Inherently Enlightened

     “Dogen Zengi says: ‘Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life.’
     How do we experience this for ourselves? Such experience gives us indestructible strength; it gives us confidence, conviction, and peace. Our life is nothing but this blossom of nondwelling, nonattached nirvana. How can you confirm this for yourself?” 
       Taizan Maezumi. “Appreciate Your Life. The Essence of Zen Practice.” Shambhala, 2001.


     "Both day and night everything we encounter is our life. Because of that, we put our life into everything we encounter. Our life and what is being encountered become one. We exhaust our life force so that our life and encounter might function as they should.
     ... when we throw ourselves into our work, there ceases to be a ‘gap’ or duality between our life force and the ‘thing’ or ‘work’ which is being encountered, so that the opposing meanings of all the ordinary dualistic words – ‘our,’ ‘life,’ or ‘force’ on the one side, and ‘thing’ or ‘work’ on the other – fall away.” 
       Thomas Wright transl. Zen Master Dogen and Kosho Uchiyama Roshi: “How to Cook Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment.” Shambhala, 2005. 


     “Long ago a monk asked an old master, ‘When hundreds, thousands, or myriads of objects come all at once, what should be done?’
      The master replied, ‘Don’t try to control them.’
      What he means is that in whatever way objects come, do not try to change them. Whatever comes is the buddha-dharma, not objects at all. Do not understand the master’s reply as merely a brilliant admonition, but realize that it is the truth. Even if you try to control what comes, it cannot be controlled.” 
        Eihei Dogen, “Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen.” North Point Press, 1995.
 

     “At the time of his great awakening Dogen was practicing shikantaza, a mode of zazen which involved neither koan nor counting or following the breaths. The very foundation of shikantaza is an unshakable faith that sitting as the Buddha sat, with the mind void of all conceptions, of all beliefs and points of view, is the actualization or unfoldment of the inherently enlightened Bodhi-mind with which all are endowed.” 
       Philip Kapleau “The Three Pillars of Zen.” Anchor Books, 2000.

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