Is The Buddha Quitting His Job? (内在的佛陀)

A friend of mine joined some Buddhist forums and he asked this question:

“What happened if the Buddha has quit his job?”

So, as expected; the moderator and etc. scorned and laughed at him for:

“A Buddha has vowed to save the world, so He can’t quit…”

Now, he threw the same question:

“What happened if the Buddha has quit his job?”

So, I answered him this way:

“What do you mean by that? The Buddha has long since ‘quitted’ His job! Ever since the Buddha has achieved nirvana, he has officially quitted his job some 2000 years ago!”

“Didn’t the Buddha vow to save the world?”

“The Buddha did not say that and he did not say that he has become a Buddha. The Buddha is just a title for ‘enlightened one’. If the Buddha has vowed to save the world, He would show Himself in front of anyone who has called upon Him.”

This question is not a joke as it has profound meaning in Zen Buddhism and Dzongchen. In old days, if anyone said the Buddha is still around, then the Zen master would take a baton and spank his head!

It is a fact that by achieving nirvana, the Buddha has let go of all worldly issues; including to save all sentient beings. So if the Buddha is not around, what should we do to become Buddha?

In Dzongchen and Zen, we must meditate inwards to our heart. Anything outside of our heart is false and not permanent.

The heart of Zen and Dzongchen is not to save the day, but to understand our inner heart. It is the practice of Sutrayana that advocates that one should save the day, not the Tantric schools.

Then and again, I supposed some forums can do more harm than good in the advocate of Buddhism…