Siddhartha taught throughout the countryside of India and surrounding areas for 45 years. He would end all of his talks by telling attendees to go back to your villages and teach these teachings in a language and understanding that is clear to your people. There was no ego or ownership to his teachings. Siddhartha viewed his teachings as something he discovered. They were not unique to him or something he created—he found them. He would tell people that there were Buddhas before me and there will be Buddhas after me and you too have Buddha nature inside of you just as I do.
He never put himself on a pedestal because he knew that this would make people look outside of themselves for enlightenment. Sometimes people will ask me why there are statures, shrines and images of Buddha all over the world? History tells us after Buddha had been dead for sometime, people began forgetting what he looked like so they started to create images to remind themselves of their nature and the origin of the teachings. I have images of the Buddha as well as Jesus in my house. I have them in my car and in my office. They serve as reminders to me to pause—be present and connect to my true nature.
In the Zen tradition they have an expression, “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.” This radical teaching is meant to remind people not to be looking outside for enlightenment. For many this can be scary. You mean I have to pull up my boot straps and get to work? You mean no one is going to save me? You mean I have to take responsibility for my own life? This is scary stuff! The God I believe in isn’t short of compassion, yet I believe you better be ready to meet halfway. We as human beings have an incredible ability to control our destiny to some degree. We can keep ourselves stuck or we can elevate ourselves to greatness. The choice is ours.
There are thousands of different interpretations of Siddhartha teachings just like there are thousands of interpretations of Jesus’ teachings. The teachings are the form and God is the formless. Words and images have been used for thousands of years to try to understand the formless—that which is beyond concept and thought. At some point for our world to evolve forward we must let go of the form. This is the only way the egotism that creates all suffering of the world will come to an end. When people ask me if I am a Buddhist or a Christian—I tell them I am a human being. For me, it is the only answer I can give.
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