Sri Sri speaks on Buddha Purnima

Montreal, Canada

Today is Buddha Purnima, the day Buddha was born. He got Enlightened, he attained Nirvana and he died also on the same day.
Today, it seems the moon is 20% more than other full moon days. It is a very big moon. So you should watch the moon rise.

There is a little Buddha in everybody, and that Buddha is in the form of Siddhartha.
Do you know who Siddhartha is? Before Buddha became Buddha he was Siddhartha. He was wandering, lost. He had tried everything but he couldn’t find; but he had that spirit of enquiry.
He said, ‘The world is all sorrow and I want to get rid of sorrow.’ Siddhartha understood everything is sorrow, but he did not know the way.
So everybody has a little Buddha inside of them, only he has to wake up.

Buddha tried this and that and that and this. He ran from pillar to post, he did technique after technique after technique, but nothing worked. Because while doing all this, his mind was outward, and when he got sick and tired of everything and dropped everything, that moment he got enlightened. This is the story as it goes.
So, when he got tired of trying hard and trying hard and trying hard, then he said, ‘Okay, let me just relax. I give up.’ So he gave up and sat, and the mind turned inward and then he became Buddha.
So turn the mind inward.

Unfortunately Buddha never got a Guru. He couldn’t get a Guru at that time. But Adi Shankaracharaya had a Guru. So he met the Guru and the path became much easier, smoother. He could just sit and go into Samadhi. But for Buddha to go into Samadhi and meditation was not possible. It was hard for him. So he fasted. Somebody told him to fast and he fasted, because he was a King from the royal family and he did not know about surrender, or about devotion, or about letting go. Doing, doing and doing, that is what he heard, and what he knew as he was trained. So the big ego, and that big doing, made him run around for several years.
Finally he gave up and then he got enlightened; that is how the story goes.

So that little mind inside of you doesn’t want to let go and to just give up, it goes on the trip of I want to do, and I want to do, and I want to do. I will achieve this and I will achieve that.
When you see, what is there to achieve? Then everything drops, you surrender, you let go and meditation happens. You know, it is like getting onto an Ayurvedic massage table. You just get onto the table and that is it, you don’t do anything. Everything is done for you; so even meditation will be done for you. You just sit and meditation will happen.

'My Spiritual Journey,' by The Dalai Lama

Article: 'My Spiritual Journey,' by The Dalai Lama

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"Does God exist?," is a skeptical query often raised. Some affirm the existence of God while others deny, "God does not exist!"
Lord Buddha removes this skeptical knot by teaching in His own way about God's existence.
Buddha once entered a village. A man in the morning asked him, "Does God Exist?" Buddha replied, "No, absolutely not!"
In the afternoon, another man approached and posed the same question, "Does God exist?'Buddha said, "Of course yes!"
In the evening, the third man asked the same questionThe enlightened one closed His eyes and remained silent.
The inquirer too closed his eyes. Something transpired and the man bent forward and touched the feet of Buddha reverentially. He said, "You are the first man who has answered my question" and left feeling grateful.
Ananda, Buddha's attendant who was a witness, was confused about the conflicting answers of the master to the same question. When Buddha was retiringto bed, he told Him, "Please do be more compassionate on me as I am puzzled. The other three people have not listened to your different answers, but I have. So please dispel my confusion"The enlightened one opened up. "In the first place, My answers to their question had nothing to do with God. My approach was rather towards the questioner than the question. The first person who approached me was a theist, a believer in God. The second was an atheist, who believed in the absence of God. The person who believed in God wanted to confirm his belief about God. All beliefs are barriers to the realization of the truth. Theist or atheists they are all tied to their own beliefs and systems!
As Ananda listened intently, Buddha continued, "The third man was a real enquirer. He was not concerned with the existence or non existence of God. He wanted the bare truth. So I remained silent looking within. My message to him was to be silent and know. There is no need to raise any questions as it is not a question to be answered, rather a quest or a thirst. Thus he simply followed me and in his silence, when he looked within, something transpired. He was so overwhelmed with gratitude as I did not provide any intellectual answer but the very taste of the existential truth!"
Can the mundane mind get to know the master's ways?!

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Q: I follow Buddhism. I practice the teachings of Lord Buddha and I also do the techniques taught by you and enjoy it. Would there be any conflict because of my diverse practices?

Sri Sri: Conflict is created in the mind. You need not get confused. Buddha's teachings are not very different that what we do here. We focus on the following four things: a) Maitri: Friendliness b) Karuna: Compassion c) Mudita: Being happy for those who are doing big progress. d) Upeksha: Indifferent towards those who are still doing wrong after having shown the direction. So friendliness comes with happiness. You cannot be friendly to anyone when you are not happy. Similarly indifference is the biggest weapon to make change in an individual. If you show indifference the person will change. This is the same thing that the Buddha said. Aasti, Bhati Preeti, which means Existence, Consciousness and Love respectively. Globalize Wisdom is what we need to do today!

