Day 4 Letting Go

Who has no thoughts? Who has no births?
If the unborn is real, there is nothing not born.
Ask the mechanical wooden puppet When it will attain Buddhahood through practice.


Buddhahood is not something that is accomplished through practice. Buddhahood is not a creation or an attainment. We are Buddhas in the first place, so the idea of attaining Buddhahood through practice is meaningless.

One of my students told me that when she was in the hospital having a baby, she noticed that the other mothers felt they had created life. She, however, felt that her baby had come into the world by itself, and that she had just helped the baby along the way. She did not feel as though she had created her child. In the same sense, no matter how hard or how long you practice, you cannot give birth to a Buddha, or bring a new Buddha into the world. Buddhahood is not born through practice. Buddha is unborn.