What Is Buddha Nature?
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Vol. 7 No. 2 March/April 2006 2548 BE Water Wheel Being one with all Buddhas, I turn the water wheel of compassion. —Gate of Sweet Nectar What is Buddha Nature? By Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao to us humans. A pine tree, a chair, a dog—these have no Our study of the fundamental aspects of Zen practice problem being pine begins with an exploration of buddha-nature. In the Sho- tree, chair, and dog bogenzo fascicle “Bussho,” Dogen Zenji writes: respectively. Only human beings are All sentient beings without exception have the Buddha under the false illu- nature. The Tathagata abides forever without change. sion of a permanent, fixed “I” or ego, or small self. We are so deeply attached Let us examine the first line, which is often expounded to “me-myself” that it seems impossible to even consider in the Mahayana sutras. This statement points directly to that this is an illusion to be seen through as universal the essential nature of this very life that we are now living. whole-being. It is our task to understand this nature, to experience it directly for ourselves, and to live it in our daily lives. Have the. Although this translation uses the words “have the,” Dogen Zenji says that it is more to the point All sentient beings. We can distinguish between human to say “are.” All beings are buddha-nature. You, the pine, the beings, sentient beings, and whole-being. The word rocks, the dog, already are complete, whole, perfect as is. “sentient” means “responsive to sensations,” so it includes Buddha-nature is not something that you have, or can humans, plants, and animals. Dogen Zenji also includes all acquire. It is already your nature, the nature of everything. so-called inanimate things, such as mountains, buildings, rocks, computers, chairs, and so forth. In other words, Yasutani Roshi speaks of what buddha-nature is not. everything, or to use Dogen Zenji’s expression, whole-being. It is not a seed inside of you that grows when you water it Hence the word all. All means all. There is nothing that is and someday blossoms into a sweet-smelling buddha not buddha nature. Everything has the same fundamental rose. It is not a substance to be acquired—it is you as- nature. Please carefully consider this and its implications you-are, already complete. Nor is it something that you for how you live. lack—nothing has more or less buddha-nature than you or anything else. Dogen Zenji says in the Genjokoan, Without exception. Again, the same point is emphasized: “Everything stands in its own completeness and does not all without exception. Let redundancy and repetition of fail to cover the ground.” Nor is it a “soul” that contin- this point open you up, intellectually, spiritually, experien- ues on separately from the body. tially. What do you exclude? The very act of excluding is a (Continued on page 2) symptom that the conditioned self or ego is running the show, and that we are not living from all without exception. INSIDE All—every race, class, age, “good” and “bad” folks, 3 Firewood—Ash—Just This! by Kodo Boyd animals, plants and so on: there is nothing that is not bud- 5 Programs dha-nature. Let’s be clear: we are not saying that every- 7 Calendar: 2006 March, April, May thing has realized and actualized buddha-nature, only that 10 Shared Stewardship: Reflections everything is so. Realization and actualization applies only 11 Heartfelt Thank You to the Sangha (WHAT IS BUDDHA NATURE? Continued from page 1) self-created standards of what is perfect and what is not perfect. Perfection does not mean to try to mold some- You as you are: bud- thing into your idea of what it should be. A giraffe has dha-nature. This does not very long legs; a dog has short legs. We are not trying to mean that you have di- make the giraffe’s leg like the dog’s, nor the dog’s like the rectly realized it, nor that giraffe’s. This is a silly example, and yet everyday, do you you are living from an not bind yourself by trying to make yourself, others, and experience of All. It does situations into your idea of what they should be? Nor is mean that you have all the perfection a state of purity devoid of characteristics. potential that is needed to directly awaken to this Seeing as-it-is does not mean that what is going on nature and to actualize it benefits life. Someone asked, “I cannot accept genocide. in your very life. Yasutani Roshi says buddha-nature is of three kinds: fundamen- Practice is not a belief system tal-cause buddha-nature —it is direct seeing into (shoin bussho), or the fact of already being buddha-nature; capacity-to-realize buddha- the nature of reality nature (ryoin bussho), or you must realize it for it to be of any worth; and cooperating-cause buddha-nature (enin bussho). The cooperating-cause already exists inside of us, How can genocide be perfection?’ This is a good ques- whether it be a teacher, the sound of bamboo, the tion and serves to illuminate perfection in terms of bud- sangha—all together, everything is already cooperating dha-nature. To accept directly that genocide is what is for us to realize this fundamental nature. happening does not mean that we condone it. Neverthe- less, it is just-as-it-is. Here we are looking at perfection as Buddha-nature. So what is the essence of all life? It is wholeness: my life and genocide are mutually enfolded in indeed tricky to speak of the basic characteristics of bud- each other—not two, not separate. From recognition and dha-nature because when we do, we immediately make it acceptance of what-is, we can examine the causes of into a thing. Nevertheless, it is important to speak of it. genocide. The fundamental characteristic of buddha-nature is sun- yata (Sanskrit), often translated as emptiness, or, more ac- We see immediately that the condition of genocide curately, empty of all independent existence. All is empty of any occurs when the mind lives in the small self dichotomy of fixed condition. Yasutani Roshi says, “Everything is in a what is acceptable and what is not. Furthermore, what is temporary state as defined by particular causes and con- not acceptable, according to someone’s self-created stan- ditions.” (This leads us directly to the aspects of cause dards, needs to be killed. We know intimately how this and effect and the formation of the ego-centered self, ignorance in our own mind creates suffering. We also which we will explore later.) know the intolerable suffering when this mind-set is played out on a larger scale. Please see the direct connec- We often speak of this characteristic as imperma- tion between your mind-set and what goes on in the nence or change. Everything is in a condition of not last- world. ing, of having no fixed identity, although appearing right now as a brunette, an oak table, a blue jay, you and me, This is why it is so important to penetrate, unpack, or whatever. All is without a fixed-reference point. All is study, and realize the essential nature of the mind. Prac- without a fixed “I” which is in constant birth and death tice is not a belief system nor adopting a dogma—it is according to conditions. Practice is to see through this direct perceiving of the reality of life and a commitment fixed sense of self. We say: Empty out the subject; empty to live in accord with the reality. Everywhere in our life, out the object; empty out the emptying out. This is the ignorance is reinforced so strongly that it is difficult to Great Matter of Life and Death which we penetrate. even consider buddha-nature, or the perfection of whole- being. These fundamental realities do not reinforce the Whether we have penetrated this reality or not, we ego, and therein lies the challenge of practice. And yet, it can appreciate it from other perspectives. Since all is is our realization and practice of these very realities that buddha-nature, all-as-it-is is perfect. This perfection is transform samsara, the world of suffering, into nirvana, often depicted as a circle. Perfection is the fact that eve- the life of liberation. rything as-it-is is whole and complete just as-it-is. This is not our usual definition of perfection, so let’s examine Roshi Egyoku Nakao is the abbot and head teacher of ZCLA. this briefly. She is currently leading an 8-week series based on The Eight Aspects of Buddhism by Yasutani Roshi. Photo of Roshi is by In the realm of buddha-nature, perfection is not our Jimmy Jakugen Chou. - 2 - Firewood—Ash—Just This! By Dharma-Holder Merle Kodo Boyd Today we are commemorating the parinirvana of Like Ananda, how Shakyamuni Buddha. Many of the pilgrims returning many times have we heard from India have spoken deeply of the feeling of being in this teaching and believed Kusinagara, the place the Buddha chose to die. They have ourselves to be accepting spoken of the sorrow that is still present there. It is a sor- it as true? Then, sud- row reflected in the many accounts of the Buddha’s last denly, in the face of loss days. or unwanted change, we are taken by surprise, hav- In a Tricycle article describing his own pilgrimage to ing no choice but to bear India, Allan Hunt Badiner referred to Kusinagara as “the what we experience as place where the Buddha’s absence began.” We also chant nearly unbearable.