Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Bassui: From the Beginning


Bassui Tokusho Zenji

"From the beginning everyone is complete and perfect. Buddhas and ordinary people alike are originally the Tathagata. The movement of a newborn baby's legs and arms is also the splendid work of its original nature. The bird flying, the hare running, the sun rising, the moon sinking, the wind blowing, the clouds moving, all things that shift and change are due to the spinning of the right Dharma wheel of their own original nature, depending neither on the teachings of others nor on the power of words. It is from the spinning of my right Dharma wheel that I am now talking like this, and you are all listening likewise through the splendor of your Buddha-nature."

The above is a teaching by Bassui Tokusho (1327-1387), a Japanese Zen master, and is taken from the book 'Mud & Water: The Collected Teachings of Zen Maser Bassui,' by Arthur Braverman, p.28. For a review of this fantastic book, please click here: Review: Mud & Water

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