Lama Surya Das: The Buddha's Path

"The path to enlightenment and awakening is the opposite of squelching and containing yourself or trying to keep up a nice efficient, stainless-steel persona - very shiny but also very hard and cold. There is no substitute for living a juicy genuine life of Buddha activity. The Buddha is bubbling, happy, and sad. Waking up the Buddha is letting go of your fixed persona and becoming awake, liberated and aware."

"Starting on a spiritual path means leaving the superficial currents and getting into the deeper waters of real sanity. We're not just swimming against the stream here; we're actually plumbing the deeper waters of being in order to reconnect with our own innate nature. Where do we start? After he arrived in India in 1959, an old lama was asked, "How did you manage to escape from Tibet and cross the high and snowy Himalayas by foot?" He answered, "One step at a time.""

-- Lama Surya Das --

"The path, as always," observes Lama Surya Das, "begins beneath your feet with the first step you take. Where do you stand right now? This is where we begin."

[Lama Surya Das, "Awakening the Buddha Within," p. 21.]

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