Tanka said to Suibi, “You’d better not take yourself so seriously! Use the floor cloth and broom more.”
Suibi took three steps to the rear.
“A blunder!”

Going back will not do. Even if you go back to Gautam Buddha, it won’t help. Existence never goes back, not even three steps.

Suibi then stepped forward three paces.
“Another blunder!” said Tanka.

…Because existence never goes ahead of itself.

How can it go?

Existence never goes backward or forward.

It is always here.

Time is an invention of mind.

It is not part of existence.

Suibi raised one leg and turned round on the other.

Just like the hands of a clock.

Tanka said, “You have got it; you defied the other teachers of all the buddhas!”

You got the point:

Be at the center.

Don’t go backward, don’t go forward.

Don’t go anywhere, just be.

And in that very being you have surpassed all the teachers of the buddhas. You have become a buddha yourself.

Such a small anecdote, but so beautiful – so great in its depth and meaning that anyone who can see the point can become a buddha that very moment. And here in this assembly, in this silent moment, you are all in the same situation as Suibi: centered, silent, doing nothing – just being a peace, a love, a consciousness. You have surpassed all the teachers of buddhas in this moment.

The only trouble with you is that you go on forgetting. You go on again and again becoming unconscious. Remain conscious and at the center, and there is no need to worship any master or any buddha. There is no need to learn any scripture. You have all, the whole reality in your hands.