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about claiming if you think that you are a beggar. This idea that you are a beggar, that you are ignorant, that you are a sinner, has been preached from so many pulpits down through the ages that it has become a deep hypnosis in you. This hypnosis has to be broken. To break it I start with: I salute the Buddha within you.
To me, you are Buddhas. All your efforts to become enlightened are ridiculous if you don't accept this basic fact. This has to become a tacit understanding, that you are it! This is the right beginning, otherwise you go astray. This is the right beginning! Start with this vision, and don't be worried that this may create some kind of ego -- that "I am a Buddha." Don't be worried, because the whole process of The Heart Sutra will make it clear to you that the ego is the only thing that doesn't exist -- the only thing that doesn't exist! Everything else is real.
There have been teachers who say the world is illusory and the soul is existential -- the 'I' is true and all else is illusory, maya. Buddha says just the reverse: he says only the 'I' is untrue and everything else is real. And I agree with Buddha more than with the other standpoint. Buddha's insight is very penetrating, the most penetrating. Nobody has ever penetrated into those realms, depths and heights of reality.
But start with the idea, with this climate around you, with this vision. Let it be declared to your every cell of the body and every thought of your mind; let it be declared to every nook and corner of your existence, that "I am a Buddha!" And don't be worried about the 'I'... we will take care of it.
'I' and buddhahood cannot exist together. Once the buddhahood becomes revealed the 'I' disappears, just like darkness disappears when you bring a light in.
Before entering into the sutras, it will be helpful to understand a little framework, a little structure.
The ancient Buddhist scriptures talk about seven temples. Just as Sufis talk about seven valleys, and Hindus talk about seven chakras, Buddhists talk about seven temples.
The first temple is the physical, the second temple is psycho-somatic, the third temple is psychological,
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