"I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil on my foot. I perceive the teachings of the world to be the illusions of magicians. I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one's eyes. I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, Nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons."

** APPLAUDS **

almost makes me wish i believed in reality.

maybe in another 2,000 years the works of shakespeare may be viewed as a 'bible' of sorts.

following the creed 'all the world is a stage'.

hope you don't take that as cynical, i really liked it.

how come plato and socratese were never viewed as holy men?

i think all great religious people were really nothing more than great philosophers.

maybe they were and what we were taught as truth is a belief.

do you know or do you think?

hell, maybe it'll take 5,000 years and after a nuclear holocaust;

somewhere in the london fog, a sheep herder will stumble upon an ancient parchment written in a language taught only to the most learned,

stories of gods who were always killed by those they led; and love that only flourished through death, of mythical creatures dancing under the light of the full moon.

i wonder how that society would develop?

"how come plato and socratese were never viewed as holy men?"

The Greeks had gods, and the philosophers didn't attempt to unseat them (or else, they did and it didn't work).. Buddha came to the people with something so against the grain of the common man's beliefs, something that people could actually feel, and thus his philosophies became a religion.

It's all about the perception. We can look back and say Plato and Buddha were both very wise men; but Plato's ideas were never treated by a great number of his people as something to follow instead of worshiping the gods.