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Sri Sri on Buddha

On Saturday 9 May we celebrated Buddha Purnima(the day Buddha was born). Below is part of a talk by Sri Sri on Buddha


When Buddha got enlightened on that full moon day in the month of May, it is said that he maintained silence for the whole week. He did not say a word. Mythology says that all the angels in the heaven were frightened. They knew that it was only once in a millennium that someone blossoms like Buddha. Now he was silent! The angels then requested him to say something. He said, “Those who know, they know even without my saying and those who do not know, will not know even if I say something. Any description of light to a blind man is of no use. There is no point in talking to those who have not tasted the ambrosia of life, and therefore I am silent. How can you convey something so intimate and personal? Words cannot. And as many scriptures in the past have declared words end where truth begins.”

The angels said, “What you say is right. But consider those who are on the borderline, who are neither fully enlightened nor totally ignorant. For them, a few words will give a push, for their sake you speak and every word of yours will create that silence.”

The purpose of words is to create silence. If words create more noise, then they have not reached their goal. Buddha's words would definitely create silence, because Buddha is the manifestation of silence. Silence is the source of life and is the cure for diseases. When people are angry, they maintain silence. First they shout and then comes the silence. When one is sad, they ask to be left alone and retreat into silence. Similarly, silence is the recourse one takes to if ashamed. If one is wise too, there’s silence.

When Jesus was asked, “Are you the son of God?” he kept silent; it was the wisest thing to do. When you are telling someone you have a pain in the leg and they want you to prove it, how is that possible? When you cannot prove something as deep as pain how can you prove something like enlightenment or divinity? Joy and fulfillment bring silence while desire brings noise.

Look at the noise in your mind. What is it about? More money? More fame? More recognition? Fulfillment? Relationship? The noise is about something; silence is about nothing. Silence is the basis; noise is the surface.

From the very beginning Buddha lived a very satisfied life. Any pleasure was at his feet the moment he wanted it. One day he said, “I would like to go and see what the world is.”

He started thinking when he saw someone who was sick, someone who was old and someone who was dying. These three instances were good enough to bring in him the knowledge that there is misery. When he saw someone sick, he said, “enough! I have experienced it.” Just one glimpse of an old man and a corpse was enough Buddha said, “there is no joy in life; I am dead already! There is no meaning in life. Let me go back.”

Buddha set out in quest of truth, all by himself, leaving his palace, wife and son. Stronger the silence, powerful will be the questions that arise from such a silence. Nothing could stop him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get away during day, so he quietly escaped at night and his search continued for several years. He did all that people told him to do, he went from place to place, fasted, and he walked many paths, before discovering four truths.

The first truth is, “There is misery (Dukha) in the world.” In life, there are only two possibilities: one is to observe the world around us and know from others’ suffering and futile exercises, the second is experience it and find that it is misery. There is no third possibility. If you are sensitive, you don’t need to go through all that yourself. You can look at those who are suffering and become wise.

The second truth is, “There is a cause for misery.” You can be happy without a reason. Joy does not need a reason, laughter does not need a joke but misery has a cause. The third truth is, “It is possible to eliminate misery.” The fourth truth is, “There is a path to be out of misery.”

Following the four truths, he gives the eight-fold path of right equanimity, right vision, right silence, right meditation etc. Buddha also said that the three things to do are Sheela, which means conduct, Samadhi, which means an equanimous meditative state, and Pragya, which means awareness.

Buddha was born at a very interesting time in India’s history, at a time when India was prosperous and had reached its height in philosophical thinking. In a highly intellectual society, people think they know it all, but in fact, they have not known at all. This was the case in India. So Buddha said, “Come, I have a simple technique for you. Keep your concepts to yourself, but just come and sit.” Then Buddha gave them four steps.

They are: Observe the body (Kayaanu Paschana)
Observe the sensations (Vedananu Paschana)
Observe the flow of mind (Chittanu Paschana)
Observe your true nature (Dhammanu Paschana)

So, Buddha spoke and taught for years. Thousands would sit still, observe and meditate and become free. Buddha would not indulge in any philosophic discussion.

I think it is mandatory for every psychologist to study Buddha! . Buddha has propounded all that there is to know about the mind and its functions in such a methodical manner. Mind is noise; the source of the mind is silence. That’s why Buddha said, “no mind”. He was referring to the chain of thoughts that simply wander in the mind all the time.

At a time when there was so much prosperity, Buddha gave a begging bowl to his main disciples and asked them to go and beg! He made kings take off their royal robes and take a bowl in their hand! Not that they were in need of food but he wanted to teach them the lesson of becoming ‘nobody’ from being ‘somebody’. You are nobody; you are insignificant in this Universe. When kings and geniuses of that time were asked to beg, they became embodiments of compassion.

Observe your true nature. What is your true nature? It is peace, compassion, love, friendliness and joy and it is silence that gives birth to all this. Silence swallows the sadness, guilt, and misery and gives birth to joy, compassion and love. Buddha came to take away the misery, the guilt, the fear, the arrogance, the ignorance, and bring back wisdom, strength, beauty, knowledge and peace.

Everyone can enjoy and cross the ocean of misery.

- Sri Sri