Reflection 608

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Seeing Your Nature

To find a buddha all you have to do is see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a buddha. If you don’t see your nature and run around all day looking somewhere else, you’ll never find a buddha. The truth is, there’s nothing to find. You have the buddha-nature. Whoever sees his nature is a buddha; whoever doesn’t is a mortal. To attain enlightenment you have to see your nature. To attain enlightenment without seeing your nature is impossible. Someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can’t read a word. Seeing your nature is zen. Unless you see your nature, it’s not zen. If you see your nature, you don’t need to read sutras or invoke buddhas. Unless they see their nature, people who shave their head are simply fanatics. Once you see your nature, you’re a buddha even if you work as a butcher. Buddhas of the past and future only talk about seeing your nature. It’s only because people don’t see their nature that they end up in hell. If you don’t see your own miraculously aware nature, you’ll never find a buddha even if you break your body into atoms. But people today don’t understand what this means. Instead of looking inside they insist on looking outside. Seeing through the mundane and witnessing the sublime is less than an eye-blink away. Realization is now. Bodhidharma. From the teachings of Bodhidharma as exposed in the Bloodstream Sermon and the Breakthrough Sermon, translated by Red Pine.