REFLECTION 31: EVERYTHING IS BUDDHA

When I was ignorant, I went searching for Buddha. When I awakened, I realised I was Buddha. When I was fully enlightened, I saw that everything is Buddha.

Deep within, beneath all these coverings, in essence we are the same.

1) When I am ignorant, I go looking for Buddha

I look in temples, in stone statues, in scriptures. I look in other people's teachings, hoping someone will point me towards liberation.

Yet the more I search, the further away it feels.

Because when the mind is still grasping and hoping, Buddha remains something 'out there'-distant, exalted, impossible to touch.

2) When I awaken, I realise I am Buddha

Not the Buddha of monuments or ritual, but the Buddha within the heart-mind: the light of compassion, the clarity of wisdom, the stillness that stands steady amid a thousand changes.

When the mind is at peace, Buddha appears.

Buddha does not come from outside. It is the pure nature already present within every living being.

3) When I am fully enlightened, I see that everything is Buddha

The virtuous and the harmful, the wise and the foolish; grasses and trees, mountains and rivers-all share the same awakened essence, differing only in the degree to which it is expressed.

From this view there is no longer separation, no winning or losing, no clinging.

For when you understand that every life is on the journey back to itself, what remains is only boundless love, acceptance, and compassion.

Deep within-beneath the outer shell of flesh, fame, and suffering-we are alike: each of us carries the flame of Buddha-nature.

Some are still asleep. Some have opened their eyes a little. Some are walking. Some have already arrived.

But all are within the same great journey: the journey of recognising who we truly are.

And then there is no 'me' and 'Buddha', no searching and finding-because Buddha has never gone anywhere.

Only we, for a while, forgot.

'I am a Buddha who has already become; sentient beings are Buddhas yet to become.' - the Tathāgata

Hoàng Nhật Minh
Excerpt from the book: Spiritual Science - A Journey Back To Your True Self

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