I'm a Buddha, He's A Buddha, She's a Buddha, We're a Buddha, Wouldn't You Like To Be a Buddha Too?

Believe it or not, I do think about things other than the three F's: Food, Fitness, and my Fat rolls. Those just happen to be the most common themes of my blog. Today, I wanted to write about something else.

Buddha Nature. Have you heard of it?

Buddha taught that we are all Buddha. Meaning that we are all already complete, perfected,  and awakened, just as we are. Nothing else is required other than to awaken to our "true selves", our innate Buddha Nature. It's our illusory sense of reality, living our conditioned lives, expecting particular outcomes based on our preconceived notions, and our attachment to our "ego", that prevent us from experiencing this "awakening" (that's all).

The fact that we are sometimes anxious, jealous, greedy, dissatisfied, fearful, mistrustful, judgemental, angry, unkind, etc. is not really our true state of being - these feelings (and the actions that often accompany them) are caused by external conditions that we misunderstand, or take personally (thanks, ego!).

If we were truly our selves, that is to say the natural state of being human if we were to peel away all of the layers of delusion, ego, and fear, our natural state would be one of calm, compassion, reason, understanding, kindness and most of all, love for all sentient beings.

What I find interesting, is that so many of the people that I know, be they Christian, Atheist, Catholic, Jewish, Agnostic, etc. have so much of this innate Buddha Nature. I won't name names, but my husband (I didn't say his name), who is "spiritual" but doesn't consider himself a Buddhist (he so totally is though, he's just transcended the need to put a label on it) is full of it (Buddha Nature).

My late Grandmother was a beautiful Christian woman. She never spoke a bad word about anyone. She loved absolutely everyone and everything. She went to church every Sunday and was filled to overflowing with the love of God. She embodied Buddha Nature completely. At her memorial, my uncle, while acknowledging my Grandmother's minister, said something like; "I mean no offence to you, my mother loved her church and God, but I believe she was also a Buddha". He said that he came to feel this way after attending our wedding the week before and getting a crash course in Buddhism. If anyone embodied pure love, non-judgement, and happiness, it was my grandmother.

I have a friend who is Catholic and is always so serene and calm, positive and compassionate. I sometimes wonder if she is cursing and judging inside her head. Probably not.

My sister is a Christian-slash-Buddhist, (complicated) and is awake to reality, or always working on it. She has compassion in spades, and very rarely judges others. (Or tries not to, anyway. We're all a work in progress!)

I believe, much like the Buddha taught, that everyone is Buddha. Everyone has the true Buddha Nature, deep down inside. Buddha means "Awakened", remember, so I don't mean to say that there is no God just by saying we are all Buddha (I do not personally believe in a God), I'm simply saying that the vehicle to being awakened might be God to some people (not the "man in the sky" God, but the "God is in every element" God), or it might be meditation and study to others, practice and self analysis to others, and on and on. Same end, different means to get there.

We all come to the truth in the end, don't we? And don't ask me what I think that truth is. I would never be so bold as to state that I "know".  In fact, I have no desire to know, nor do I feel like I need to know. The only thing I do know, is that it's not for me to know right this minute. I'm such a slacker in everything I do, even in needing to know the purpose of my life or what will happen when I die. I don't really care.

Did you know that whenever someone asked the Buddha (anxiously, I'm sure) "What happens after we DIE?!", it is said that he remained silent and wouldn't answer. Either because A) He didn't know, or B) Because...does it really matter? In the larger scheme of things is it really that importnant to know? If so...Why? What aren't you doing now that would give you peace?

Sure we can all have our own "ideas" of what we "think" or "believe" the ultimate truth is, or the purpose of our short little stay on this great blue planet, or what happens when we die...but come on. Does anyone really "know"?

On a side note, people who claim to "know" annoy me just a little bit. You can "believe", but I don't "believe" you can know until you experience it. And as long as I'm on my soapbox, if someone's belief system is so dicey that it makes them uncomfortable or angry to be challenged, or causes them to be fearful and mistrustful of others' belief systems, isn't that sort of a red flag for them?
Be confident, and accept that others may have different belief systems. Is there just one, or are there many truths? Is belief or faith the same as truth? I have my own ideas about that. Maybe we can discuss them in a later blog post! I do know there is a difference between "adopting" someone's beliefs and "accepting" them as valid. You don't have to do one to do the other. And you don't have to be afraid to do the latter. What do we really know? What do we think we know? We don't have to be all matchy matchy. That's my philosophy, anyway.

Personally, I think that most, if not all, religions, when practiced correctly (think love, compassion, acceptance, the core teachings of all major religions) are beautiful and valuable. It is the weaker humans who corrupt them.

I may claim to be a "Buddhist", but I don't see a whole lot of Buddha in me. I'm sure it's in there somewhere and I do have my moments. Before you say, "Oh Eline, you are about the most enlightened person I KNOW!" (lol!) I need to tell you that I have no problem being a flawed human. At all. I embrace it. But I've decided (as I've decided a hundred times over the past 14 years), that I will take the Buddhist precepts and work on them one at a time. I'll jump around. I'll come back to the ones that are the most difficult. I'll play with it.  I need some sort of system. Maybe a set of pretty string bracelets to stand for each precept and I'll wear the ones I'm working on and keep adding them to my wrist as I work through them as a visual reminder and...Hmmmm. I'm pretty sure that vanity is not one of the precepts, but I'm visualizing a beautifully and mysteriously adorned wrist in my future! (see what happens inside my head?).

Anyway - My first precept will be the most difficult for me. Right Speech. This means no gossip, no speaking ill of people, no idle chatter (what?),  no lies, no use of words to purposely hurt people and/or to make myself feel better, i.e. - "She looks like a total skank . Good luck with that 10 years from now, idiot!" Whoa! What a zinger. WHY? Why would I need to SAY that?

Well, that's that. I really hope this post doesn't offend anyone. If it does, I apologize, that is certainly not my intent (Yeah! I just practiced "Right Speech"!!). Whooo hoooo...purple bracelet!