The Buddha Didn’t Tell Us What To Be, But How To Be

What to be is following others.
How to be is being what we are.

The Buddha didn’t offer a rigid blueprint for what to be, but rather a practical method for how to be,rejecting dogmatic box ticking, and inviting people to wake up to their own reality.

He urged followers not to accept teachings blindly out of tradition or faith, but advised them to test his words, and thus cultivate awareness.

“Be a lamp or island unto yourselves”. By explicitly choosing not to appoint a human successor to dictate what people should do, he pointed to the Dharma – the natural truth of how things are – as the ultimate guide, so that every individual looks inward, rather than to an outward form.

“It may be, Ānanda, that to some among you the thought will come: ‘The Master’s words will soon end; soon we will no longer have a master.’ But do not think like this, Ānanda. Whatever Dharma teachings and Vinaya disciplinary code I have pointed out and formulated for you, that will be your teacher when I am gone.”

He further emphasised that he never viewed the Sangha as dependent on him, nor did he intend to manage people’s lives through top-down decrees; the teaching and the method are more important than worshipping a Buddha.

The core of the Buddha’s teaching relies on personal exploration and direct insight. He consistently urged followers to be “islands unto yourselves” and to test his teachings against their own experiences, rather than relying on blind faith or external dictates.

‘How to be’ focuses entirely on the process of conscious living. It centres on on cultivating qualities of awareness: mindfulness, loving-kindness and deep insight into reality.

By shifting the focus from what to how, we stop mimicking an idealised version of someone else, and begin ro relate honestly to our own present experience.

It is the difference between wearing a mask, and simply breathing.