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Dipankara Buddha, did he attain anything? What was his achievement then?"
Subhuti said, "No, World-honored One, he did not attain anything. Nothing was his attainment. When Tathagata was with another buddha, Dipankara Buddha, he had not achieved, attained, realized, anything at all."
Buddha laughed and said, "Subhuti, you have understood the truth very well -- because there is nothing to achieve, nothing to attain."
Then Buddha asked Subhuti, "What have you attained living with me?"
And Subhuti said, "World-honored One, nothing. I have not attained anything living with you. That's why I bow down to you, I touch your feet, because you have made me aware that there is nothing to achieve, there is nothing to attain. All that is already IS. It is as it should be."
Buddhahood cannot be desired; one cannot be ambitious for it. If one is ambitious, that is the barrier. One has to relax, be still, and see that the universe has already provided you with everything that you need. Even the ultimate buddhahoood is already built-in.
The fourth question: WHAT IS DHARMA?
Simple questions from innocent disciples!
Bodhidharma says:
IT WAS NEVER PRODUCED, AND WILL NEVER BE REDUCED; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED DHARMA, THE NORM OF THE UNIVERSE.
DHARMA simply means the ultimate law that keeps the universe together, that keeps the universe in harmony, in accord, the norm that makes the universe a cosmos and not a chaos.
The definition of dharma is totally different from the definition of religion. Ordinarily religion is translated as dharma, dharma is translated as religion. Christianity is a religion, Hinduism is a religion, but what Buddha means by dharma is not a religion. It is not definable, containable in a creed. It is not a dogma, it is a very scientific truth.
It is like gravitation. You cannot make a religion out of gravitation. Nobody worships gravitation, nobody makes temples for gravitation, although gravitation has been doing so much for you. If there was no gravitation none of us would be here, we would simply fly up. It is gravitation that keeps you tethered to the earth, otherwise you would
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