Buddhanature - like the Sun, Lotus, and Gold

     "Sun, lotus, and gold - three traditional Buddhist symbols for buddhanature, our unchanging wakefulness.
     Like the sun, our buddhanature always shines, even if the clouds temporarily obscure our view of it.
     Like the lotus, it grows pure and unsullied from the mud of our passion, aggression, and ignorance.
     And like gold, we need only purify the dross of our obscurations to experience the beauty and brilliance of our true nature."

       John Tarrant, Shambhala Sun, September 2013

Giving Life

     “Dogen defined practice as giving life to your original self. This is not giving life to your deluded self, which we do all the time, but to your original self, your basic goodness, or you could say to your Buddha nature, which each one of us intrinsically possesses whether we realize it or not. This is the word practice. It can be understood in a very oceanic way or in a very shallow way, but still practice is always practice, and its truth is to ignite and reveal your true self within your everyday life.”

     Kwong J. "No beginning, no end. The intimate heart of Zen." Harmony Books, NY, 2003.