Understanding the term Buddha

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(Edited)

This is a talk given by Master Renshan that clarifies what the term Buddha means. Let me try to decipher it, and it is important knowledge that brings peace and clarity.

Shakyamuni Buddha is the only Buddha in this world we are currently living in who had became a buddha with a human body.

From the point of Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment to the arrival of the next Buddha, Buddha Maitreya, there will be no other Buddha.

So if anyone claims to be a Buddha today, that will not be true.

How about the notion that sentient beings have Buddha nature? And how about the known cases where they had realised enlightenment?

This enlightened masters are ones who realised the principles of Buddhahood. They understood the theory of what it means to become a Buddha. They have realised what that Buddha nature is. That is why we call masters like the Sixth Patriarch Huineng a master and not a Buddha. there is a difference there. They don’t call themselves Buddha!

There had been claims that so and so are living buddhas, note at best they are just honorific titles bestowed and does not equate to them achieving Buddhahood like Shakyamuni Buddha.

When we learn and practice Buddhism, we are learning how to be awakened to that Buddha nature. But even when that is reached, we can’t call that Buddhahood achieved. The only fully awaken Buddha who has achieved Buddhahood is Buddha Shakyamuni.


Image Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/buddha-statue-thailand-buddhism-5641534/



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