Believing in Nothing

In our everyday life our thinking is ninety-nine percent self-centered. "Why do I have suffering? Why do I have trouble?"

No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.

But if you belive in something which exists before you had the headache, and if you know the reason why you have the headache, then you will feel better, naturally. To have a headache will be all right, because you are healthy enough to have a headache.

When this existence is personified we call it Buddha; when we understand it as the ultimate truth we call it Dharma; and when we accept the truth and act as a part of the Buddha, or according to the theory, we call ourselves Sangha.

it is one existence which has no form or color, and it is always ready to take form and color.

But if we accept ourselves as the embodiment of the truth, or Buddha nature, we will have no worry.

If you understand yourself as a temporal embodiment of the truth, you will have no difficulty whatsoever. You will appreciate your surroundings, and you will appreciate yourself as a wonderful part of Buddha's great activity, even in the midst of difficulties.

we should begin with enlightenment and proceed to practice, and then to thinking.

By enlightenment I mean believing in nothing, believing in something which has no form or no color, which is ready to take form or color. This enlightenment is the immutable truth. It is on this original truth that our activity, our thinking, and our practice should be based.