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Buddha Nature Quotes

Browse 57 quotes about Buddha Nature.

Buddha Nature Quotes

“13. A Buddha In Tokyo in th Meiji era there lived two prominent teachers of opposite characteristics. One, Unsho, an instructor in Shingon, kept Buddha's precepts scrupulously. He never drank intoxicants, nor did he eat after eleven o'clock in the morning. The other teacher, Tanzan, a professor of philosophy at the Imperial University, never observed the precepts. When he felt like eating he ate, and when he felt like sleeping in the daytime he slept. One da Unsho visited Tanzan, who was drinking wine at the time, not even a drop of which is supposed to touch the tongue of a Buddhist. "Hello, brother," Tanzan greeted him. "Won't you have a drink?" "I never drink!" exclaimed Unsho solemnly. "One who never drinks is not even human," said Tanzan. "Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in intoxicating liquids!" exclaimed Unsho in anger. "Then if I am not human, wht am I?" "A Buddha," answered Tanzan.”

ZenBuddhaBuddha NatureZen Flesh Zen Bones
Author:Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps
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“We don't usually see that there's a third possible logical term equal to yes and no, which is capable of explaining our understanding in an unrecognized direction. We don't even have a term for it, so I'll have to use the Japanese "Mu." Mu means no thing, like quality, it points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. Mu simply says, no class, not one, not zero, not yes, not no. It states that the context of the question is such that a yes or no answer is an error and should not be given. Un-ask the question is what it says. Mu becomes appropriate when the context of the question becomes too small for the truth of the answer.”

PhilosophyZenBuddha NatureNo ThingBinary ThinkingMu
Author:Robert Prisig
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“All appearances are vast openness, Blissful and utterly free. With a free, happy mind I sing this song of joy. When one looks toward one's own mind - The root of all phenomena - There is nothing but vivid emptiness, Nothing concrete there to be taken as real. It is present and transparent, utter openness, Without outside, without inside - An all pervasiveness Without boundary and without direction. The wide-open expanse of the view, The true condition of the mind, Is like the sky, like space: Without center, without edge, without goal. By leaving whatever i experience Relaxed in ease, just as it is, I have arrived at the vast plain That is the absolute expanse. Dissolving into the expanse of emptiness That has no limits and no boundary, Everything i see, everything i hear, My own mind, and the sky all merge. Not once has the notion arisen Of these being seperate and distinct. In the absolute expanse of awareness All things are blended into that single taste - But, relatively, each and every phenomenom is distinctly, clearly seen. Wondrous!”

FreedomBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningBlissOpennessTrue NatureBuddha Nature
Book:The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin
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“Since healing essentially comes from our mind, not from our body, it is important to understand the nature of the mind. The intrinsic nature of the mind is pure in the sense that it is not one with the faults of the mind, with the disturbing thoughts and obscurations. All the faults of our mind — our selfishness, ignorance, anger, attachment, guilt, and other disturbing thoughts — are temporary, not permanent and everlasting. And since the cause of our suffering, our disturbing thoughts and obscurations, is temporary, our suffering is also temporary. The mind is also empty of true existence, of existence from its own side. This quality of mind, known as Buddha Nature, gives us the potential to free ourselves completely from all suffering, including disease, and the causes of suffering and to achieve any happiness we wish, including the peerless happiness of enlightenment. Since the mind has all this potential, we do not need to feel depressed or hopeless. It is not as if we have to experience problems forever. We have incredible freedom to develop our mind in any way that we wish. It is simply a question of finding the right way to use the potential of our mind.”

HealingBuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningSpiritual TransformationThe Path Of The BodhisattvaBuddha NatureThe Nature Of The Mind
Book:Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion
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“Primordial wisdom [Skt. jñāna; Tib. ཡེ་ཤེས་, yeshé; Wyl. ye shes] has many names, but in truth it refers simply to the inseparability of the ground and fruit, the one and only essence-drop [thig le nyag gcig] of the dharmakaya. If it is assessed from the standpoint of its utterly pure nature, it is the actual dharmakaya, primordial Buddhahood. For, from its own side, it is free from every obscuration. We must understand that we are Buddha from the very beginning. Without this understanding, we will fail to recognize the spontaneously present mandala of the ground, and we will be obliged to assert, in accordance with the vehicle of the paramitas, that Buddhahood has a cause. We will fail to recognize the authentic view of the Secret Mantra.”

Buddha NatureTibetan BuddhismVajrayanaDharmakayaMantrayanaPrimordial Wisdom
Book:White Lotus: An Explanation of the Seven-line Prayer to Guru Padmasambhava
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“All life has suffering. But to live is to suffer. So we bless life, we bless death, we bless sickness and health, we bless happiness and sadness. We say om mani padme hum to bless all suffering borne by all beings, as the suffering is our karma. And our karma is our life.”

