Buddha Nature

[Stewart]

I'm reading through some material on buddha-nature and finding it all a bit of a revelation. I'd always been aware of the idea but as a 'vague good thing' in the background and I hadn't appreciated it's central role in Mahayana thought and practice. Can anyone suggest anything I can read on it?

Stewart
Sat.

[Jundo]

Hi Stewart,

Well, "Buddha nature" is one of those much debated, many interpretations, teachings. Some say that it means merely our ability deep down, someday (maybe lifetimes away) to finally become Buddha, but most of us are far from that.

Some say that "Buddha nature" is basically another reference to the Flowing Wholeness, the Emptiness of separate self existence, which means that we (and all things, even the insentient beings) are ALREADY Buddha, even if we just don't realize so (and fail to act accordingly much of the time.)

Some folks give some variations on those two ways, and some say that it is actually a matter of both (I tend to this last interpretation.)

It is hard to recommend a book on Buddha Nature that approaches the entire spread of interpretations, rather than one narrow view. I recall this scholar's treatment although imperfect, perhaps the best overall if a bit dry. (It has been some years since I looked). In any case, it is not too long or too dense, so should not be that much time invested (even if you do have lifetimes.) I owe you a book lend, if you wish (since you live down the street practically. )

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Sallie-B-King/dp/0791404285/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YY6I0RTEBJK2&keywords=%22buddha+nature%22&qid=1657770255&s=english-books&sprefix=buddha+nature+%2Cenglish-books%2C145&sr=1-1

Gassho, Jundo

[Stewart]

Thank you. Nice to hear that the book I'm reading (just finished chapter 3 this morning) is one you're suggesting.

Stewart
Sat

[Wabo]

Hello

If you are not afraid of old literature(and I'm a fan), then I can recommend the treatise "Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana". The treatise tells about the relationship between the enlightened (Buddha) and the unenlightened (sansaric mind).

https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/overview/buddhist-philosophy-chinese/v-1/sections/the-awakening-of-faith-in-mahayana

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x030116828&view=1up&seq=82

Also my views were influenced by Bankei and his teaching of the "unborn and undying Buddha Nature", but he briefly said "unborn". I know that he was a Rinzai follower, but his views influenced me greatly

https://thedewdrop.org/2020/01/27/bankei-and-the-unborn/

https://www.amazon.com/Unborn-Teachings-Master-Bankei-1622-1693/dp/0865475954

These teachings influenced me in general and my vision of Buddhism

Gassho
Wabo
ST

P.S. Sorry for long

P.P.S. Here is my home altar (Vairocana - Buddha Nature)photo_2022-07-14_11-19-11.jpg

[Stewart]

Thank you very much Wabo - much appreciated. I've ordered the Bankei book from a seller here in Japan.

Stewart
Sat

[Stewart]

Thank you very much Wabo - much appreciated. I've ordered the Bankei book from a seller here in Japan.

I'd not previously thought of a link between Vairocana and Buddha Nature

Stewart
Sat

[Jundo]

Oh, Bankei! A great teacher, from the Rinzai sideless side of the roadless road (although perhaps not a big Koan Zazen fan, as discussed below). From the Introduction to the book that I believe you are reading, Wabo ...

