“You truth seeker, look into your own mind.
If you realize that Buddha is in yourself, you will not seek after him outwardly.
Mind is Buddha; Buddha is mind.”
— Fu-Diashi
FYI: the word Buddha just means awake. Are you awake right now? Fully conscious, focused and aware? That’s Buddha. Don’t feel awake? Then sit. Sitting is just the practice of stopping everything else and paying attention.
Want help living more awake & alive? Join me 11am ET every Wednesday for a free meditation (sitting) class. Sign up here.
Sit every day, and you’ll naturally start living more awake. We only have one life of which I know. So, the goal is to pay attention to your life., here and now – the only life we actually have (everything else is memory or imagination, ie not real).
But how do you pay attention to your life here, and now?
That’s easy: Sit.
That enough.
***
Mind is Buddha. Can you imagine that your racing, raging, distracted, confused, proud, judgmental mind… is Buddha? Is awake? You don’t have to imagine it. It’s like gravity: whether you realize it or not, it is.
But, freedom — and real peace — come when we realize that our mind, as it is, is it.
When we realize that the world, and that yourself, and your mind is it, as it is right now, you become peace. You live peace.
It’s, whatever it is you hope for or want, is not something else, or anywhere else. It’s just here. It’s only here. Nothing to change or improve, but just as it is right now. Can you imagine?
Don’t imagine. Sit.
Let’s take this teaching a bit further. In statements like the one above, “Mind is Buddha",” the word Buddha can refer to notions like meaning and purpose, as well as to the answer to every longing, to every question why. Each of those things? Buddha. And, you’re Buddha. As such, you can read the statement above as: If you realize that [meaning, purpose, and the answer to whatever question plagues your mind] is in yourself, you will not seek after [meaning, purpose, the answer to your big questions] outwardly.
Because, you’re already it.
“Reality is right in your hand. Once you have missed your [self] and start looking for [meaning, answers, purpose, etc] outwardly, you are immediately turned into a man of ignorance and are hundreds and thousands of miles away from [life]” — Zenkei Shibayama, The Gateless Barrier
What all these messy words are pointing to: every thing you need is right here, right now. Nothing is hidden. Nothing is lacking. It’s just your mind that thinks otherwise, and that is the source of our suffering.
The tricky thing is that you can’t stop or still the mind (and remember: the mind is it, too!): if you try to still your mind, you only stir it up more. What you can still is your body. Still your body for long enough, and — like a pond after a storm — your mental mud will fall, and your water will become clear, all on its own.
“ ‘It’’ is ever present here, now. If you look for it outwardly, know that you will never be able to get ‘it.’
— Master Yoka
Don’t look anywhere else. Nothing is hidden. There’s nothing to find, anyway. It can never be anything else, or anywhere else. Come back to yourself, to your body, to your breath, and stay there.
In time, you’ll realize you already have everything you need. You always have.
Wishing you a strong and steady week, and I hope to see some of you in class!
Sit strong,
kb
*note: this was originally written & sent to the www.North-Scale.com mailing list on Oct 16, 2020.