through our own effort

I am recording this talk in Bodh Gaya, the place where Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened, where he became buddha. In this short series of talks I feel to comment on some of Gautama Buddha’s teachings, at least my feelings, my response, to some of his teachings.

And today, I feel to talk about one of his earliest teachings which is that enlightenment, nirvana, paradise, comes to us through our own efforts, and not through the conditions of our birth. To us this may not be such a surprise, but in the time of Gautam Buddha it was a radical statement. In India, the caste system controlled everything, and the Brahman caste had a monopoly over all things spiritual, much as the Roman Catholic Church held a monopoly in Europe in the Middle Ages.

But Gautam Buddha said anyone can become enlightened. It does not depend on who our parents were. It does not depend on our caste, our class, our upbringing. We can break through any conditioning, but it takes some effort on our own part. It is through our own endeavour that we can find paradise here on Earth, whilst we live. This has nothing to do with what happens after death, and Gautam Buddha rarely spoke of death and the afterlife, if such a thing exists. His sole concern was our life here and now, and the suffering that we feel, and how we can go beyond that suffering. And his message is clear; each of us can go beyond suffering, can reach a space within ourself where we do not suffer psychologically anymore. But this can only come about through our own sincere search, through our own effort. Others cannot do it for us. It is like when we are hungry, it is no use if someone else eats the food for us, we need to eat ourself.

It is only our own actions that can bring us fulfilment. It is our own journey. So do not be lazy. Do not think that you can somehow offload this essential work onto someone else. No. You must look into it for yourself, and follow your own journey, your own path, until the very end. Until you too become enlightened. Until you too are a buddha.