Wisdom from The Platform Sutra 2

Enlightenment is found in lived experience, not outside the world.

Here is another favorite line from the Platform Sutra:

“The Buddha’s teaching is grounded in the world we live in, so awakening is not separate from everyday life. Looking for enlightenment outside of life itself is like searching for horns on a rabbit.”

佛法在世間，不離世間覺； 離世覓菩提，恰如求兔角。《六祖壇經》

When I first read these lines, they felt like a gentle correction to a habit I hadn’t even realized I had. There was still an assumption quietly at work that awakening must exist somewhere outside ordinary life, hidden in a quieter place or a more spiritual setting.

But the teaching points in a very different direction. What the Buddha teaches is not outside the world. It unfolds within real human experience itself. Eating, working, worrying, feeling, and relating are not distractions from awakening. They are the very situations where awakening can appear.

This is also why awakening cannot arise on its own. It depends on conditions. Without sights and sounds, without people and events, without moments of ease and moments of difficulty, there would be nothing for awareness to meet. It is through the movement of life, through joy and pain alike, that clarity has a chance to be revealed.

Seen this way, the Buddha’s teaching is not an escape from life. Awakening does not require leaving family, society, or responsibility behind. If clarity cannot take root in real circumstances, then it has not yet fully matured. A practice that only works in quiet or protected spaces falls apart as soon as ordinary life returns.

This is why the sutra warns against seeking enlightenment by “leaving the world.” Leaving the world does not always mean going somewhere else physically. More often, it shows up as an inner movement. It is the wish to step away from what is here and to find something cleaner or more perfect than everyday life. That very wish already turns in the wrong direction.

The image of searching for a rabbit’s horns makes this point unmistakable. A rabbit has no horns. No matter how sincere the effort, nothing can be found there. When the direction itself is mistaken, effort only leads farther away. Turning away from lived experience in search of something purer leaves behind the very ground where awakening can appear.

Taken together, these lines point to one simple truth. The world is not an obstacle to practice. Life itself is the place where practice happens. If awakening cannot be found within the world of daily experience, it will not be found by leaving it. The path does not lead away from living. It leads more fully into it.

Here is a video with a brief explanation:

Here is the link to The Selected Lines from the Platform Sutra.