Little Buddha in everybody!

There is a little Buddha in everybody, and that Buddha is in the form of Siddhartha.

Do you know who Siddhartha is? Before Buddha became Buddha he was Siddhartha. He was wandering, lost. He had tried everything but he couldn’t find; but he had that spirit of inquiry. He said, ‘The world is all sorrow and I want to get rid of sorrow.’ Siddhartha understood everything is sorrow, but he did not know the way. So everybody has a little Buddha inside of them, only he has to wake up.

Buddha tried this and that and that and this. He ran from pillar to post, he did technique after technique after technique, but nothing worked. Because while doing all this, his mind was outward, and when he got sick and tired of everything and dropped everything, that moment he got enlightened. This is the story as it goes.

So, when he got tired of trying hard and trying hard and trying hard, then he said, ‘Okay, let me just relax. I give up.’ So he gave up and sat, and the mind turned inward and then he became Buddha.

So turn the mind inward.

Unfortunately Buddha never got a Guru. He couldn’t get a Guru at that time. But Adi Shankaracharaya had a Guru. So he met the Guru and the path became much easier, smoother. He could just sit and go into Samadhi. 

But for Buddha to go into Samadhi and meditation was not possible. It was hard for him. So he fasted. Somebody told him to fast and he fasted, because he was a King from the royal family and he did not know about surrender, or about devotion, or about letting go. Doing, doing and doing, that is what he heard, and what he knew as he was trained. So the big ego, and that big doing, made him run around for several years.

Finally he gave up and then he got enlightened; that is how the story goes.

So that little mind inside of you doesn’t want to let go and to just give up, it goes on the trip of I want to do, and I want to do, and I want to do. I will achieve this and I will achieve that. When you see, what is there to achieve? Then everything drops, you surrender, you let go and meditation happens. You know, it is like getting onto an Ayurvedic massage table. You just get onto the table and that is it, you don’t do anything. Everything is done for you; so even meditation will be done for you. You just sit and meditation will happen.

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Founder, The Art of Living Foundation