“This is the heart you have sought through countless lifetimes. This is what you have
painstakingly journeyed hundreds of leagues to find. Now that you know your true
origin lies in the Buddha-nature, and you are well aware that you already ‘are’ Buddha,
you simply need to remember and feel that ‘being’ of the Buddha-mind. And the
moment you realize that you ‘are’ Buddha, that Buddhahood will manifest instantly,
without you needing to traverse those realms of memory. Your mind transcends time.
Your mind is never bound by any conditions. Your mind possesses the freedom to
determine anything within its spiritual dominion. Use this potential of your mind for
the benefit of all,” explained the Buddha.

“From this moment forth, we humbly request to become disciples, to practice this
principle with you, Lord,” Achita said.

“Listen, Achita, you misunderstand. This beginning requires no practice. This method
can be realized immediately. Once you decide to ‘be,’ this process requires only that you
‘feel’ that you are, and you shall be, at this very moment,” the Buddha emphasized.

“I understand now… I truly understand!” Achita exclaimed with joy.

“Achita, you have understood. From now on, take this understanding and prove it to
yourself before you impart it to your followers. For this matter will be the starting
point of everything. You may be known as ‘the one who knows,’ which you and
everyone else must clearly witness for yourselves. And this self-verification
necessitates a continuous and unbroken feeling of being Buddha. From this point
forward, always remember that you are the mind of Buddha, you are a part of the
Buddha-essence. From this day onward, let you all use the pronoun ‘I am the Divine’
or ‘I am Buddha’ instead of simply ‘I,’ as a constant reminder so that you do not
become forgetful,” the Buddha advised.

“And from now on, address each other by adding ‘Divine, Lord’ to your names, and call
me ‘Buddha, Lord,’ so that when you address each other and me, you will be reminded
of the ‘Buddha’ within yourselves and within me as well,” the Buddha reiterated.

“Venerable Gotama, what will happen to… I… er… I am the Divine, after feeling that I
‘am’ Buddha? What else will happen to us, who are the Divine?” Upasiva the ascetic,
one of Achita’s companions, asked hesitantly, still not accustomed to referring to
himself as the Divine.

“What I have told you is like one door among hundreds and thousands of doors. I know
you have passed through almost every door; you have entered and exited these doors
countless times. But all of them were doors that led you to discover knowledge from
the outside. Today, I simply come to tell you that there is one final door that you have
never known, never experienced. Because if you can enter this door, it will be as if you
can know the knowledge from all the other doors simultaneously.

Therefore, I come to tell you where this door is. At this moment, I have brought you to
stand before that door, and it is not far from you. It is a door that is within you. From
now on, it will be your decision whether to open it or not. It is your rightful choice to
choose or not choose, because what will happen from now on will be your own
experience. You will touch it yourself. As for your question about what it will be like, if I
tell you, it will only be knowledge that comes from me, which you will never truly
realize if you have not experienced it yourself.”
“I am the Divine, I choose to be Buddha, Lord,” Achita declared, the first to make the
choice.

“I am the Divine, I also choose to be Buddha, Lord,” Upasiva the ascetic proclaimed,
the second to choose.

“I am the Divine, I choose! Choose! Choose! Choose!…” The voices of all the ascetics
who had heard the conversation rang out in unison.

“Listen, noble ones… Since all of you have such a desire, from now on, do not concern
yourselves with what you will see behind the door. Let you only know that it is the
place from which you came, it is the origin of the spirit of each of you, it is the most
perfect, the most magnificent, the most expansive. Let you simply know that it is the
ultimate destination of your spirits. I will not give any more specific definitions, as it
may lead to misunderstandings,” the Buddha elaborated.

“The quality of those who choose this, I will call them ‘those who perceive being,’ which
means those who already know what they are, the perception of being, and the
understanding of what will be, by knowing what is, that it is the highest. Once they
perceive and decide to ‘be,’ they will never change into anything else, because they
realize that what they are is the highest. Therefore, they no longer need to seek
anything higher. And being is being; it does not require journeying from one point to
another, nor does it require learning or practice. Everyone can be equally, because
originally, all of you ‘are’ already. You simply need to realize that you ‘are’ already.
Whoever can feel this way, that person will ‘be’ immediately.”

“And if I, the Divine, have a definition of the word ‘God’ that is different from what you
have stated, Lord, what should I do?” Achita then asked.

“The crucial point lies in whether this definition arises before or after your feeling of
‘being’,” the Buddha replied.

“Before or after in what way, Lord?” Achita inquired.

“‘Before’ means if you only know that you ‘are’ from someone else’s telling, but you do
not yet truly feel that being. Attempting to explain anything when you have not yet
experienced it yourself is merely memorizing someone else’s knowledge to explain.
This kind of knowledge is therefore not profound or is narrow, because one can never
fully and broadly articulate its meaning, as it is not knowledge born from personal
realization or the feeling of ‘being’ oneself.”

“As for the word ‘after,’ it means when you know that you are that thing and you can
truly feel that being. This state will be vastly different, because your vision, perspective,
attitude, knowledge, and understanding will change completely. You will not carelessly
judge anything as right or wrong because you know that everyone is one, coming from
the same origin. You will not inadvertently speak sarcastically, offend, or hold grudges
against anyone, because you understand that we are all siblings from the same place. You will not see anyone as inferior or superior.

You will naturally become great and pure love, because you are seeing through the eyes
of God or the Creator.

You will discover the understanding of various mechanisms, what they are for and why
they exist, because you are seeing through the eyes of the Creator.

You will define the word ‘God’ from the place where you can already ‘be’ God. It will be
a definition that comes from the result after you are, and from the desire for others to
feel the same way you do,” the Buddha further explained.

“Yes, Lord,” Achita the ascetic responded.

“To put it simply, all of you must realize or know for yourselves first, because
explaining what one has personally realized is filled with understanding, the desire to
share, and the desire for others to have the same experience as oneself.”

“Does that mean there are still other steps, Lord, that will lead to realization?” Achita
asked.

“If I were to say there are, then there are. If I were to say there aren’t, then there aren’t.
Because the steps I will tell you next are the mechanisms that will occur while you
decide to ‘be’ Buddha, without you needing to follow a specific order. But the reason I
must put them in order is to allow your minds to comprehend.”

“After you have truly ‘perceived being’ and you genuinely ‘feel being,’ you must proceed
by ‘maintaining that being’ firmly and permanently, without it diminishing. Even
though you can already feel this Buddha-mind, you can see things changing, and you
have an understanding of things from God’s perspective, sometimes in your life, you
may still face many challenging situations, coupled with habits accumulated over tens
and hundreds of thousands of lifetimes. You may occasionally falter, you may
sometimes forget. Please do not worry; that is normal.”

“Then what must we do, Lord?” Achita asked.

Note: In contemporary Thai, ‘ข้าพระเจ้า’ is a formal first-person pronoun used when
addressing royalty or high-ranking religious figures, often translated as ‘I, your servant’
or ‘I, your humble servant.’ ‘ข้าพระพุทธเจ้า’ is a similar formal pronoun specifically used when addressing Buddhist monks or referring to oneself in a Buddhist religious context,
often translated as ‘I, the Buddha’s servant’ or ‘I, a servant of the Buddha.’ However,
within the context of this chapter, the Buddha is giving these pronouns a new,
profound meaning related to the inherent Buddha-nature and divine essence
within each individual. Therefore, in this translation, ‘ข้าพระเจ้า’ is rendered as ‘I am the
Divine’ and ‘ข้าพระพุทธเจ้า’ as ‘I am Buddha’ to reflect this deeper understanding being
conveyed.