As we know, there are different traditions of Buddhist teachings, and the Mahayana point of view – certainly the Prasangika-Madhyamaka point of view – is that every sentient being, every mind possessor just naturally possesses the potential to become a buddha.
I love that word, “mind possessor,” I think it’s a delicious translation. It’s a literal translation of the Tibetan word sem chen, which is the word we translate as sentient being. I think a mind possessor is really sort of spot on, isn’t it?
Buddha would tell us there are countless mind possessors – I mean, humans are a tiny percentage of them – and just by their very existence, their very nature – it’s just how it is – every one of them naturally possesses the potential to become a buddha.
Everybody possesses buddha nature. We don’t talk like that. It sort of just sounds puzzling: everybody possesses buddha nature, you know? Like as if there’s a little buddha in there that has to come out!
I always like to use this simple example. It’s a really simple example of an acorn, because often they refer to this buddha potential as the “seed of enlightenment.” We all possess the seed of enlightenment, you know?
If you think of an acorn, we all know very well – hear the words – we all know very well that what defines the very existence of an acorn is that it’s a seed that when given the right conditions will naturally, inevitably, become an oak tree.
That defines its nature, doesn’t it? You could equally say that every acorn – this is the one to help us – every acorn possesses “oak tree nature.” If it is an acorn – if you can say, “That’s an acorn” – then, necessarily, it can be turned into an oak tree.
That’s the way Buddha’s saying about every mind, every consciousness: just naturally, what defines its existence – like what defines the existence of an acorn is its potential to turn into an oak tree – what defines for the Buddha the existence of minds is their potential to turn into a buddha.
What minds actually are finally are potential buddhas – that’s the way of saying it. All minds possess buddha nature. In a sense, that’s who we really are. We’re not it yet, but he’s discovered that’s what a person is, that’s what a mind is: a potential buddha.
Our problem is our view of ourselves, according to the Buddha, is profoundly limited – look at it, is it not true? It’s like we know we’re an acorn, but that’s all we think we are, so we define ourselves as this little kind of shape – I don’t know what that shape is. Some mathematician told me the name of the shape of an acorn, but I can’t remember – it was some fancy Latin word. What’s the name of the shape of an acorn? Anybody know? Let’s call it oval, although it’s not oval.
“I am an acorn,” that’s it! So we try to make ourselves the nicest acorns, and we change our hats every day, and we smooth out our skin. In other words, we have absolutely no idea of our potential: we just try to be the best acorn! We’re so limited in who we think we are!
And that’s how we think as humans: this is me! We take ourselves on face value. Mostly we define ourselves by our delusions! So limited! This is the irony of ego, and the tragedy: we really do believe that these miserable thoughts are at the core of our being. We really believe that, and no philosopher told us, our mummy didn’t teach us this. This is the tragedy of the habit of delusions, especially the root delusion that believes in the intrinsic me: they are in their nature neurotic, in their nature they’re negative, in their nature they’re fear-based – they’re not happy states of mind at all, and they’re utterly set in stone, absolute.
Why do you think we kill ourselves? Because we really can’t see light at the end of the tunnel. We can’t see our potential. Our minds are so extreme, you know? We believe our minds are the delusions.
We believe we’re an acorn, and we try to become the best acorn, and then we die. That’s it, you know?
Once you establish the incredible potential of an acorn, then you think, “Well, how foolish to waste this acorn and not allow it to become what it really is: an oak tree!”
So how to become what we really are, a buddha? We can rid the mind utterly of all the neuroses – they’re not at the core of our being – and we can develop the wisdom and virtue to perfection. That’s who we really are!