“The way is not in the sky. It is in the heart.” ~ the Buddha

Our true nature is within us. It isn’t some other place and time. We can experience enlightenment here and now because it is our natural state. The only reason we don’t realize this is because we have layers of delusion in our minds that are obscuring it, preventing us from seeing who we really are.

So, our path of Buddhist practice helps us to remove these layers of delusion that keep us from perceiving our true nature.

How?

Some things that help are mindfulness and awareness practice. By being mindful and paying attention to all of our actions and the way our minds work, we can see how our delusions influence our thoughts and actions if we are just more mindful.

As we dig through these levels of delusion, we become transformed. By becoming more aware we can become more focused. We can also start making better decisions because we are making them with the clarity of insight into the real state of things, rather than making decisions based on the false information that is the result of our delusions and preconceptions.

It’s through this that we can come to a state of Awakening. What is awakening? It’s a state where we see things as they are instead of as we are. As we slowly dig through our delusion, we can come closer and closer to this state in which we aren’t held back by our preconceptions or the ways we label reality. That’s our true nature, authentic reality, life as it really is. This is Enlightenment.

Relephant:

Everything the Buddha Ever Taught in 2 Words.

Author: Daniel Scharpenburg

Editor: Travis May

Photo: elephant archives