Buddha Nature Explained

https://www.reddit.com/r/zensangha/wiki/ewk/4pillarszen

2nd Pillar – Chih’s Nothing Seen This next dialogue I think is Guizong Zhichang, one of Baizhang’s, who may be this Chih of Yun-chu of the eighth century. It appears in D.T. Suzuki’s essay Zen and the Unconscious which can be found in Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki p.206, and again in Suzuki’s Zen Doctrine of No-Mind, p.78.

A monk asked Chih of Yun-chu of the eighth century, 'What is meant by seeing into one's Self-nature and becoming a Buddha?'

Chih: 'This Nature is from the first pure and undefiled, serene and undisturbed. It belongs to no categories of duality such as being and non-being, pure and defiled, long and short, taking-in and giving-up; the Body remains in its suchness. To have a clear insight into this is to see into one's Self-nature. Self-nature is the Buddha, and the Buddha is Self-nature. Therefore, seeing into one's Self-nature is becoming the Buddha.'

Monk: 'If Self-nature is pure, and belongs to no categories of duality such as being and non-being, etc., where does this seeing take place ? '

Chih: 'There is a seeing, but nothing seen.'

Monk: 'If there is nothing seen, how can we say that there is any seeing at all?'

Chih: 'In fact there is no trace of seeing.'

Monk: 'In such a seeing, whose seeing is it?'

Chih: 'There is no seer, either.'

Monk: 'Where do we ultimately come to?'

Chih: 'Do you know that it is because of erroneous discrimination that one conceives of a being, and hence the separation of subject and object. This is known as a confused view. For in accordance with this view one is involved in complexities and falls into the path of birth and death. Those with a clearer insight are not like this one. Seeing may go on all day, and yet there is nothing seen by them. You may seek for traces of seeing in them, but nothing, either of the Body or of the Use, is discoverable here. The duality of subject and object is gone—which is called the seeing into Self-nature.'

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^Yo͞ok  Welcome! ^{Meet me}  *My comment: Piece of cake, right?

But it's clearly a case of things getting worse before they get better in this exchange.

Submitted April 06, 2023 at 07:09AM by ewk https://ift.tt/CHV2quE