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YOURSELF. AS LONG AS YOU'RE ENTHRALLED BY A LIFELESS FORM, YOU'RE NOT FREE. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, DECEIVING YOURSELF DOESN'T HELP. IT'S NOT THE BUDDHA'S FAULT. PEOPLE, THOUGH, ARE DELUDED. THEY'RE UNAWARE THAT THEIR OWN MIND IS THE BUDDHA. OTHERWISE, THEY WOULDN'T LOOK FOR A BUDDHA OUTSIDE THE MIND.
BUDDHAS DON'T SAVE BUDDHAS. IF YOU USE YOUR MIND TO LOOK FOR A BUDDHA, YOU WON'T SEE THE BUDDHA. AS LONG AS YOU LOOK FOR A BUDDHA SOMEWHERE ELSE, YOU'LL NEVER SEE THAT YOUR OWN MIND IS THE BUDDHA. AND DON'T USE A BUDDHA TO WORSHIP A BUDDHA. AND DON'T USE THE MIND TO INVOKE A BUDDHA. BUDDHAS DON'T RECITE SUTRAS. BUDDHAS DON'T KEEP PRECEPTS. AND BUDDHAS DON'T BREAK PRECEPTS. BUDDHAS DON'T KEEP OR BREAK ANYTHING. BUDDHAS DON'T DO GOOD OR EVIL.
TO FIND A BUDDHA, YOU HAVE TO SEE YOUR NATURE. WHOEVER SEES HIS NATURE IS A BUDDHA. IF YOU DON'T SEE YOUR NATURE, INVOKING BUDDHAS, RECITING SUTRAS, MAKING OFFERINGS AND KEEPING PRECEPTS ARE ALL USELESS. INVOKING BUDDHAS RESULTS IN GOOD KARMA. RECITING SUTRAS RESULTS IN A GOOD MEMORY. KEEPING PRECEPTS RESULTS IN A GOOD REBIRTH. AND MAKING OFFERINGS RESULTS IN FUTURE BLESSINGS. BUT NO BUDDHA.
The realization of enlightenment, or buddhahood, is difficult. And it is also not difficult. It is difficult if you start looking for it. It is not difficult if you simply sit down, settling within yourself in calmness, quietness, being just purely aware.
Then you are the buddha, then you are the enlightenment. It is not that you become enlightened, it is not your becoming. It is your very being, it is you in your simplest, spontaneous nature.
Enlightenment is your self-nature.
Once somebody attains to enlightenment, the greatest difficulty is to convey it to those who are living in darkness and who have never seen any light. It is almost like talking about light to blind people. One enlightened master has been reported to have said, "My whole effort of conveying my experience is just like selling glasses to blind people."
Hence, many of those who have attained have remained silent, and those very few who have spoken, know that their words cannot carry their enlightenment, its beauty, its joy,
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