Bankei's entire teaching can be reduced to the single
admonition "Abide in the Unborn!" This was Bankei's
constant refrain. The term "Unborn" itself is a common
one in classical Buddhism, where it generally signifies that
which is intrinsic, original, uncreated. Bankei, however,
was the first to use this term as the crux of his teaching.
Rather than obtaining or practicing the Unborn, he says,
one should simply abide in it, because the Unborn is
not a state that has to be created, but is already there,
perfect and complete, the mind just as it is. There isn't any special
method for realizing the Unborn other than to be yourself,
to be totally natural and spontaneous in everything you do.
This means "letting thoughts arise or cease just as they
will," and doing the same in regard to physical sensations,
as Bankei indicates in his advice on illness (pp. 61-63) and
in his instructions on the art of the lance (pp. 138-39).
The mind, as Bankei describes it, is a dynamic mechanism,
reflecting, recording and recalling our impressions
of the world, a kind of living mirror that is always in
motion, never the same from one instant to the next. Within
this mirror mind, thoughts and feelings come and go,
appearing, vanishing and reappearing in response to circumstances,
neither good nor bad in themselves. Unlike
the man of the Unborn, however, the impulsive person
suffers from attachment. He is never natural because he is
a slave to his responses, which he fails to realize are only
passing reflections. As a result, he is continually "hung
up," entangled in particular thoughts and sensations, obstructing
the free flow of the mind. Everything will operate
smoothly, Bankei insists, if we only step aside and let it do
so. He illustrates this to the members of his audience by
pointing out that, even while engrossed in listening to his
talk, they automatically register and identify everything
else around them—the calls of crows and sparrows, the
various colors and aromas, the different sorts of people in
the room. No one is deliberately trying to do this; it simply
happens. That, Bankei says, is how the Unborn functions.
For Bankei, the important thing is letting go, breaking
the mold of our self-centeredness (mi no hiiki) and bad
habits (kiguse). These are familiar Japanese terms that Bankei
used to describe the chief components of delusion. Selfcenteredness
is the basis of the false self. It is "ego" in the
pejorative sense, the reflex that leads us to judge everything
from a narrowly selfish viewpoint. What fuels and informs
this attitude is bad habits, character flaws that, like self-
centeredness, are the result of conditioning. We grow up
imitating the people around us, Bankei says, and in the
process acquire certain failings which finally become so
ingrained that we mistake them for our real selves. Unlike
the Unborn Buddha Mind, however, neither bad habits
nor self-centeredness is innate; both are assimilated from
outside after birth. When we become deluded, we temporarily
forfeit the Buddha Mind we started out with, exchanging
it for these learned responses. The moment this
occurs, duality intervenes and we leave the original oneness
of the Unborn to be "born" into particular states of
being—as hungry ghosts, fighting demons, beasts or helldwellers—passing
fitfully from one to the next, trapped in
incessant transmigration. The only way out of this dilemma,
Bankei maintains, is to go back the way we came,
to return to the unconditioned, the uncreated, the unborn.
"What we have from our parents innately is the Unborn
Buddha Mind and nothing else"; "The Buddha Mind
is unborn and marvelously illuminating, and with the Unborn
everything is perfectly managed"; "Abide in the Unborn
Buddha Mind!" These are the basics of Bankei s Zen,
his catechism of the Unborn. He explained them over and
over in different ways, because he believed the truth of the
Unborn was so simple, so straightforward, that anyone
could grasp it. In this sense, Bankei s Zen was truly popular.
Other Japanese masters had taught lay audiences. But,
in most cases, Zen as such was considered far too difficult
for ordinary people, and Zen masters' popular teachings,
especially those directed to women, scarcely touched on
Zen at all. Instead, teachers spoke in general terms, urging
the merits of pious activity and discussing concepts from
the Buddhist scriptures. Study of the "inner teachings" was
generally confined to qualified monks and members of the
upper classes and intelligentsia who could follow to some
extent the difficult Chinese of the imported Zen texts.

Although a rather traditional Rinzai fellow in some respects, actually not a fan of too much obscure Koan dabblings for that reason ...

Bankei's position was just the reverse. He maintained
that the essence of Zen itself was perfectly plain and direct,
and that any person with an open mind could be made to
understand. You didn't need to be widely educated or adept
at classical Chinese. That sort of thing only got in the way.
In fact, the Unborn could best be explained using simple,
everyday language. Any other approach was just deceptive.
To teach Zen, Bankei insisted, one had to go right to the
core, to divest oneself of everything extraneous—all the
gimmicks, the technical jargon, the exotic foreign usages.
This was Bankei's principal objection to the koan

...

The nature of Bankei's own experience of koan study is
uncertain. It seems likely that he had some contact with
koan Zen in his student days, and evidence indicates that
he occasionally used koans for his own disciples. Judging
by Bankei s statements in the Sermons, however, he abandoned
koans altogether in his later years. As Bankei saw it,
the whole approach of koan Zen was hopelessly contrived.
He rejected the need for familiarity with classical Chinese
as an unnecessary encumbrance, and rejected the koan
itself as an artificial technique. The original koans, he
argued, were not "models," but actual living events. The
old masters had simply responded to particular situations
that confronted them, naturally accommodating themselves
to the needs of the students involved. That was the
business of any Zen teacher, to meet each situation on its
own terms. There was no need to make people study the
words of ancient Chinese monks when you could simply
have them look at their own "cases," the way in which the
Unborn was at work here and now in the actual circumstances
of their lives. This was what Bankei called his
"direct" teaching, as opposed to koan practice, which he
referred to disparagingly as "studying old waste paper." The
koan, said Bankei, was merely a device, and teachers who
relied on it, or on any other technique, were practicing
"devices Zen." Why rely on a device, he argued, when you
could have the thing itself?

One of the Greats.

Gassho, J

SatTodayLAH

Sorry to quote so long.

[Wabo]

I'm not sure if this is the same book I'm reading. In my language, only the book with Bankei's sermons is available. Here is some of his speech

The Master, addressing the audience, said: “Know the life-giving, active living Mind of the Buddha! For centuries, [people in] China and Japan have been misinterpreting Zen, trying to achieve enlightenment through zazen or looking for "one who sees and hears." Both are big misconceptions. Zazen means to sit still with a calm mind. This word also serves as a second name for the original mind. When you meditate sitting, you are just sitting; when you meditate on the move, you are just walking. If your mouth were so big that you could swallow heaven and earth, then Buddhism would be impossible to describe with words. Those who talk about Buddhism are usually only deceiving people.

Gassho
Wabo
ST

P.S. I was quite surprised when I found out that he is a follower of Rinzai Zen

[joshr]

Hello All,

If one were looking for another source that discusses Buddha nature, I might also suggest the early few chapters of the Jewel Ornament of Liberation by Gampopa. It's a Vajrayana text, but the Tibetan authors can have a delightfully precise way of putting things.

Gassho

Josh
Sat this morning

[Onkai]

This is a delightful thread! Thank you all.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat lah