stimulating exchange of thoughts on face book yesterday. One person said, “The Buddha was only a middleman.” (!) That well may be, but the comment ignores one vital aspect of the Buddha’s teachings – defined by the Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn, as “the action dimension”:

  "We also need to establish a third dimension of the Lotus Sutra to reveal its function, its action. How can we help people of the historical dimension get in touch with their ultimate nature so that they can live joyfully in peace and freedom? How can we help those who suffer to open the door of the ultimate dimension so that the suffering brought about by fear, despair and anxiety can be alleviated? I have gathered all of the chapters of the Lotus Sutra on the great bodhisattvas into this third, action dimension, the bodhisattva’s sphere of engaged practice.”

  So it is with the Buddha’s engaged practice, “the Great Enlightened, the Great Holy Lord” whose “moral breeze and virtuous fragrance deeply permeate all. In him there is no defilement, no contamination, no attachment. . . Serene is his wisdom, calm his emotion, and stable his prudence. His thought is settled, his consciousness is extinct, and thus his mind is quiet. Long since, he removed false thoughts and conquered all the laws of existence.”

  Several million people around the world who are Buddhists, including in the USA, might take umbrage with “the Buddha as middleman” but it’s highly unlikely they would debate the point. Shakyamuni Buddha in the action dimension clearly defines his mission—his desire that all beings should travel the same road as he, and before his extinction, advised Ananda and other disciples: “Make yourself the Light, make the Law your light, do not depend on me.”

He abandoned all things hard to abandon,
his treasures, wife, and child, his country and his palace.
Unsparing of his person as of his possessions, he gave all,
his head, eyes, and brain, to people as alms. Keeping the
buddhas’ precepts of purity, he never did any harm, even
at the cost of his life. He never became angry, even though
beaten with sword and staff, or though cursed and abused.
He never became tired, in spite of long exertion. He kept his
mind at peace day and night, and was always in meditation.
Learning all the law-ways, with his deep wisdom he has seen
into the capacity of living beings. As a result, obtaining free power,
he has become the Law-king, who is free in the Law.
Making obeisance again all together, we submit ourselves
to the one who has completed all hard things.”