I Am the Most Honored One

Thus have I heard, that one day as the queen was strolling through the Garden of Lumbini, “she leaned on the limb of an Asoka tree which dropped down because of the weight of its flowers. At that moment, the Bodhisattva was born, suddenly and yet peacefully. Immediately after birth, he took seven steps in each of the four directions and proclaimed, ‘In heaven above and on earth below, I am the most honored one, I shall dispel the suffering that fills the world.'” His name was Siddhartha which means One Whose Goal is Achieved. [This version of the Buddha’s Birth is from a Chinese translation of the Sanskrit sutra, Lalita-vistara Sutra (The Extensive Play: meaning Buddha’s life was a display to benefit all beings)]

Shinshu Commentary:

Who is this ‘I’  who saves all beings? One interpretation is that the ‘I’ to which Siddhartha referred is the universal ‘I’ of all being/beings. This ‘I’ resonates throughout space and time, as the person known as Siddhartha and as the mandala of totality. Who awakens? How does awakening become and express? There is no awakening without the affirmation of all beings simultaneously practicing and affirming. At the moment of ‘I’ awakening is all of spring bursting forth. The flowers of the Asoka tree, the women in Maya’s assembly. It is the robin on your lawn and your own arising this morning. Nothing is left out, no time is not present. In delusion we strive to awaken. In realization we express ‘I’ and save all beings. This is our true face, one spring, every spring, springing springs endlessly expressing.

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