LifeSufferingHumanityLife QuotesBuddhismKarmaBuddhaBuddha Nature
Book:A Story of Karma: Finding Love and Truth in the Lost Valley of the Himalaya
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“We can sacrifice ourselves in order to save lives, to spread messages of freedom, hope, and dignity. That is our Buddha Nature, our Christ Nature – people who have embodied the principles of love and compassion and have taken extraordinary measures to change the world for the better. We call them heroes and heroines - for example, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Malala Yousafzai, along with the nameless aid workers, neonatal surgeons, and ordinary parents who make extraordinary choices in life-threatening circumstances. And we admire them. Those are the people who we want to occupy our Jewel Tree, letting their nectar rain down upon us in a shower of blessing and inspiration. They are the people who have discovered interdependence, wisdom, and compassion, have seen through the illusion of separation and come out the other side with the hero‘s elixir for the welfare of others. If we don‘t believe we can do it, if we don‘t have the confidence, that‘s the last hurdle. We believe there is something special about the hero and something deficient about us, but the only difference is that the Bodhisattva has training, has walked the Lam Rim, has reached the various milestones that each contemplation is designed to evoke, and collectively those experiences have brought confidence. Our natures are the same. It‘s in your DNA to become a hero. As heretical as it may sound to some, there is no inherent specialness to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is not inherently different from you. If you had his modeling, training, support, and devotional refuge, you too could be a paragon of hope and goodwill. Now, hopefully you will recognize cow critical it is for you to embrace your training (the Bodhisattva Path), so that we can shape-shift civilization through the neural circuitry of living beings. (pp. 139 - 140)”

BuddhismHeroEnlightenmentAwakeningSpiritual TransformationBuddha NaturePath Of The BodhisattvaWisdom And CompassionChrist Nature
Author:Miles Neale
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“Although we are in samsara, we can still see proof of the existence of buddha nature permeating all living beings. [One] way in which we can discern whether beings have buddha nature is rik (Wyl. rigs; Skt. gotra), in other words the quality we perceive in one who possesses this buddha nature. […] All beings have buddha nature because all beings have within themselves what we call the essence of the buddha, this ju (Wyl. rgyu; Skt. hetu), this seed, which can blossom into a buddha and which constitutes our potential for enlightenment.”

BuddhismAwakeningPotentialBuddha NatureRigpa
Book:Path to Buddhahood: Teachings on Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation
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“Ignorance, vulnerability, fear, anger, and desire are expressions of the infinite potential of your buddha nature. There's nothing inherently wrong or right with making such choices. The fruit of Buddhist practice is simply the recognition that these and other mental afflictions are nothing more or less than choices available to us because our real nature is infinite in scope.”

RealDesireChoicesPracticeIgnoranceExpressionBuddhismInfiniteFruitAvailableBuddhistRecognitionVulnerabilityAfflictionScopeBuddha NatureInfinite PotentialWrong Or Right
Book:The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness
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“What I believe is that we have this extraordinary spirit inside ourselves, which for me is our Buddha nature. I believe we are in the process of opening and getting closer and closer to our Buddha nature and stripping away all that is covering it. I don't think I'm going to end up meeting this one being up there or out there.”

ThinkingBelieveEndsSpiritI BelieveProcessMeetingsExtraordinaryOpeningCoveringStrippingBuddha NatureStripping Away
Author:Eve Ensler
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“All sentient beings - all holons in fact - contain Buddha-nature - contain depth, consciousness, intrinsic value, Spirit - and thus we are all members of the council of all beings... And the ultimate objective truth is that all beings are perfect manifestations of Spirit or Emptiness”

FactsSpiritValuesPerfectConsciousnessTruth IsMembersUltimateDepthObjectivesManifestationEmptinessCouncilSentient BeingsPerfect ManIntrinsic ValueBuddha NatureObjective Truth
Book:The Essential Ken Wilber
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“If we do not control our minds with our Buddha nature, do not practice seriously, are not honest to ourselves and do not examine our behaviors strictly, we will definitely be possessed by Maya. Being possessed does not necessary mean that we become delirious or our faces become horribly distorted. When we do not walk on the right path, we will be walking on Maya's path.”

IfsMindMeanDoeInspirationFacesSpiritualWalksPracticePathHonestWalkingBehaviorPossessedRight PathBuddha NatureDeliriousNot HonestSpiritual Inspiration
Author:Ching Hai
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“The idea of buddha mind is not purely a concept or a theoretical, metaphysical idea. It is something extremely real that we can experience ourselves. In fact, it is the ego that feels that we have an ego. It is ego that tells us, My ego is bothering me. I feel very self-conscious about having to be me. I feel that I have a tremendous burden in me, and I wonder what the best way to get rid of it is. Yet all those expressions of restlessness that keep coming out of us are the expression of buddha nature: the expression of our unborn, unobstructed, and nondwelling nature.”

WayFeelsMindIdeasRealSelfFactsWonderExpressionEgoConsciousConceptsBurdenBest WayBotherComing OutMetaphysicalTheoreticalSelf ConsciousUnbornRestlessnessBuddha Nature
Author:Chogyam Trungpa
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“Whenever learners or those beyond learning awaken the mind, for the first time they plant one buddha-nature. Working with the four elements and five clusters, if they practice sincerely they attain enlightenment. Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment. This is because the four elements and five clusters and plants, trees, fences and walls are fellow students; because they are of the same essence, because they are the same mind and the same life, because they are the same body and the same mechanism.”

IfsLifeMindFirstsBodyPracticeFiveFourTreeStudentsWallElementsEnlightenmentFirst TimeEssenceFellowsPlantMechanismFenceSincerelyLearnersPlant A TreeClustersBuddha NatureFour Elements
Author:Dogen
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