Essential Nature

The original essential nature is buddha. There is no buddha apart from essential nature.

What does maha mean? Maha means great. The extent of mind is vast as space, without bounds. It has no squareness or roundness, no largeness or smallness; it has no blueness, yellowness, redness, or whiteness. It has no up or down, no long or short. It has no anger and no joy, no right and no wrong, no good and no bad. It has no head or tail.

The lands of all buddhas are all the same as space. The subtle nature of people in the world is originally empty, with nothing that can be grasped. The true emptiness of our inherent nature is also like this.

Good friends, don't cling to emptiness when you hear me speak of emptiness. Above all, do not stick to emptiness. If you sit quietly with an empty mind, you are fixated on indifferent voidness.

---The Sutra of Hui-neng---