A Buddha is Born
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JoeUser Forums
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Twenty Six Hundred years ago a man was born who changed the world. A member of a royal family, he came to understand that his privilege was a burden to seeing clearly. So, he became a beggar. As this man wandered and begged for his one meal a day, he took cloth from corpses before they were burned, washed the cloth and cut it into strips. He then sewed these together to make a robe. His needs were not his own; simple, they were opportunities for practice. The practice was of generosity, patience, morality, diligence, meditation, and wisdom. When this man was in his early thirties, he sat down under a tree and found enlightenment. For the next fifty years he wandered teaching, healing, and caring for others. He taught everyone: the poor, the wealthy, kings, and queens. Even a serial killer, a terrorist in today's lingo, put down his knife and rage and became one of his close disciples. This weekend we celebrate this man's birth.
Yet, in truth, he was never born and he never died. And while he wandered and taught, he never wandered and taught. He never "got" enlightenment.
How is this so?
We cannot get what we already possess. Birth and death are merely eyes open and eyes closed and even this is nothing but a mental construct added to a moment in order for us to communicate something about that moment. Our true nature is always present. It rises in this form then that. It comes when conditions are present for it to come and falls away when conditions are present for falling away to occur. Moreover, how is it possible for one to "wander" when every step is home?
Today, 2,600 years later, the Buddha's teaching has been handed down teacher to student, directly, intimately, and even across space to us here in the United States. We know that Buddha Nature is the universe and the universe becomes the particular. We have images of what the Buddha of India may have looked like. We know what he ate, how he dressed, spoke, etc. So, how would an American Buddha appear? What would he or she look like? How would he or she dress? Eat? Behave? What would this Buddha's teaching be?
For the answer, practice zazen.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Twenty Six Hundred years ago a man was born who changed the world. A member of a royal family, he came to understand that his privilege was a burden to seeing clearly. So, he became a beggar. As this man wandered and begged for his one meal a day, he took cloth from corpses before they were burned, washed the cloth and cut it into strips. He then sewed these together to make a robe. His needs were not his own; simple, they were opportunities for practice. The practice was of generosity, patience, morality, diligence, meditation, and wisdom. When this man was in his early thirties, he sat down under a tree and found enlightenment. For the next fifty years he wandered teaching, healing, and caring for others. He taught everyone: the poor, the wealthy, kings, and queens. Even a serial killer, a terrorist in today's lingo, put down his knife and rage and became one of his close disciples. This weekend we celebrate this man's birth.
Yet, in truth, he was never born and he never died. And while he wandered and taught, he never wandered and taught. He never "got" enlightenment.
How is this so?
We cannot get what we already possess. Birth and death are merely eyes open and eyes closed and even this is nothing but a mental construct added to a moment in order for us to communicate something about that moment. Our true nature is always present. It rises in this form then that. It comes when conditions are present for it to come and falls away when conditions are present for falling away to occur. Moreover, how is it possible for one to "wander" when every step is home?
Today, 2,600 years later, the Buddha's teaching has been handed down teacher to student, directly, intimately, and even across space to us here in the United States. We know that Buddha Nature is the universe and the universe becomes the particular. We have images of what the Buddha of India may have looked like. We know what he ate, how he dressed, spoke, etc. So, how would an American Buddha appear? What would he or she look like? How would he or she dress? Eat? Behave? What would this Buddha's teaching be?
For the answer, practice zazen.
Be well.