What If You Really Are a Buddha, Here and Now?

What about fully claiming that Buddha within you? So many of us think we’re not yet there; we have more work to do before fully realizing our Buddhahood. We go from teacher to teacher, each telling us we fail to grok it because it’s so easy. Maybe there’s one more book to read, or another thousand hours of meditation practice will get us there.

I’m not knocking books and meditation practice. The proverbial God knows I’ve read plenty of books and meditated for many hours, but there’s no “there” to get to. Our Buddhahood is already here. I’m reminded of this quotation from Zen philosopher D.T. Suzuki’s book An Introduction to Zen Buddhism:

Understanding which does not understand, that is Buddha.

I hesitate to use the phrase…

Fake it to make it.

It’s not faking if it’s true. Maybe what I’m suggesting is faking our level of conviction that it’s true. What if we stop waiting for a sudden flash of enlightenment and spend at least part of every day fully realizing Buddhahood?

Imagine how that would change our world. We’d see a pure land everywhere we look and hear every sound as a mantra.

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