Buddha Nature

by Taitaku Pat Phelan

One of the fundamental teachings in Soto Zen, and the starting point for the Soto teachings, is that we are all Buddha, we are already Buddha. Suzuki Roshi said, "...to be a human being is to be a Buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature–true human nature." This means that being Buddha is intrinsic or essential to being human. If we weren’t Buddha, we couldn’t be human. The word "Buddha" means "an awakened one," one who is awake to things as they really are without the coloring and attachments of our individual conditioning. So another meaning of Buddha is "unconditioned nature." Our basic, original nature is unconditioned; but at the same time, most of us are ignorant of our unconditioned being. Our habits, our thoughts, and conditioning hang like a cloud covering our unconditioned nature.

I think characteristic of conditioned nature is that there is something that we don’t have that we need. From the time we are born, the way we are treated, the things we are told, the way our language and our society are constructed, support the notion that there is something that we don’t have that we need. Whether we think we need new clothes, or a new car, or happiness, or fulfillment, or peace of mind, or even realization, whenever we feel that there is something that we need that we don’t already have, we are ignoring our inherent completeness and setting up a duality between who we are and who we want to be. Trying to obtain something outside ourselves, which when we get it will make our lives better, is dualistic grasping which can never be satisfied. There will always be something newer or something better available. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan ahead–we need to make plans. But if you are sacrificing the present, this day, this week or this year, for sometime in the future, for some goal you will realize two years or four years down the line, you are rejecting your present life.

Right now, in this moment, if we are dissatisfied, we are rejecting a moment of life. If we reject our life in this moment, in what moment will we accept it? Practice and realization can only be experienced right now. There is no other time.

I don’t mean that, because we are inherently complete, we should just lie back and enjoy it. We need to take care of ourselves, to support ourselves, to take care of our lives, and, as much as possible, we need to take care of the environment and help improve living conditions for all people. But the Buddhist attitude is that we take care of our activity, and we take care of the world as our selves, rather than taking care of it as some "thing" out there which we are trying to help or improve. The Buddhist attitude is more like changing your baby’s diaper. When you take care of your baby, you aren’t trying to fix it–it’s not broken–but it does need attending to. Likewise, when we wash dishes or clean house, we don’t do it because something is wrong. We clean it because that’s what it means to live in a house, or eat off dishes: the process includes cleaning.

The sixth Chinese ancestor, Hui Neng, or Daikan Eno, taught in the Platform Sutra, "...the Wisdom of Enlightenment is inherent in every one of us. It is because of the delusion under which our mind works that we fail to realize it ourselves....You should know that, so far as Buddha nature is concerned, there is no difference between an enlightened person and an ignorant one. What makes the difference is that one realizes it and one is ignorant of it."

When Dogen was thirteen or fourteen, after he had begun practicing, he had the persistent question: "If we are already Buddha, or already enlightened, why do we need to train so strictly and put so much effort into practice?" Buddhism teaches that we are already Buddha whether we realize it or not. "Realize" means "to make real." In Buddhism, the realization that is referred to is not something that happens just in our minds or to our perceptions. It is said that realization must penetrate every cell of our bodies, down to the marrow of our bones and out to each tip of our hair. This way of practice involves our whole being and everything we do. The way we buy groceries or empty the trash expresses our practice as much as sitting zazen does.

A long time ago I heard a story about Suzuki Roshi which isn’t really much of a story. He was waiting in line one day to buy tickets to the movies, and he stood and waited with so much presence and intention that someone who had never seen him before was so struck by his presence that he begin practicing. Waiting is an activity in and of itself. I tend to forget this when I unexpectedly find myself waiting–in a traffic jam or in a doctor’s office. I often think of waiting as some kind of dormant or dead time that occurs between the last event that happened and the next activity coming up. I forget that waiting is just as valid, just as real, for practice as any other activity. I tend to discriminate and prefer activity that feels concentrated, or activity that produces some kind of visible results, over activity that feels unfocussed, forgetting that it is my attention that is unfocussed, not the activity. This moment is a moment of life which has the potential for awakening. If we disregard this moment again and again, then disregarding life or consciousness becomes a habit.

Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we have the opportunity to practice. We don’t have to be in the meditation hall or in the mountains to practice. Our practice isn’t even dependent on meditation. Since we are already Buddha, we can never leave the environment of practice. Buddhism teaches that it is not even "we" who practices, but the Buddha we are who practices. We just resume our true nature, or our true nature resumes itself.

Suzuki Roshi quoted Dogen, "We practice our way not for ourselves and not for others. We practice our way for the sake of our way." Suzuki Roshi continued, "There is no other reason why we practice our way. We just want to go back to our home as a duck wants to return to water...like a traveler who comes back and lies down in his own bed."

© Taitaku Pat Phelan, 1997