Quotes About Self-nature

Seeing into one's self-nature is seeing into nothingness. Seeing into nothingness is true seeing & eternal seeing

We can never know either the hatefulness of sin or the treachery of our self-nature until there is that flash of God upon us. I speak not of a sensation but of an inward revelation of the Lord Himself through His Word. Such a breaking in of divine light does for us what doctrine alone can never do.

Space is designated as empty, yet its exact nature cannot be verbalized. Similarly the mind is designated as luminously clear, yet its exact nature is empty, with no ground for definition. Thus the self-nature of mind is and has been from the very beginning like that of space.

The problems in this world are not to be blamed on anyone, but to be blamed on the ignorance of our self-nature.

think that the essential point of Zen lies in "proof," which is variously called "right awareness of no-self," "seeing one's original self-nature," and so on.

Seeing one's true self-nature in itself is samadhi, and samadhi in itself is seeing one's true self-nature.

The above difference between Eno and Jinshu later came to cause the division of Zen Buddhism into two branches: the Southern School, derived from Hui-neng, and the Northern School, stemming from Shenhsiu. The former advocated direct seeing into one's original Buddha nature—that is, sudden awakening to one's self-nature. The latter taught gradual awakening through perpetual endeavor to keep one's mind clean.