Telo Tulku Rinpoche, An Anecdote

Abstract

There were a Buddhist, a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian who very good friends. One day they decided to go out and enjoy themselves. They started talking about their beliefs, gods and prophets. The Christian said, ‘Jesus Christ is powerful, he is the saviour of all us. God is love’. The Muslim said, ‘God is great, Allah is the saviour of all us’. The Jewish repeated the same thing about his god. The Buddhist also said, ‘Buddha is great, he is very strong’. After some time, they said to each other, ‘Ok, all of us claim that their religion is more powerful than that of the others. Let’s put our religions to the test’. One asked, ‘How can we do that?’ Someone suggested, ‘Let’s jump off the second floor of that building and see which god saves whom’. So they all agreed to jump off the second floor one by one. The Christian jumps, ‘Hail the Lord!’ Nothing happens to him. Then the Muslim jumps off, saying the prayer. Nothing happens to him either. Then the Jewish jumps, chanting his prayers. Nothing happens to him either. Finally, the Buddhist jumps off and says, ‘Om mani padme khum’. He ends up with broken ribs, a broken nose, fractured bones and so on. The others asked the Buddhist, ‘What happened? You said that Buddha is the best and that he is so compassionate. If Buddha is compassionate, how come you are not saved?’ The Buddhist replied, ‘Yes, Buddha is very compassionate, but the problem is that in Buddhism there are so many Buddhas and Boddhisattvas that by the time I jumped off they couldn’t decide among themselves who is going to help me!’