What did Buddha say to the hotdog vendor?

"Make me one with everything."

What did the hotdog vender say to Buddha?

"Fifty cents please."

Okay, it's a joke. But within the joke lives a bit of truth. As Buddha searches for enlightenment and oneness with the universe, his journey is made using the vehicle of his body. While Buddha may have attained oneness with everything, I certainly have not. But perhaps I have attained oneness with my own body, a body that could use a hotdog now and then. So amidst the search for universal oneness, Buddha buys a hotdog.

The hotdog vender is focused on his own search: for net profit. He has invested capital into his venture and needs to realize a return on his investment so that he can continue his enterprise and thus be there to offer sustenance to those on the journey to wherever they need to go. It does not matter to the vender who it is that buys his wares, or where he is going; his response is consistent, the transaction is the same.

Worlds are colliding; explosions are not apparent. Perhaps the interaction with the hotdog vender kicks a few extra beads into Buddha's karma bucket. Maybe Buddha's fifty cents kicks the hotdog vender over the break-even point. Neither of these is the point. The commingling of worlds that happens as the hotdog and the half-dollar change hands is the same as everything. "If it can't be realized here, then where? If it can't be realized in this, then in what? If it can't be realized now, then when?" ( Bob the Buddhist )

"Only the present moment is in our hands. How important then is the present moment, how important is the reminder that we are to sanctify ourselves now, not at any other time. We should sanctify ourselves at every moment, because we do not know whether the next will be ours." Maximillian Kolbe