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close to me you will come close to yourself. Only a recognition has to be attained. The diamond is there -- you have forgotten about it, or you have never remembered it from the very beginning.
There is a very famous saying of Emerson: "Man is God in ruins." I agree and I disagree. The insight has some truth in it -- man is not as he should be. The insight is there but a little upside down. Man is not God in ruins, man is God in the making; man is a budding Buddha. The bud is there, it can bloom any moment: just a little effort, just a little help.... And the help is not going to cause it -- it is already there! Your effort is only going to reveal it to you, help to unfold what is there, hidden. It is a discovery, but the truth is already there. The truth is eternal.
Listen to these sutras because these are the most important sutras in the great Buddhist literature. Hence they are called The Heart Sutra; it is the very heart of the Buddhist message.
But I would like to begin from the very beginning. From this point only does Buddhism become relevant: let it be there in your heart that you are a Buddha. I know it may look presumptuous, it may look very hypothetical; you cannot trust it totally. That is natural, I understand it. Let it be there, but as a seed. Around that fact many things will start happening, and only around that fact will you be able to understand these sutras. They are immensely powerful -- very small, very condensed, seedlike. But with this soil, with this vision in the mind, that you are a Buddha, that you are a budding Buddha, that you are potentially capable of becoming one, that nothing is lacking, all is ready, things just have to be put in the right order, that a little more awareness is needed, a little more consciousness is needed.... The treasure is there; you have to bring a small lamp inside your house. Once the darkness disappears you will no longer be a beggar, you will be a Buddha; you will be a sovereign, an emperor. This whole kingdom is yours and it is just for the asking; you have just to claim it.
But you cannot claim if you believe that you are a beggar. You cannot claim it, you cannot even dream
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