The Buddha
By Thubten Chodron
Who is the Buddha? If he is just a man, how can he help us?
There are many ways to describe who the Buddha is, according to different ways of understanding. These various interpretations have their sources in the Buddha’s teachings. One way is to see the historical Buddha who lived 2,500 years ago as a human being who cleansed his mind of all defilements and developed all his potential. Any being who does likewise is also considered a Buddha, for there are many Buddhas, not just one. Another way is to understand a particular Buddha or Buddhist deity as the omniscient mind manifesting in a certain physical aspect in order to communicate with us. Yet another way is to see the Buddha – or any of the enlightened Buddhist deities – as the appearance of the future Buddha that we will become once we properly and completely have engaged in the path to cleanse our mind of defilements and develop all of our potential. Let’s examine each of these ways in more depth ......
The Historical Buddha
The historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, was born a prince and had all that life could offer in terms of material possessions and riches, a loving family, fame, reputation and power. He saw that although those things brought temporal worldly happiness, they were never able to bring lasting happiness. Thus, he left the princely environment to become an ascetic searching for truth. After doing severe physical austerities for six years, he saw that the extreme of self-denial also was not the path to ultimate happiness. At this point, he sat under the bodhi tree, and in deep meditation, completely purified his mind of all wrong conceptions, contaminated actions and their imprints, and brought to perfection all of his potential and good qualities. He then proceeded with great compassion, wisdom and skill, to give teachings, thus enabling others to gradually purify their mind, develop their potential, and attain the same realizations and state of happiness that he had.
How can such a person save us from our problems and pain?
Certainly, he cannot pull out the afflictive emotions from our mind in the same way as a thorn can be extracted from someone’s foot. Nor can he wash away our defilements with water, or pour his realizations into our minds. The Buddha has impartial compassion to all sentient beings and cherishes us more than himself, so if our sufferings could have been eliminated by only the action of the Buddha, he would have done it already.
However, our experience, our happiness or pain, depends on our mind. It depends on whether or not we assume the responsibility to subdue our afflictive emotions and actions. The Buddha showed the method to do this, the method that he himself used to go from the state of an ordinary confused being like we are now to the state of total purification and growth, or Buddhahood. It is up to us to practics this method and transform our own mind. Sakyamuni Buddha is someone who did what we want to do – to reach a state of lasting happiness. He taught that by means of both his life story and the various teachings he gave. But he cannot control our minds, only we can. Our enlightenment depends not only on the Buddha showing us the way, but on our own efforts to follow it.
It is like if we want to go to London. First, we find out if such a place called London actually exists, and then we look for someone who has been there and who has the knowledge and capability and willingness to give us all of the travel information. It would be foolish to follow someone who had never been there, because he/she could unwittingly make a mistake in the explanation. Likewise, the Buddha has attained the state of total purification and growth; he has the wisdom, compassion and skill to show us the path. It would be silly to entrust ourselves to the guidance of someone who had not reached the enlightened state hem/herself.
Our travel guide can give us information about what to take with on our trip and what to leave behind. He/she can tell us how to change planes, how to recognise the various places we will pass through, what dangers we could encounter along the way and so forth. Similarly, the Buddha has described the various levels of the paths and stages, how to progress from one to the next, what qualities to take with us and develop, and which ones to leave behind. However, a travel guide cannot force us to make the journey – he/she can only indicate the way. We have to get ourselves to the airport and no the plane. Just so, the Buddha cannot force us to practice the path. He gives the teachings and shows by his example how to do it, but we have to do it ourselves.
The Buddhas as manifestations
The second way to think of the Buddhas is as manifestations of omniscient minds in a physical form. Those beings who are Buddhas are omniscient in that they perceive all existent phenomena as clearly as we can see the palm of our hand. They achieved this ability by fully developing their wisdom and compassion, thus eliminating all defects. But we cannot communicate directly with the Buddhas’ omniscient minds as we have no clairvoyance. In order for the Buddhas to fulfil their most heartfelt wish to lead all sentient beings to enlightenment, they have to communicate with us, and in order to do so, they assume a physical form. In this way, we can think of Sakyamuni Buddha as a being who was already enlightened, and who appeared in the aspect of a prince in order to teach us.
But if he is already enlightened, how can he take rebirth? Sakyamuni did not take rebirth under the control of afflictive emotions and contaminated actions (karma) as ordinary beings do, as he had already eliminated these defilements from his mind. However, he was able to appear on this earth by the power fo compassion.
