We Chase Happiness but We Already Have It | Video

Sometimes we go to teachers because we think we’re broken and they’re going to fix us. That leads to a lot of confusion and disappointment. The truth is that no one can fix us. No one can walk the path for us. We have to do it ourselves. But, on the bright side, we can.

 

By Daniel Scharpenburg

I’ve recently been reading the text, Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, and I wanted to share this story.

A student goes to Master Ma and says, “I want you to teach me”
Master Ma says, “What a fool you are! You already have the greatest treasure within you.”

This is a well known story in the Zen tradition. What can this story tell us about ourselves?

Sometimes we go to teachers because we think we’re broken and they’re going to fix us. That leads to a lot of confusion and disappointment. The truth is that no one can fix us. No one can walk the path for us. We have to do it ourselves, but, on the bright side, we can.

We can chase happiness everywhere. We spend so much time in the race to get more things, more attention, but we don’t stop and appreciate the world for what it is. We don’t take the time to recognize what we already have.

Sometimes we get caught up chasing enlightenment. We think we are not good meditators or that we aren’t good Buddhists, but maybe we are already there.

You already have everything you need. Awakening is your natural state. You have the treasure.

 

 


 

Photo: Pixabay

Editor: Dana Gornall

 

Did you like this post? You might also like:

 

The Biological, Evolutional, Sociological Case for Compassion.

  By John Author   I've never thought of myself as the most compassionate person, but my views about myself are usually wrong. A few studies have shown that our friends and loved ones usually know us better than we know ourselves. So, according to public...

First There is a Mountain: Realizing the Oneness of Things.

  By Daniel Scharpenburg A famous, historical Zen teacher named Qingyuan Weixin had a saying... At the first level on the path he saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. On the second level of the path he saw that mountains are not mountains and rivers are...

A Need for Clarity

  By Daniel Scharpenburg Our journey doesn’t transform us, it invites us to transform ourselves. The path doesn’t really give us anything, the path only cuts things away. Even that’s not right. The path doesn’t cut things away, it inspires...

I Wanna Come Back as Your Cat: Lessons from the Animal Realm

  By Kellie Schorr   “The Buddha in the Corner” is a six-part series based on the six realms of existence in the Buddhist Wheel of Life as they are found in everyday experience. In the Bhavachakra (Wheel of Life) there is a Buddha in...

Comments

comments