Returning

After reading the Lotus Sutra, you know: you can do nothing but become a Buddha. Because you are nothing else; your essence is the Tathāgata’s original Buddha-nature, perfect Buddha-nature.

Everything we do as human beings, everything in samsara through the Six Paths of Rebirth—in fact, everything—the Lotus Sutra says that you can do nothing but become a Buddha. That means your original face is Buddha, not anything else. So all our feelings that life is empty, meaningless, unsatisfying, and so on—all of it is because we cannot return to the original; we have become lost outside, lost.

If you return to that original face, then there is no problem; everything—every one of your sufferings and troubles—is completely resolved. That is the most thorough liberation and Salvation, the most thorough Nirvana.

If we have truly benefited from the Lotus Sutra, truly understood it, truly are within it, then you will no longer be anxious: “What will I do next year? How will I practice the year after next?” You will never be anxious again, no longer afraid—none of that—because you already are.

Because you are fearful and anxious, you worry: “My problems with daily life, family problems, every problem…” Actually, it is a problem of your Cognition; this is still cultivation and realization. When you can truly realize and enter the state described in the Lotus Sutra, there will be no problem; that is a feeling of completeness in the mind.

That completeness of mind leaves no fear at all. You will not worry, “What if the company goes bankrupt?” You will not be afraid of anything; you are afraid of nothing, because everything can begin again, you have everything, everything is in you, right here—there is no problem. You will not think so much; everything becomes simpler because there are fewer obstacles in the mind, and it becomes very simple.

First you have to learn and listen—hearing, reflecting, and practicing. Through hearing, reflecting, and practicing, then gradually through realization, you will know; you will realize and enter. But as soon as I say “gradually,” many days appear in your mind; that is your problem. That is why I cannot say it; when I say “gradually,” you think, “It will take many years, right?” Then the appearances of past and future arise in your mind; the appearance of time appears.

“Gradually” does not mean many years, nor does it mean a moment; it does not refer to time. Can you understand it from this angle? “Gradually” might mean this very moment, mightn’t it? But we are always clinging to the mark of written words. Sometimes, when we mention a concept, an appearance immediately arises in your mind—it is “the future”; your mind is already in the future. Words have guided you there; that is the mark of written words.

Note: This text was prepared from a teaching video by Yang Ning. If it differs from the video, the video takes precedence. Watch the video.