As we approach a new year, many of us find ourselves reflecting on our work, our lives, what we have learned, and the road we have travelled so far.
In a nut shell:
The Buddha you meet is YOUR reality, and you have to go beyond that. You can’t put a personality onto ‘ultimate reality’. Your mind can only deal with things on a certain level and so the mind tries to make Buddha a person. We’re trying to go beyond that (the Void), you can’t put a word to ‘ultimate reality’. The general rule of Zen is, if you can understand it intellectually, you aren’t there yet and keep going.
All our perceptions of reality is just an illusion, so you go beyond what you think enlightenment is, kill it. Keep practicing meditation and reflection as the answers to our life questions lie within. Your way is the red road and each person’s road is different.
If you meet any guru along the way, let go and run!
Letting Go of the Guru
Many people spend years searching for someone who has the answers.
A teacher.
A guru.
A mentor.
A spiritual path.
Teachers can be valuable.
Guides can help us see what we cannot yet see ourselves.
But there comes a point where every teacher must ultimately point us back to ourselves, self-mastery.
If we become dependent upon a teacher, a philosophy, or a belief system, we risk giving away our own authority or inner power to someone else.
Besides, guru worship is sooooo Piscean Age. Whether you call it the Aquarian Age, collective consciousness, or simply growing up spiritually, there comes a point where we stop looking for someone else to save us and start taking responsibility for our own journey.
Teachers, healers, coaches, and shamans may help us remember who we are, but they cannot walk the road for us. At some point we must stop giving our power away and recognise that we all carry the potential to become our own healer, our own teacher, and our own guide.
Perhaps this is another meaning hidden within the Zen saying:
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.
Let go of the need for someone else to provide certainty.
Return to your own experience.
A Coaching Perspective
This teaching has always resonated with me as a coach.
People often arrive in coaching looking for answers.
They may hope that someone else can tell them what decision to make, what direction to take, or what their purpose is.
But meaningful coaching is rarely about giving answers.
Instead, it creates space for reflection, awareness, and self-discovery.
The role of the coach is not to become the Buddha.
It is to help people listen more carefully to their own wisdom.
The answers we seek are not always found outside ourselves.
Often they emerge through reflection, curiosity, and the willingness to explore the deeper questions we carry.
This is one reason I am drawn to reflective and spiritual coaching. Rather than providing answers, it creates space to explore meaning, purpose, and the deeper questions that help us understand who we are becoming. You can read more in my article, Spiritual Coaching: Exploring Meaning, Purpose and Inner Alignment.
Your Road Is Your Own
One of the ideas I appreciate most within both coaching and spiritual traditions is that there is no single path that suits everyone.
Each person’s journey is unique.
Each person’s understanding unfolds differently.
What brings meaning to one person may not bring meaning to another.
Your road is your road.
And perhaps part of the invitation within this Zen teaching is to trust that journey rather than constantly looking elsewhere for certainty.
A Final Reflection
The phrase “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him” is not a rejection of wisdom.
It is a reminder not to mistake the signpost for the destination.
Not to confuse a belief with reality.
Not to hand your authority to someone else.
And not to stop questioning simply because you think you have found the answer.
Sometimes the deepest wisdom emerges when we are willing to let go of what we think we know. Life is a forever expanding circle and just as you think you’ve got to the edge of the circle, there’s further to go as the circle enlarges. We are but a dot, a sparkling spec in the cosmos.
……continue walking.
’til we meet again,
Walk in Beauty;
Walk in Peace.
‘Causing the Miraculous by Spreading Beauty, Truth & Harmony‘
Johnathan Brooks MA, PG Dip, MAC is a talented Life/Career Executive Coach with 1,500+ hrs experience, who has trained in a wide range of personal development treatment methods including the “Power Therapies” (CBT Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (postgrad), EFT Emotional Freedom Technique, Master NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming), has a Postgraduate Diploma Degree in ‘Coaching and NLP’ which he passed with a ‘Commendation’, a Master of Arts in ‘Applied Coaching’ and certified Firework Career Coach. He is based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
He is a full member of the Association for Coaching (MAC), and a full member of the European and Mentoring Council (UK).