Buddha sends seven postcards home

Postcard #1

Dear Ma and Pa,

I hope everyone is well and happy. Sorry I have not been in touch. Sorry as well for sneaking out of the palace at night. I have a marvellous experience to tell you about. Some time ago I had a routine of sitting under a particular tree at the edge of a forest. I had not been looking after myself and some kind village children were bringing me milk and good things to eat. I was doing a lot of meditation. I sensed something important was developing.

Sitting under this tree night after night I understood there is no fixed world out there. I suddenly saw that the world I experience came with me when I was born and will dissolve when I die. So everything I encounter is very special and I must treat it with awareness, care and respect. Awareness means being alive in the present moment, not distracted by thoughts of past and future. Now I live in peace, serenity and wonder, nothing to chase after or hide from, nothing to worry about.

I am trying to describe a realisation that, really, is beyond words and concepts. When I come home I will teach you to meditate. It is the only way to change our minds and be free of suffering.

Yours with a joyful mind,

Siddhartha (They call me the Buddha now.)

Postcard #2

Dear Gopa,

I hope you are well and happy. I expect Ma and Pa showed you the postcard I sent. It told them I have learned to live in full awareness. I expect you are still practicing Vedic meditation, trying to live in awareness yourself, seeing things as they really are. I will teach you what I have learned.

Have you seen when you sit in the palace garden that everything is connected to everything else? Not one thing has its own separate self. Not one thing is independent. The flowers depend on the soil, the soil depends on the rain, the insects depend on the flowers, the stream depends on the clouds. Looking at it with awareness, the garden becomes an interconnected whole.

So nothing exists in the way we usually think it does. Nothing is fixed. Everything is flux. Things appear when the right conditions come together and pass away when conditions change. Nothing is permanent. All things are interconnected and interdependent; nothing we can grasp, nothing to crave for, nothing to fear losing, nothing to cause us suffering. It is not a matter of words and concepts. Meditation brings the calm mind we need to live in this awareness.

I look forward to seeing our son. I am sure he has grown strong and wise with your tender care.

Yours with a joyful mind,

Siddhartha

Postcard #3

Dear Gopa,

I hope you and Rahula are happy and well. In my last postcard I said meditation brings a calm mind resting in awareness free of suffering. Do you meditate with others in the palace? Are you teaching local villagers? My meditation is different from when we used to sit together. I will tell you about it so you can help others get started.

Our mind is usually busy with thoughts of regret, hope, anger, lust, memories, making plans… Then there is the mind that lets go of all that mental disturbance and rests in peacefulness and joy in the present moment. Thoughts still come but we let them go. We watch them come and we watch them go. If we hang on to them we lose our awareness and clarity.

This is why we meditate – so our mind can become clear and aware. It can help to focus on our breath, watching each breath come in and go out. Each time we notice we are holding on to a thought or feeling, we focus again on the breath and come back to the present moment.

This is the start of observing how our mind works, how holding on to thoughts and feelings pulls us out of the present moment and causes suffering. I look forward to sitting with you.

Yours with a joyful mind,

Siddhartha

Postcard #4

Dear Gopa,

I hope everyone is happy and well. Do you meditate in the garden? If you do, it will help you be aware all phenomena are impermanent, interconnected and mutually dependent. But what about yourself? It would be a mistake to think you are permanent, separate and self-contained.

You are already aware people are impermanent because you have sat with villagers as they die. I am sure you are also aware that you depend on many things - your parents, the food and drink that is prepared for you, the love and care of the people around you. Without these you would not survive. Each unique and wonderful flower does not have a separate self and nor do you.

If you widen your horizon and see the country around the palace with its mountains, rivers, forests, orchards, animals and people, you will understand you are part of an ever-changing flux in an interconnected whole.

The deluded notion that we are each a separate self brings the mental disturbance of greed, hatred and fear. Then we act as though we were the most important person in the universe. Becoming aware with meditation and contemplation of how we really exist means that we can start to live in tranquillity, showing kindness and generosity to all other beings in our world.

