Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

If I could plan a dinner party with anyone in the world, living or dead, there are only two people I would actually like to dine and talk with.  They are two men, brothers or a sort, really, that hold a special place in my heart.  If I could walk with them and talk with them there would be nothing else left for me in life (well, except go into space). 

These two men symbolize many things, light and life, wisdom and love, East and West.  From the

East comes  Siddharta Gautama,the Lord Buddha.  He is light and wisdom, the effulgence of knowledge known as enlightenment, resting in the mind.  And from the West comes, Jesus, the Christ.  He is life and love, the ultimate sacrifice which generates life on new levels, resting in the heart.  These two great sons of God together form two sides of the same coin, as it were.

I sometimes imagine there would actually be very little to talk about with these two.  Just sitting in their presence and soaking up their energy would be enough for me, particular with Jesus.  I remember the woman in the New Testament, who said to herself, "If I could but touch the hem of his garment, I would be healed."  She didn't need to talk to him or hear words of wisdom, all she believed necessary was just touching the him of his caftan or his robe.  Such is faith, I suppose.  And the Buddha, I have no less than ten representations of him in my home.  I love that serene expression that rests on his face as he experiences Samadhi or Beatitude as the Christian mystic might say.  There is so much to study in that expression.

If I could have something from each of them (not question, for there is little that I would question of these two, their teachings really answer much that human nature struggles to understand), I would ask for the sensation of just a touch of the light, just a bit of the love they experience so that I could hold it in my heart and in my mind as a little nugget, a treasure to recall and nurse.