In spite of the fact that you see a Buddha statue, read a lot of sutras, memorize the Buddhist scriptures, inherit a strong spiritual upbringing, etc., you don't see the Buddha. You only see the Buddha, as you see the reality of now. Now is the only reality, whereas the realities of past and future are bogus or not-so-real, in terms of living. How many times have you missed the Buddha today? The answer is simple, almost always you've missed. Why do you miss? Whenever you don't see yourself, and millions of things in the world interrelated to your self, all of which are in PERPETUAL CHANGE,you miss the Buddha. Do only Buddhists see the Buddha? Absolutely not, since the Buddha is everything that everybody can see. Dharma is everywhere, and is manifest to everybody. While a Buddhist misses the Buddha, somebody else totally unfamiliar with Buddhism might oftentimes see the Buddha. Dharma (Pali: Dhamma) is different from Buddhism. Seeing some Buddha is possible at any given moment. It's natural that people miss the Buddha, as they miss themselves. When you were sad, as the bunch of gorgeous flowers you got a few days ago from somebody, have now faded away and fallen, you just missed the Buddha, since you didn't see the 'now through the fallen flowers. To you the still-gorgeous flowers are still there. Where? In your perspective (Pali: dassana). Actually, the flowers had never truly existed, which might be too hard to understand, and at least, you'll try to see that it's not the same flowers you're now seeing, they're fallen. Did you get that? They're FALLEN. Don't miss the Buddha.
By Upananda Thero Dedunupitiye
(Picture:I still 'enjoy' this rose I saw two years ago on the Buddha-altar at Chicago Buddhist Vihara, just because I know it's 'no more.')
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