"I did not come to the study and practice of Buddhism to become a Buddhist. In fact, I am not a Buddhist. And Buddha would not have minded this in the least. He would have been happy to hear it. He was not, himself, a Buddhist. He was the thing itself: an enlightened being. Just as Jesus Christ was not a Christian, but a Christ, an enlightened being. The challenge for me is not to be a follower of Something but to embody it; I am willing to try for that. And this is how I understand the meaning of both Jesus and Buddha. When the Buddha, dying, entreated his followers to ‘be a lamp unto yourself,’ I understood he was willing to free his followers even from his own teachings. He had done all he could do, taught them everything he had learned. Now, their own enlightenment was up to them. He was also warning them not to claim him as the sole route to their salvation, thereby robbing themselves of responsibility for their own choices, behavior, and lives."
—
Alice Walker, in Dharma, Color, and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism (Parallax Press, 2004), adapted from a talk given at the African American Dharma Retreat and Conference, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, August 2002.
If it’s not outrageous for me to do so, I would modify “enlightened being” to read “awake” (for scriptural back up see A.N. 4.36). The myths around enlightenment are pervasive, and thinking of the ongoing awakenING process as something that is created anew in each moment is something I think is worth considering, whether we are talking about us or the Buddha or whatever sage we may feel devotion for or look to as an example. In the end, just words of course, but as concepts we can become very attached to them.
(via sharanam)
