May we all find the Buddha within us!

Have you ever wonder why there are fruits/offerings on the Buddha shrine…does the Buddha really eat them? I just read a very interesting story ” Buddha and the Banana” by Thich Nhat Hanh that I would like to share with you.

The story is about a young boy that wished to become a monk, because he felt that at the temple he always get treated nicely. But just like any other kids, when he saw people at temple offering Buddha bananas…he believed that Buddha loved bananas. And was very interested in seeing how Buddha would eat a banana. One day he waited for everybody to go home and stood outside, peering in, waiting for the Buddha to pick up the banana and eat it. He waited and waited but didn’t see the Buddha picking up the banana. He couldn’t understand, but he didn’t dare to ask the head monk. He was confused and suffering from not understanding.

One day he got enlightened and realized that the Buddha statue is not the Buddha. But if that’s not Buddha, where should we found him or her? And so why do we bowed and give offering to the statue of Buddha? That question make him suffer a lot.

As Thich Nhat Hanh beautiful explain to his young monk….that the Buddha is in here, the Buddha is in our capacity of loving and understanding. A doctor is a doctor because he has something different from other people, he has the capacity to understand disease and to help heal people. We can’t be a doctor if we don’t have that knowledge and capacity. A Buddha is different from other people because he or she has this capacity of awakening, loving, and understanding. Anywhere you see understanding and loving you see the Buddha.

So as we practice, we will see within ourselves there are a capacity of loving and understanding. We know that the Buddha is within ourselves. Therefore, when we bow, the Buddha begins to become real in us. Looking for the Buddha, we have to look in ourselves.