Buddha was deeply misunderstood. He didn't renounce the world. He liked it.
He liked the forest and the city, green tea and coffee ice cream, bare feet and wingtips, soccer and slam poetry. If something appeared before him, he liked it. When it dissolved, he didn't care.
His smile of tranquility was not an enigma, it was a smile of tranquility.
Buddha saw that no phenomenon is inherently superior or inferior. Therefor we can give up comparison of forms and simply notice everything that arises as a sign of awakening.
Awakening to what? To the perception that this form is composed of the awareness that perceives it. Therefor, all things scintillate in the fulfillment of self-perception, and there is nothing to desire.
To our ordinary minds, clogged with moral opinions, to reject nothing and grasp nothing seems irresponsible. But Buddha was deeply responsible. Because he was awake, he was able to respond.
Only in the present moment can we respond to the passing stranger as our wonderful guest. Only in the present moment can we feel compassion.
All around him, Hindu monks and yogis worked very hard to renounce the world, trying to get somewhere else. Buddha saw that there is no "else," and no need to renounce a mirage. This world, after all, is just images and shadows floating in a sea of luminous clarity.
Buddha was so awake that his mind was naked and his hands were empty. There is no more precious pearl than a heart free from grasping, no more radiant diamond than awareness free from thoughts.
See the cosmos in a dewdrop. To delight in everything is true emptiness.
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