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Becoming a Full-Time Buddha Through the Deep Looking of Everyday Life
The practice of meditation is above all the practice of deep looking: to be truly present, in the here and now, in order to recognize what is happening within oneself and around oneself. To become a Buddha is simply to live in mindfulness; each of us carries within us the seed of awakening. We are all “part-time Buddhas” (thiếu phần Phật); through the practice of mindfulness, we move from half-time (bán phần Phật) to three-quarters (đa phần Phật), until we become a full-time Buddha (toàn phần Phật).
In our daily actions—walking, drinking, or eating in mindfulness—awakening is already revealed:
- Chinese tea: by looking at the leaf and the liquid, we “see” China, the workers, the Pyrenees, and the clouds.
- Ice cream: in it, we perceive the cloud (water) and the cow (milk), and the grass that nourished her.
- Paper: with deep looking, we discover clouds, forests, minerals, sun, air, space… the entire cosmos.
To approach life and death, Thay distinguishes two dimensions of reality:
• the historical dimension (tích môn), where we perceive birth, death, being, and non-being,
• the ultimate dimension (bản môn), where we see that everything is manifestation and continuation, without true creation or destruction.
The ultimate nature—nirvana—transcends birth and death, coming and going: it is absolute freedom, “non-birth” and “non-death,” accessible here and now through deep looking.