bill...i appreciate this..thank you..i see i hear i will...merle
Merle, Your post below is a little hard for me to understand (as are many of your posts) but I'll try to parse it piece by piece. Buddha Nature is direct experience BEFORE your thinking kicks in and creates dualism like good and bad as Shakespeare said. You do have to experience it for yourself. I cannot experience it for you and you cannot experience it by reading or hearing someone else talk about it. It's like swimming. You can read all you want about it but until you jump in the pool you haven't actually swum. The reading might prepare you to swim, but reading is not swimming. I can't say for sure whether or not you have ever experienced Buddha Nature but I'd be very, very surprised if you haven't. I think you experienced Buddha Nature when you were very, very young before you developed a sense of self. I also think you've experienced Buddha Nature when you 'lose your self' in an activity - like sports, or making love, or maybe for you when you paint. That's all it is. It's not a big mystery or anything. You are able to experience Buddha Nature when you sit (zazen) because you 'lose your self' by shutting down your intellect - your thinking. When all your thinking is gone, all the dualistic ideas, thoughts, concepts and identification with self - what is left is Buddha Nature - Just THIS! The reason I asked Bob about his remark about shutting down or cutting off the senses is because that is not what I experience. My senses are still intact, and in fact are the only thing that is still intact. I experience directly, without judgement and without turning the experience into a concept (perception). That's it. Read the original commentaries on the 10 Ox Herding Pictures and see if you can't recognize there what I am saying here. ...Bill! .
