When someone to the Buddha refuge goes (buddham saranam gachchhami) they are not going to Gautama but, instead, to awakening itself. When we go to the Buddha refuge we are trying to awaken to our true nature. The term Buddha is not actually the name of a sage who lived a long time ago in India. It is like the name Jesus the Christ meaning, Jesus the Anointed. When Gautama awakened to pure Mind he became buddha or awakened—thus, Gautama the Buddha. Now, today, we must awaken. If we should get lucky and awaken, we will become a Buddha.
Intrinsically, our mind is the Buddha but we don’t know that yet. Nevertheless, we have to have faith that it is. We have to start there. Our journey to the Buddha refuge must consist in penetrating through our all-too-human monkey mind (kapicitta). This mind is constantly changing. It is one thing one moment another thing the next. Mind, undisturbed, is the Buddha Mind that we are looking for. It is deep and profound; hard to see for anyone caught up in desire which acts to blind them as to the proper course.
Bodhidharma said, “Whosoever sees his nature is a Buddha,” which means that the adept has awakened in virtue of the fact that Mind has seen itself which we could say is the same as the Mind to Mind transmission of Zen. This Mind has also attained nirvana according to Bodhidharma. Before nirvana our mind was in samsara. It was rising and perishing like ocean waves being constantly disturbed. We were totally clueless as to its real nature or essence.
By being caught up in minds disturbances, which is all we have ever known since our birth, we continually deceive ourselves. The more and deeper these deceptions become after many years of clinging to them, proportionally, the more distant and obscure becomes the Buddha refuge. In other words, awakening becomes less likely. The only antidote is to read the words of the Buddha more and practice more until it becomes a part of our life. To do less is to become completely deceived.
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