We Are All Buddhas

We are all Buddhas; we are all blessed with deep inner wisdom and

compassion. Our personal meditation practice enables us to access our own

inherent goodness, peace and joy. This truth is the wonderful realization

we derive from regular meditation practice.

We Are All Buddhas: The Story

It had been announced by the head monk that the Buddha would be

arriving at the monastery this particular day to deliver a special message on

the topic of enlightenment. Like rivulets of water into a thirsty garden,

devotees from far and wide began streaming into the temple grounds from

all directions.

It was early morning when the air was still cool that they first began to

arrive, and by noon as the sun burned off that morning's chill, the

monastery's public grounds had become filled with hundreds of truth-

seeking pilgrims. From a distance, they appeared like a vast sea of flowing

orange coloured-robes, all waiting for the enlightened one to surface. The

large group of monks and truth-seekers seemed indistinguishable from one

another. Men and women alike seated with excited intention yet in

dedicated stillness, with hearts open and heads all slightly bowed in

reverent meditation.

Later that afternoon, all who desired to attend seemed to be there. The

tranquil silence and peace that pervaded from the devotees’ meditation

covered the grounds like a warm blanket as their meditation grew deeper

and the day progressed into early evening. Their bodies, like vehicles of

peace, emanated throughout the surrounding world in a state of reflection,

pure tranquility and repose.

The monks had been seated in the silence of their meditation all day and

into the evening without interruption. It was then, in the midst of this

ocean of stillness, that it suddenly occurred.

A young indiscreet monk sitting in the centre of this calm quiet pool of

humanity abruptly arose as if he were a wave stirred up from the the

oceans depths, and with appreciative joy and the sincerest of intentions,

announced to all in attendance, “I HAVE ARRIVED!”

Divine Truth Is In Our Hearts

We are all Buddhas; we all carry the internal spark of divine truth in our

hearts that is just waiting to be realized. While in our meditation practice,

we are abiding in stillness, in silence, waiting to kindle the flames of our

own enlightenment. We are all just like that monk in our story, a wave

upon the sea of humanity, waiting to be realized.

Regular meditation practice cultivates our inner landscape so that our

personal growth and transformation will naturally occur. That is what our

little story and our practice is all about. Each and every day we use our

practice to fulfill our fullest spiritual potential. In this way we are all

Buddhas, always awakening, always growing, always realizing our spiritual

essence.

This is what the Buddha himself taught; that his own enlightenment would

simply be an example for what we ourselves might attain: our own

awakened insight and consciousness.

Ego vs. Sense Of Self

Spiritual practice sometimes seems paradoxical. In one sense we seek to

cultivate an egoless - selfless state of being, while at the same time, we seek

to realize our truest sense of self and authentic state of being. Through

consistent meditative practice, we eventually realize that we need to fully

understand both sides of this paradox in order to fully realize our own

Buddha nature.

Cleaning Up Our Act

After we begin meditating there comes a point, or dare I say there should

come a point, where we realize the need to do what the spiritual teacher

Ram Dass describes as “cleaning up our act”. As we meditate, possibly

engaging in a serious yoga practice, an analytic meditation, a spiritual

study, or in any of the other spiritual arts, we begin to seek out the fire of

spiritual purification in our life. That’s when it gets very interesting for us

because we begin to witness our own transformation.

We want our lives to change and transform and we begin looking for ways

to make that happen. That is when you begin to take a more serious look at

the roles you play in your incarnation. You may re-examine your

responsibilities to your partner, parents, children, country, religion,

friends, yourself – and begin to work on ways of bringing them into

harmony with your deeper being, your more authentic sense of self.

The development of the self. The discovery of the true self. The realization

of the Buddha within. This is the discovery of what is already present

within each one of us; all the positive qualities of character that we work so

hard to cultivate in our spiritual life.

Care Of The Body / Care Of The Soul

Caring for your soul or spirit is caring for your body as well. Part of your

relationship with yourself is taking responsibility for the care of your body

and doing the things that promote good health.

Many of the great spiritual traditions teach us that the body is the temple

of the spirit. It is the vehicle for you to exist in this incarnation and become

fully awakened, realized, and at one with God. By the very nature of your

practice you should begin to have the desire to “honor” your body and your

life. Thus caring for the body is, in its essence, caring for the soul.

From personal experience, I must say that as a young man failing to realize

the significance of the preciousness of this body, I abused it. Looking back,

I can clearly see that I paid a very high price for that abuse in many ways.

It was spiritual practice that brought me back to good health physically,

emotionally and spiritually. Of all the spiritual practices I’ve engaged in

throughout the years, it has been meditation in all its various forms that

has had the deepest, most long lasting transformative impact on my life.

Listening To Your Body And Emotions

I’ve realized that as you quiet your mind, you begin to see clearly all the

various components of who you are and how you live your life. You begin to

realize which aspects of yourself are out of harmony and lacking balance.

For example, through meditation practice, you may at times begin to feel

that your body is out of sync, that you are experiencing a physical

imbalance and it is draining your energy in some way. You may feel that

your muscles need strengthening or relaxing in a specific area of your body.

You may begin to focus in on the areas in your body where you store stress

and where you find peace.

Meditation is the practice of honing in on yourself, paying attention to all

the components of what makes you - you. It enables you to bring balance to

your emotional and spiritual energy and connect you with the path to the

soul.

Yoga asana, when practiced correctly, can do the same thing. The ancient

Hindus believed that an asana was a way of talking to God, that the human

body is a manifestation of God and must be honoured as such. Yoga asana,

in its inception was designed to make that connection, to which meditation

and the focus on the breath were central. There is an excellent

documentary called Breath Of The Gods that talks about this.

Regular Practice

Meditation is a continuous reminder that your body is the temple of your

spirit. Over time, you realize the need to care for it, work with it. In doing

so, you realign yourself with your ground of being and find your own inner

sense of balance. Through regular practice you yourself can actually

balance your own energy, and recover good health and happiness.

According to the Buddha, this is how we “become the path”. Through

meditation, you examine all the areas of your life and you bring them into

harmony with your ground of being.

The Buddha tells us “You cannot travel on the path until you become the

path - Every human being is the author of their own health or disease - No

one saves us but ourselves. No one can - and no one may. We ourselves

must walk the path”.

We - each one of us - We are all Buddhas.