I believe in the Law of Allowing, that there are many paths to God, and that each person here on Earth has the same inherent right to practice their faith and walk their walk in their own way. Please, God, let me be sure that I never stray to the left or right off my own path, my 'Good Red Road', and let me be so concentrated on keeping my walk pure and holy that I cannot even attempt to tell others that they are walking the wrong way."

All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness. All those happy in the world are so because of their desire for the happiness of others.

-Bodhicaryavatara

'APPO DEEPO BHAVA.'

Buddha was dying. He walked for forty years with a lamp and thousands followed him. Now he was going to die.    One day in the morning he said: 'This is my last day. If you have something to ask, you can ask.' The moment had come, the crossroad had come; now he would go on his own way. Suddenly, infinite darkness surrounded everybody.     Ananda, Buddha's chief disciple, started crying like a child -- beating his heart, tears coming down -- almost mad.    Buddha said: 'What are you doing, Anand?'     Anand said: 'What will we do now? You were here, we followed in your light. Everything was safe and secure. We have completely forgotten that darkness exists. Following you, everything was light. Forty years, and now you are leaving -- and you are leaving us in total darkness. We were better before we met you because at least we were attuned to darkness; now that timing is also lost. Don't leave us in darkness! We could not attain to enlightenment while you were here; now what will happen when you are gone? We are lost forever.'     He started crying and weeping again.     Buddha said: 'Listen. Forty years you walked in my light and you could not attain to your own light. Do you think if I am alive forty years more, you will attain to your own light? Even four thousand or four million years? The more you walk in a borrowed light, the more you imitate, the more you will lose. It is better I should go.'     The last words on Buddha's lips were: 'Be a light unto yourself.'     He died with this uttering:

'Be a light unto yourself' -- 'APPO DEEPO BHAVA.'

The story is beautiful. The next day Ananda became enlightened. He could not become enlightened for forty years and he loved Buddha tremendously; he had almost become a shadow of him and he could not attain. The borrowed light: he relied too much on it. And it was so beautiful, and so effortlessly available -- who bothers about anything else? And within twenty-four hours he became enlightened.     What happened? Twenty-four hours of deep crying and facing the darkness, and the reality, and one's own helplessness. Those twenty-four hours must have been so long for him. It was the darkest period -- painful, deep anguish and agony. He passed that hell. It is said that for twenty-four hours he was Lying down under a tree as if dead, the whole body shaking, tears continuously flowing. People thought that he had gone mad or that he wouldn't be able to survive without Buddha. But after twenty-four hours he was a totally different man. He opened his eyes and people could not believe it -- those eyes had the same glimmer as Buddha's eyes. His body had the same beauty, the same fragrance. He walked like Buddha.     He had attained to his own light."