Uncle Jay says ...

(This is written without any regard to another Keanu Reeves feature, Little Buddha.)

'We who read to understand' are the Smith, the Anti-Neo, living on nearly the same terms as the Neo, but we don't yet accept the Amazing Grace given to all.

Why don't we take the Amazing Grace? Because that Grace 'DOES NOT COMPUTE'; we cannot 'balance the equation' to find the 'weight of its variable.

The mathematical impossibility of non-suffering is what struck us as odd when studying Buddhism: the 12-Linked Chain of Cause (and/or the Four Noble Truths) seem to state that existence means a great deal of suffering (unless you 'jump through the hoops' of the Eightfold Way).

But the truth is that you suffer just as much no matter how much you jump. The only way to avoid suffering is to remember that One has already jumped all the hoops for you. If you go forth in Jesus' name, it's like having a free-pass to the end of the hoop-track!

Jesus was a Buddha (what the Lotus Sutra calls a "Thus Come One," which is also a root-meaning of the word "Christ"). He sought to enlighten the Jews to the fact that they no longer needed to make sacrifices—that true gratitude-for-a-blessing is shown when you righteously use the blessing ... that you show thanks for a righteous gift by using it as it was intended by the righteous giver.

Any suffering gone through while showing true gratitude is simply "heavy effort" well worth the righteous goal (although the sufferer probably won't be the one who really reaches the goal)!

The goal of the Smith is to construct the tool. The smith "blows the fire of coals and brings out a weapon for its work," and the unusable shavings 'disposed-of by the spoiler' (we know they're not exactly "ruined," but more-accurately 'done away with" ... that wast not burned is tossed out).

The smith and spoiler are like a blade-making team; like the blogger and 'web-surfer' (burfer?) are an idea-making team; like the husband and wife are a citizen-making team—the smith produces the tool to change the metal and the spoiler guides the smith's work to the proper place; the blogger produces the thought to change the medium, and the 'burfer' guides the blogger's work to the right audience; the father provides the training for the citizen, and the mother steers the citizen in the right direction.

That's where Jason Hubbard's parents (with the guidance of 'society as a whole') messed up: his father unable to train him because the father lacked 'proper training' himself ('that' includes both "schooling" AND "education"); when his father left, his mother was left with a willful man-child and too much "Catholic goodness" to motivate him like his father should have!

Luckily, !