When thinking of the Buddha as a manifestation, do not emphasize the Buddha as a personality. Rather, concentrate on the qualities of the onmniscient mind appearing in the form of a person. This is a more abstract way of understanding the Buddha, so it takes more effort on our part to think in this way and to understand.
In the same way, the various enlightened Buddhist deities can be seen as manifestations of the omniscient minds. Why are there so many deities if all the beings who have attained enlightenment have the same realizations? This is because each physical appearance emphasizes and communicates with different aspects of our personality. This demonstrates the Buddhas’ skillful means. For example, Avalokiteshvara (Kuan Yin, Chenresig) is the manifestation of the compassion of all the Buddhas. Although possessing all the compassion and wisdom of any Buddha, Avalokiteshvara’s particular manifestation emphasizes compassion. By thinking of, praying to and meditating on Avalokiteshvara, we can develop all the qualities of the Buddhas, and especially our compassion will develop more quickly.
The white color of Avalokiteshvara emphasizes purity, in this case the purification of selfishness through compassion. The thousand arms, each with an eye in its palm, expresses how impartial compassion looks upon all beings and is willing to reach out to help them. By visualizing compassion in this physical aspect, we communicate with compassion in a non-verbal and symbolic way.
Manjushri is the manifestation of the wisdom of all the Buddhas, although Manjushri, too, has the same realizations as all the Buddhas. Manjushri, as found in the Tibetan tradition, is depicted as yellow in color, holding a flaming sword and a lotus flower with the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. This physical form is symbolic of inner realizations. Yellow color represents wisdom, which illuminates the mind just as golden rays of the sun light up the earth. The sword, too, represents wisdom in its function of cutting ignorance. Holding the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra indicates that the way we are to develop wisdom is by studying, contemplating and meditating on this sutra. By visualizing and meditating on Manjushri, we can attain the qualities of a Buddha, especially wisdom.
In this way, we can understand why there are so many deities. Each emphasizes a particular aspect of the enlightened qualities, in order to communicate that quality to us symbolically. That does not mean, however, that there is no such being as Avalokiteshvara, for on one level, we can understand the Buddha of Compassion to be a person residing in a certain Pure Land. On another level, we can see him (or her) as a manifestation of compassion in a physical form. Do not get confused because Avalokiteshvara is sometimes in a male form and sometimes in a female form. It is not because he/she could not make up his/her mind! The enlightened mind is actually beyond being male or female. These are just appearances in order to communicate with us ordinary beings who are so involved in forms. An enlightened being can appear in a wide variety of bodies.
The nature of all these various manifestations is the same: the omniscient mind of wisdom and compassion. All of the Buddhas and deities are not separate beings in the same way that an apple and an orange are separate fruits. Rather, they all have the same nature, only they appear in different external forms in order to communicate with us in different ways. From one lump of clay, a pot, a vase, a plate, or a figurine can be made. The nature of all of them is the same – clay – yet they perform different functions according to how the clay is shaped. In the same way, the nature of all the Buddhas and deities is the omniscient mind of wisdom and compassion. This appears in a variety of forms in order to perform various functions. Thus, when we want to develop compassion, we emphasize meditation on Avalokiteshvara; when our mind is dull and sluggish, we emphasize the practice of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. These Buddhas all have the same realizations, yet each one has his/her speciality.
The Buddha That We Will Become
The third way to understand the Buddha that we take refuge in is as the appearance of our own Buddha nature in its fully developed form. All sentient beings have the potential to become Buddhas, for we all have the clear nature of the mind. At the present our mind is clouded by afflictive emotions (klesa) and actions (karma). Through constant practice, we can remove these defilements from our mind stream and nourish the seeds of all the beautiful potentials we have. Thus, each of us can become a Buddha when this process of purification and growth is completed. This is a feature unique to Buddhism, for in most other religions there is an irreparable gap between the divine being and the human being. However, the Buddha said that each sentient being has the potential for perfection. It is only a matter of engaging in the practice and creating the causes to reach perfection.
When we visualize the Buddha or a deity and think of him/her as the future Buddha that we will become, we are imagining our now latent Buddha nature in its completely developed form. We are thinking of the future time when we shall have completed the path of purification and growth. We are imagining the future in the present, and in this way reaffirming our own latent goodness. This also helps us to understand that what ultimately protects us from suffering is our own practice and achievement of enlightenment.
These different ways of understanding the Buddha are progressively more difficult to understand. We may not grasp them immediately. That is alright. Various interpretations are explained because people have different ways of understanding. We are not expected to all think in the same way or to understand everything at once.