It occurred to me this morning that I take it for granted that Jesus and Buddha were men. Flesh and blood just like the rest of us. What surprised me this morning was the realization that some people actually ascribe divinity to them. Some people think they were actually god.
This was particularly shocking to me, because as a religious Jew I know that within me, as within any other person or object in existence, are sparks--little fragments--of divinity. It was just strange to me all of a sudden that worshippers would seek a separate unique (ie. divine) status for other flesh and blood people. It's as if those followers were blinded by the brightness of the sparks they saw in said flesh and blood people, until that was all they could see.
All of this reminds me of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov's deepest Torah. (It occurs more than once in Likkutei Moharan, as well as the first teaching in Likkutei Halachoth) He teaches that one needs to find the holy sparks in even the most base of people. Through finding these holy sparks one can actually raise up and reclaim even someone who appears to have been fully lost to the depths of darkness. In a sense, based on this as well as the first torah in Likkutei Moharan in which he states that every Jewish person needs to see into the light of wisdom contained in all things, the path of the Jew in this world is to seek the light within the darkness around them, to expose and illuminate that which lies before them.
Ironic then, that even this job can be done overzealously to the point at which we try and turn flesh into god -- instead of seeing G-d within the flesh.
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