“Letting the [present] moment take over is the practice of great honesty.”
Siddhārtha Gautama, commonly referred to as Buddha, was an ascetic and spiritual teacher of ancient India around the 5th century BCE. He taught the “middle path” between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism.
“The Buddhist teaching which advises taking refuge in the Triple Gem means availing oneself of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The Buddha is our own Buddha Nature or what a Christian would call Christ Consciousness. The Dharma is the teaching of the Buddha, the path to Self-Realization. The Sangha is the supportive community of fellow seekers.”[i]
“Sometimes Buddha Nature is described as a ‘true self’ or ‘original self.’ And sometimes it is said that everyone has Buddha Nature. This is not wrong. But sometimes people hear this and imagine that Buddha Nature is something like a soul, or some attribute that we possess, like intelligence or a bad temper. This is not a correct view. Buddha Nature is not something we have, it is what we are. … [Our practice] is not something that will give us enlightenment but instead is the activity of our already enlightened nature, or Buddha Nature.”[ii]
Insight # 47 comes from Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche a pre-eminent Buddhist teacher born in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains. He was trained as a lama and received transmissions from all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
“Letting the [present] moment take over is the practice of great honesty. To let the moment take over, you have to have great confidence in your true nature; the Buddha within you. When you find the Buddha within [True Self], everything is celebration. You will be able to see everything outside yourself as the expression of the Buddha within. If something appears wrathful, it is understood as the expression of the Buddha within. If something appears peaceful, it is understood as the expression of the Buddha within. After all, everything is the expression of the Buddha within. Therefore, everything is your creation. Your creation is everything.”[iii]
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Additional Reading:
- Buddha, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
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[i] Henry, Roy Charles. “Synthesis: Any or All Religions Will Suffice.” Why Am I Here? October 2014, p. 45.
[ii] O’Brien, Barbara. “Buddha Nature.” Learn Religions, Sep. 7, 2021. https://www.learnreligions.com/buddha-nature-doctrine-450001
[iii] Rinpoche, Shyalpa. “A Path of Honesty.” Shambhala Sun. Boulder, Colorado, May 2003, p. 37.