Yours with a joyful mind,

Siddhartha

Postcard #5

Dear Gopa,

I hope everyone is happy and well. I have been thinking about how you are teaching meditation to villagers and people who help at the palace. When I meet a group of new people and talk to them about the path to awareness, there are always some who decide there and then to become monks or nuns. They leave their homes, shave their heads and follow my teaching to bring an end to suffering. Others ask to become lay disciples so they can follow the path of awareness as far as they can without leaving home.

I am sure some of the people you are helping will also want to become lay disciples. This means adopting some first precepts or principles. They must live simply without stealing, avoid killing, shun adultery, speak truthfully and avoid alcohol and other stimulants that cloud the mind.

This is the start. Lay disciples strive to live in awareness, putting an end to greed, anger, hatred and ignorance. They strive to bring peace and harmony to their families and communities and reduce their own suffering and the suffering of others. It is not unusual for a lay disciple to take vows later to become a monk or nun. Remember, everything is impermanent, nothing is fixed.

Yours with a joyful mind

Siddhartha

Postcard #6

Dear Everyone,

I hope you are all well and happy. In my postcards I have said our minds are usually disturbed with thoughts of regret, hope, anger, worry, lust and all the rest of it. Most of these thoughts and feelings that arise are self-centred. Then the actions that follow the thoughts can be self-serving, arrogant and greedy. With these deluded minds we imagine we are better than everyone else, that we are the most important person and that getting our own needs met is always the top priority. Or we indulge in self-pity.

On my path of awareness we come to understand that we are not separate individuals, not separate from the other people in our world. Instead, we see that we are interconnected and interdependent. Then our relationships can become less competitive and more cooperative treating other people with loving kindness instead of with dislike, mistrust, jealousy and hostility.

This is my way of mindfulness, using contemplation and meditation to overcome suffering and realize liberation. We learn how our minds work so we can control how we respond to the continual thoughts and feelings that arise.

Yours with a joyful mind,

Siddhartha

Postcard #7

Dear Gopa,

I hope you and all the villagers you are helping are well. As we study, meditate and contemplate we come to realize there is only mind. We free ourselves from the delusion that we live in a world that is outside of ourselves, a world that is fixed, solid and permanent. In this delusion we think the world was waiting for us to be born into it, just one more person arriving in a ready-made world. All the things we worry about, chase after or try to avoid are part of this delusion, this wrong assumption that causes so much suffering.

Sitting under the Bodhi Tree all those months ago I saw that my world came with me when I was born. In meditation and contemplation on the path of awareness we can all become free from those anxious and fretful mental states. Our mind becomes tranquil so we can live in peace, treating everyone with understanding and kindness.

Please tell the villagers and everyone in the palace that all composed things are like a dream, a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning. That is how to meditate on them, that is how to observe them.

Yours with a joyful mind,

Siddhartha

Postcards written by Peter Limbrick in 2025

A selection of suggested reading:

Old Path White Clouds: The Life Story of the Buddha

How to Cook Your Life: From the ZEN Kitchen to Enlightenment

The Harmony of Emptiness and Dependent Arising by Lobsang Gyatso.

The Resonance of Emptiness: A Buddhist Inspiration for Contemporary Psychotherapy By Gay Watson

The Sun my Heart: Reflections on Mindfulness, Concentration, and Insight by Thich Nhat Hanh.

The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism by Fritjof Capra.

A Still Forest Pool: The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah

Approaching the Buddhist Path - Library of Wisdom and Compassion Vol 1 by H.H. the Dalai Lama and Ven Thubten Chodron

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps

Asanga’s Abhidharmasamuccaya by Traleg Kyabgon

Joyful Path of Good Fortune by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

The Diamond Sutra.

Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom. Three Fascicles from Shōbōgenzō with Commentaries by Kōshō Uchiyama.

Sailing the Worldly Winds: A Buddhist Way Through the Ups and Downs of Life by Vajragupta