The Living Buddha

We hear the words and don’t really know what they are about. It gets confusing – Dharma is Buddha, Buddha is Dharma. But the truth is like this. At first, there was no Buddha. When he realized Dharma, he was given the title Buddha. Before that, he was Prince Siddhattha Gotama. We are the same. We are called Joe or Alice or perhaps Prince so-and-so, but if we realize the Dharma then we too are Buddha, no different from him. So understand that the Buddha is still living. (Ajahn Chah*)

In the Dharma, the Buddhist teachings, we have the living presence of the Buddha. The historical Buddha, the man who lived and died over two and a half millennia ago, is no longer with us, but there is also the Buddha that never dies – the innate, deathless awareness that lies beyond our delusional selves. This living Buddha is also the living Dharma, the expression of truth that arises from awakening to the reality of the present moment. And they are to be found right where you are, when you turn your attention around to that which is aware and which is Buddha.

*From his book 'Being Dharma', translated by Paul Breiter and published by Shambala 2001