Did Ebenezer Scrooge Become Enlightened on Christmas Eve?
As Westerners, we're familiar with the plot - ( n.) the cause-and-effect relationship between events in a story - of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", but to what degree do we understand some deep Buddhist teachings through the transformation of its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge? The novel begins with Scrooge being "a cold-hearted miser", a stingy, tight-fisted, unpleasant man who does not care for anyone and is only interested in money and wealth. On a night like last night, Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, wrapped and weighed down by heavy chains and money boxes symbolising greed and selfishness. Marley warns Scrooge that he must change and show penance, and warns him that three Spirits will visit and offer him the chance of reforming in order to escape the same fate. The Ghost of Christmas Past visits first, and we learn of Scrooge's circumstances when he was younger, and how he beca...