and said, “The Buddha’s golden! The Buddha’s golden!” They all came out and they realized he was telling the truth and took their picks and hammers and eventually unearthed the Golden Buddha.
(From the Movie: Finding Joe.)
What if it was really true that we were born golden?
But the golden buddha or the “imago dei” – the image of God within us gets covered over with clay and stone often made out of our pain, or fear or distorted beliefs. We have spiritual amnesia. We have forgotten who we are, how God created us and who we are created to be. A part of being transformed in our faith is chipping away at the stone and uncovering the beautiful image underneath. Before the “curse” there is the creation – the beautiful image of God within us. Hs it disappeared? Has it gone away? Or is it just marred? Buried? Our task is to remember and uncover it and live out our essence of and as God’s beautiful creations.
What if we were still as God created us?
And I’ve also heard it said, “You are the gold that the world is looking for.”
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