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Buddha nature and self
Daozen
Veteran
Does the Mahayana idea of Buddha nature contradict the core Buddhist teaching of not-self?
If Buddha nature is within us all as potential ... isn't that just like having a permanent soul or atman?
If Buddha nature is within us all as potential ... isn't that just like having a permanent soul or atman?
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Comments
where do you get atman out of that?
Although this "thing" is merely a potential, we all know as Buddhists that nothing comes from nothing, right? So this thing, this so-called Buddha nature we all possess, must have some reality in our mind and/or bodies. It must, to some degree, exist. As such, it seems to me to be very similar as an idea to that of having an essential character or atman within us.
Namaste
Maybe buddha nature is consciousness, but even consciousness is empty. Atman is really anatman.
When explaining the not-self characteristic (SN 22.59), the Buddha related that the five skandhas are not self.
Anyways, I found this interesting piece by a Zen Roshi named Taizan Maezumi in which he distinguishes between three types of Buddha Nature.
This has me wondering...is the concept of Buddha Nature in any way related to the luminous mind?
luminous mind that sees reality as it is.
As for the question that opened the thread, No-self and Buddha Nature don't contradict each other, but instead support each other and are two of the main concepts that Zen uses to penetrate the mind, the third being Emptiness.
We say everyone has Buddha Nature, because language forces us to talk of things. But to think of Buddha Nature as something "you" have or don't have is to already go wrong. That is treating your self as an object, a thing, something that you possess. How can you possess yourself? So that brings us to No-self. If Buddha Nature is not something you have, then what is it? That brings us to Emptiness. So what is the nature of this Emptiness? It's the same as asking, "What am I?" See how it goes?
They do not have the nature of selfhood.
A permanent and an impermanent cannot
Exist as the support and the supported.
nagarjuna
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/freedomfrombuddhanature.html
and one on non-duality as it goes to the heart of knowing "one's true self"
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/bps-essay_27.html
A tree has its' own nature, as does a butterfly, and that nature is in constant change. When you quite your mind, and all the random thoughts that intrude in your mind, you can sit and begin to understand your own "Buddha nature", no one can do that for you. It is diffidently worth the time and effort to get to know "who/what" you are. The more you keep your mind still, the more you can hear and understand your "original face".
I wanted to ask this question again, then re-read your answer, and just wanted to say thanks. Given my current understanding, which has changed since I last asked, it makes sense!
Good answer to a good question. We have to call the non-self, emptiness, Buddha Nature - something, even if to just allude to its nature. It has no nature or form. It is transient. It is inherent in the change and in the absence of change, Nirvana if you will.
Hence in Mahayana: 'Emptiness is form and form is emptiness'.
This is why we are so close and far from a paradox. Nothing to realise . . . until we realise . . . nothing inherently 'real' or independent is present.
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I'd say there's 3 states of existence or none existence, & those are "nothing" (maybe the void), the in between (being mind identified), & something (shedding the minds identification as "i", & building our ego's through love instead of greed etc)....So in my opinion our ID is what we're all down here supposed to be building, & our ego & super ego are the same thing which is a mirror image of what sort of ID we're building....So our ID ego & super ego are all the same thing, which is what we've built so far with our 100% free will....So the universe could be nothing (the void), in between (observed by the mind), & something (real/solid/eternal)....For example in the present moment which is outside space & time, Atoms, electrons, quarks etc do not exist because there is no mind present to measure or see them.
The Jewel Ornament of Liberation is the Lam Rim text of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. It states that buddha nature IS emptiness nature.