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>“It’s not so difficult to be a buddha,” says Thich Nhat Hanh. “Just keep your awakening alive all day long.” And it’s not too complicated to be a permanent ti

>“It’s not so difficult to be a buddha,” says Thich Nhat Hanh. “Just keep your awakening alive all day long.” And it’s not too complicated to be a permanent tightrope walker either: just stay calm, still and balanced. While ninjas with ignited swords jump all around you and acid-proof sharks lurks at you from the sour sea waiting your fall. Sleepwalking, that’s a perfect title for our current Zeitgeist indeed. Ok, that’s a lot of "witty remark I could make regarding" the text (and avoid doing instead). So, let’s take a bit of these advices in practice. Thank you Edward Packard for sharing with us some final reflections on life after a long one, displaying humility while presenting a vibrantly human figure.

b_e_n_t_o_n 1y ago
I wonder if it's a mistranslation and Hanh means it's not complicated to be a Buddha. Many things in life are very simple, and also very hard.
- Lyngbakr 1y ago
  I'm sure most folks here have seen the talk, but Rich Hickey's Simple Made Easy# is a superb discussion about this in the context of software. # https://youtu.be/SxdOUGdseq4?si=fbRmd27oY80LZxw6 https://youtu.be/SxdOUGdseq4?si=fbRmd27oY80LZxw6
  - psychoslave 1y ago
    Found it last month, don’t remember how, but I did share it with the rest of my team. Excellent talk, it does have many "eternal" points to rebound on the essay vocabulary.
- ferrous69 1y ago
  I read it as Hanh being sarcastic, making a joke.
Dumblydorr 1y ago
Buddha would probably say it’s very easy to “be” a Buddha. To become one, on the other hand, is hard in my opinion, takes thousands of hours of practice. Once you’re there however, it is open effortless awareness and not hard to maintain, so they say! Most practitioners get tiny glimpses of aspects of enlightenment, but to integrate and sustain it all is very rare indeed. I wonder if there even 100 Boddhisatvas in the world
- sambapa 1y ago
  Well, according to the buddhist lore, to become one, you need not thousands but eons of practice.
  - NemoNobody 1y ago
    All living people today have eons of practice of suffering under our belts right now - since the very moment we were born our cells provide a link from the newest baby to the very beginning of life here on earth. We've been prey animals. We've been predators. We've walked every road of life a human can walk - the good, the bad, the evil and unimaginable, the boring. We've done everything before and we will do all of it again. Every man a monster. Every man a Messiah. Both are true. Exactly as a Good man can in an instant become a Monster - so too is the opposite exactly true. Every person possess the innate ability, at a Cellular genetic level, to become a Messiah/Buddha and the ability to become that iteration of ourselves in an instant - bc we already are that iteration anyways. It's all about the point of view. In the beginning there was only mind, no rules defined, no "alive/dead" - just the pitch black dark blank and empty universe - so, unstructured, unfettered, unbound, chaos as Mind. Nothing has changed except our point of view. Like a basketball court, with a basketball and players but no rules - all that is necessary for a game to be played in exists already, but until the rules are set, people agree to accept them - no games of basketball can be played. Only after enormous limits and constraints are placed upon players regarding everything else hey can do while playing - ONLY THEN can players "play" - before they were bound by the rules of the games, they had much more freedom and choices to do what and go where they please. The Lebron James equivalent to life on earth - maybe isn't that big a deal, this could be like pre-school, we have no idea. All I know for certain is that there are no rules - to limit is to lose. Do as thou will - the worlds wheel will work all our sins and misconceptions out, to do right is to do best by ourselves, in a very selfish sense, which is learned and understand with time. So, don't let those 10,000 eons stop you, the worse thing would be to have to endure 10,000 eons again...

b_e_n_t_o_n 1y ago

I wonder if it's a mistranslation and Hanh means it's not complicated to be a Buddha. Many things in life are very simple, and also very hard.

Lyngbakr 1y ago
I'm sure most folks here have seen the talk, but Rich Hickey's Simple Made Easy# is a superb discussion about this in the context of software. # https://youtu.be/SxdOUGdseq4?si=fbRmd27oY80LZxw6 https://youtu.be/SxdOUGdseq4?si=fbRmd27oY80LZxw6
- psychoslave 1y ago
  Found it last month, don’t remember how, but I did share it with the rest of my team. Excellent talk, it does have many "eternal" points to rebound on the essay vocabulary.
ferrous69 1y ago
I read it as Hanh being sarcastic, making a joke.

Dumblydorr 1y ago

Buddha would probably say it’s very easy to “be” a Buddha. To become one, on the other hand, is hard in my opinion, takes thousands of hours of practice. Once you’re there however, it is open effortless awareness and not hard to maintain, so they say! Most practitioners get tiny glimpses of aspects of enlightenment, but to integrate and sustain it all is very rare indeed. I wonder if there even 100 Boddhisatvas in the world

sambapa 1y ago
Well, according to the buddhist lore, to become one, you need not thousands but eons of practice.
- NemoNobody 1y ago
  All living people today have eons of practice of suffering under our belts right now - since the very moment we were born our cells provide a link from the newest baby to the very beginning of life here on earth. We've been prey animals. We've been predators. We've walked every road of life a human can walk - the good, the bad, the evil and unimaginable, the boring. We've done everything before and we will do all of it again. Every man a monster. Every man a Messiah. Both are true. Exactly as a Good man can in an instant become a Monster - so too is the opposite exactly true. Every person possess the innate ability, at a Cellular genetic level, to become a Messiah/Buddha and the ability to become that iteration of ourselves in an instant - bc we already are that iteration anyways. It's all about the point of view. In the beginning there was only mind, no rules defined, no "alive/dead" - just the pitch black dark blank and empty universe - so, unstructured, unfettered, unbound, chaos as Mind. Nothing has changed except our point of view. Like a basketball court, with a basketball and players but no rules - all that is necessary for a game to be played in exists already, but until the rules are set, people agree to accept them - no games of basketball can be played. Only after enormous limits and constraints are placed upon players regarding everything else hey can do while playing - ONLY THEN can players "play" - before they were bound by the rules of the games, they had much more freedom and choices to do what and go where they please. The Lebron James equivalent to life on earth - maybe isn't that big a deal, this could be like pre-school, we have no idea. All I know for certain is that there are no rules - to limit is to lose. Do as thou will - the worlds wheel will work all our sins and misconceptions out, to do right is to do best by ourselves, in a very selfish sense, which is learned and understand with time. So, don't let those 10,000 eons stop you, the worse thing would be to have to endure 10,000 eons again...