Buddha Nature

[cnholmes]

What is it?

common

[Anton S.]

Why is it common?

[barrys]

Funny, I got this in my email this morning and was wondering where I had been reading about Buddha nature recently. Then this thread reappeared .

Those who have spent ten or twenty years brushing aside the weeds looking for the way and yet have not see the buddha nature often say they are trapped by oblivion and excitement. What they don't realize is that the substance of this very oblivion and excitement is itself buddha nature.
-Kao-feng

[cnholmes]

Why is it common?

Because everything has it

or perhaps you mean 'why does everything have it?' to which I'd answer 'because you think it does'.

[Anton S.]

To me it sounds absurd.
Buddha nature is common, because i think it is. But i don´t.
Will the discussion end up in repeating words of some zen masters and coming to the point that buddha nature is made up by perception and is purely subjective, which derives from of the answer "because you think it is".
my question is: what is buddha nature, not where i find it. what is it made of?what is it´s essence? please no obvious answers: like you can find it everywhere and it is what it is. have you seen a dog who has qualities of a buddha?What does all this talk about buddha nature mean?

best greetings, anton.

[Daniel]

Buddha nature is trascendental reality so if you seek for what is made of you are falling into the phenomenal mundane reality.
It trascends your thinking mind so don´t expect to find out what it is by discursive thinking.

Some people would say that Buddha nature is made of fine energy that permeates all or maybe that it is just pure conciousness, but these are just words defining it and not the real experience.


A dog has his own nature and it is no different from what I think Buddha nature is.

In other words, God is everywhere so you cannot say something has not God´s grace.



Greetings,

[Anton S.]

Thank You very much for your answer, Sipak Daniel.

Why do we have to practise Zen or any other kind of meditation to become Buddha, if everyone has the Buddha Nature?

Greetings, Anton

[Jamie Robson]

'Shallow Understanding & Personal Experience'

Dear Anton

Why do we have to practise Zen or any other kind of meditation to become Buddha, if everyone has the Buddha Nature?

We should not accept any teaching on faith alone - "A dog has his own nature".
It should be based on one's own understanding, through direct experience.

Enjoy your practice,

[Daniel]

Dear Anton,
Our minds are full of perverted habits, points of view and desires. These are like clouds that don´t let us see our intrinsic nature.

Therfore we need to practise to actualize our Buddha-nature.

Greetings to all,

[Nick Jones]

Onions and Buddha nature

I have been going through some very intense cleansing of late and after practice last night I had a flash of realisation which may by relevant here.

I was just sitting down to dinner and I realised I felt very much like an onion;
Each time I peel away one or more of the layers of spiritual dirt the surrounds me I get closer to finding my true self.

Another analogy maybe someone taking off items of clothing. Imagine someone wearing lots and lots and lots of thick clothing; hats, gloves, scarves etc and removing it one layer at a time. Each time a layer is removed the person can move with less restriction and express themselves with more accuracy and clarity. Eventually that person sheds the final layer and we can seem them as they actually are...

It is through practicing and letting go that we are able to shed these layers of defilement.

Onion heartedly,
Nick

[Anton S.]

Dear Anton,
Our minds are full of perverted habits, points of view and desires. These are like clouds that don´t let us see our intrinsic nature.

In our practice the minds are empty of perverted habits, points of view and desires. There are no more clouds that don´t let us see our intrinsic nature.

Do we have still to peel like an onion?

Greetings to all

[Daniel]

and what about after the practise? in your everyday activities. If it was so easy then none would have the need for cultivation because everyone will experience enlightment.
But the truth is , most people are bound in desire, compulsive thinking and wrong habits, and they cannot stop although they want to do it (at least they want on the paper). Intellectual thinking is at best, just a pointer but dosen´t change anything as long as you don´t experience have the direct experience.

Greetings,

[Buddhasfist1]

Amitoufo!

Sifu Daniel Perez has pointed out the very same answers I would have given, for this Question.

However, I should still have to point out that We cannot Discriminate in Good or Bad, Right or Wrong, Being and not Being, What is and what is not; for this creates a Duelism, and then we have lost what we start out looking for in the first place. But if you were to look between Ignorance and Enlightenment you would then find Dharmakaya.

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We do know that even in pores of our Skin there are Buddhas and surrounding them are Bodhisattvas. In every particle of everything is Buddha and Buddha nature.

Intellegence should be used only as a tool, However I do know that not all have equal intellectual capacities, Therefore we must teach the dharma for all to understand, even if one can not grasp at what this word means they can still learn if we were to break the knowledge down to an understandable level for that individual.



I think that this is a good Starter thread, for it is the knowledge that we seek to gain, and by Sharing what we know we can in fact teach others in the way Buddha had intended.

[Cymon]

layers of onions

Great contributions and conversation from all. Thanking you all very kindly.

I have another to add regarding onions. When you remove all the layers of an onion what are you left with?

[Andrew]

Smelly hands