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means a consciousness that has come back to itself -- is no more wandering in dreams, is no more thinking of the future, is no more thinking of the past. A consciousness that is not possessed by memories or possessed by imagination. A consciousness that has got rid of the past and rid of the future, a consciousness that has only present. A consciousness that lives in the moment, utterly here now. Alert, awake, radiant.
All beings are Buddhas. Zen people call this single sentence 'The Lion's Roar'. It is. In a single stroke Hakuin has delivered you, has saved you from yourself. There is no more salvation needed. A single statement is enough to release you from all bondage. You are a Buddha. But remember you are not a Buddha in any special sense. Everybody is -- your dog and your cow and your buffalo and your donkey, everybody is! So don't take it in an egoistic sense, that 'I am a Buddha'. Don't make it ambitious, don't go on an ambition trip. ALL is Buddha. Life is Buddha, being is Buddhahood, existence is Buddhahood.
Just think of it. One of the greatest statements ever made:
ALL BEINGS ARE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING BUDDHAS.
Hakuin has finished in one sentence. The remaining song will be a repetition, really. The remaining song will be for those who cannot understand the first statement. It is said, when Hakuin was writing this song and he wrote his first sentence -- 'All beings are from the very beginning Buddhas' -- one of his disciples was sitting there and he said, 'Stop now. Now there is no more to say.' He left the room, the disciple left the room. He said, 'Now there is no point. You have finished in the first sentence -- this should be the LAST sentence!'
But still the song is beautiful. It will help you from different directions to come to the same truth. It will help you to see the point from different vantage points, from different windows. You will see the same Buddha sitting, from every window of the temple. But it is good, because from some window there may be more light falling on the Buddha, from some window the green of the trees may be reflected in the Buddha's face, from some other window a star may be looking
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