Realize the Buddha within You
Gautama was not the only Buddha. There were many before him, many at that time and many more after him. Buddha is not his name. His name was Gautama Siddhartha. He became a Buddha.
The word "Bu" means buddhi or the intellect. One who is above his intellect is a Buddha.
When he came to the realization that everything he sought was already within him and there was no need to search outside, a surge of energy arose in him—enough to take the next step, and then the one after. He crossed the river and sat beneath the now-renowned Bodhi tree. It was a night illuminated by the full moon.
With unwavering resolve, he declared: “I will not rise until I see the ultimate nature of my existence. Either realization must dawn, or I will remain seated until death. My eyes shall not open without knowing.”
Once that commitment was made, inner realization became possible in an instant. He saw that enlightenment required no special action. In that moment, he attained complete clarity.
The astrologer told him, “You are a monk. You possess nothing.” He replied, “Indeed, I possess nothing, and I am nobody. That is why all things belong to me.”
Becoming "no-thing" does not equate to being useless. In fact, it means you have become boundless. When you define yourself as something, you are confined to that identity. But in becoming no-thing, you gain the freedom to be anything.
When people posed similar questions to Gautama, he responded, “How can a spoon taste the soup?” To experience the soup, one needs the sensitivity of a tongue. In life, the moment you impose conditions, you lose your vitality—you become an object, trying to relate to another object, which is always distant from you.
That marked the beginning of Zen: no doctrines, no scriptures, no prescribed paths. You simply sit and wait. When realization comes, it arises on its own.
At this moment, what you identify as “yourself” is just a collection of thoughts, emotions, beliefs, opinions, and concepts. If you refuse to let these go, how can anything new enter? Are you merely adorning the old with fresh embellishments? That won’t help—it only complicates things further. Instead, just drop it. And by “drop it,” it’s not the flowers you must let go of. It is the one who brings the flowers—your ego, your identity—that must be dropped. Otherwise, you will only bow before the Buddha, hear his words, and leave unchanged. You will miss what it truly means to be in the presence of an enlightened being.
For a genuine seeker, the attitude should be: if you discover something greater, pursue it without hesitation. This is the power of walking the path of truth.
If Gautama could become a Buddha, so can you. A Buddha is one who rises above his intellect. Briefly, you too have known such moments—where you were beyond thought and reason. The key lies in sustaining that state: in cultivating the awareness needed to remain there.Let me know if you’d like a version shortened for print, social media, or a script reading.
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