See Your Nature

Yang Ming-Yi

This is the only teaching transmitted in Zen. The rest is merely window dressing. Our nature includes every thought, every feeling, every memory, every atom of our bodies, and every dharma of our minds, all of which are empty of self-existence. To see their emptiness is to see our nature. The only difference between buddhas and deluded beings is this: Buddhas see the emptiness of their nature, and deluded beings see the walls of their delusions. In the Heart Sutra, Avalokiteshvara says, "All dharmas are defined by emptiness, not birth or destruction, purity or defilement, completeness or deficiency." Emptiness is our nature, and our nature is emptiness. The Chinese character used here is chien, which not only means "to see" but also "to experience." Thus, to see our nature is to experience our nature, to experience its emptiness.

---Red Pine---