Buddha Nature Quotes

• Buddhism regards all living creatures as being endowed with the Buddha nature and the potential to become Buddhas. That's why Buddhism teaches us to refrain from killing and to liberate creatures instead.

  Hsuan Hua

  Buddhist, Buddhism, Killing

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• An act of meditation is actually an act of faith--of faith in your spirit, in your own potential. Faith is the basis of meditation. Not of faith in something outside you--a metaphysical buddha, an unattainable ideal, or someone else's words. The faith is in yourself, in your own 'buddha nature.' You too can be a buddha, an awakened being that lives and responds in a wise, creative, and compassionate way.

  Martine Batchelor

  Faith, Wise, Creative

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• Buddha nature, is like the sun which is always shining, always present, though often obscured. We are blocked from our natural light by the clouds of thought and longing and fear; the overcast of the conditioned mind; the hurricane of I am.

  Stephen Levine

  Clouds, Light, Shining

  Stephen Levine (2010). “A Gradual Awakening”, p.6, Anchor

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• Perhaps one of the main antidotes to depression, lack of self-esteem, loneliness and so forth is the recognition that we really do have Buddha nature. All the other problems like anger, jealousy, ambitions, are merely habitual patterns that we've learned, but aren't inherent to who we are.

  Tenzin Palmo

  Loneliness, Self Esteem, Ambition

  Source: studybuddhism.com

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• The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought. That's what we're going to discover again and again and again. Nothing is what we thought. I can say that with great confidence. Emptiness is not what we thought. Neither is mindfulness or fear. Compassion––not what we thought. Love. Buddha nature. Courage. These are code words for things we don't know in our minds, but any of us could experience them. These are words that point to what life really is when we let things fall apart and let ourselves be nailed to the present moment.

  Pema Chodron

  Fall, Compassion, Mind

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• ...we and all sentient beings fundamentally have the buddha nature as our innermost essence. . . .

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Nature, Essence, Awareness

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• Our buddha nature is as good as any buddha’s buddha nature.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

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• Ignorance, vulnerability, fear, anger, and desire are expressions of the infinite potential of your buddha nature. There's nothing inherently wrong or right with making such choices. The fruit of Buddhist practice is simply the recognition that these and other mental afflictions are nothing more or less than choices available to us because our real nature is infinite in scope.

  Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

  Buddhist, Real, Ignorance

  Eric Swanson, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (2010). “The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness”, p.249, Random House

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• Buddha nature is not something that we possess, nor is it something we can be. It is the nature of things, just as they are. To realize our buddha nature, to live in accord with this awakening, is the truth that alleviates suffering in the world.

  Geoffrey Shugen Arnold

  Suffering, World, Awakening

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• You want to eliminate your evil desires in order to reveal your Buddha nature, but where will you throw them away?

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Order, Evil, Desire

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• All living beings have Buddha nature and can become Buddhas.

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist

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• The idea of buddha mind is not purely a concept or a theoretical, metaphysical idea. It is something extremely real that we can experience ourselves. In fact, it is the ego that feels that we have an ego. It is ego that tells us, My ego is bothering me. I feel very self-conscious about having to be me. I feel that I have a tremendous burden in me, and I wonder what the best way to get rid of it is. Yet all those expressions of restlessness that keep coming out of us are the expression of buddha nature: the expression of our unborn, unobstructed, and nondwelling nature.

  Chogyam Trungpa

  Real, Ideas, Self

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• If you want to find Buddha nature, love someone and care for them.

  Dainin Katagiri

  Love, Care, Want

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• The root-word "buddha" means to wake up, to know, to understand; and he or she who wakes up and understands is call a Buddha. It is as simple as that. The capacity to wake up, to understand, and to love is called Buddha nature.

  Nhat Hanh

  Knowledge, Mean, Simple

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• What I believe is that we have this extraordinary spirit inside ourselves, which for me is our Buddha nature. I believe we are in the process of opening and getting closer and closer to our Buddha nature and stripping away all that is covering it. I don't think I'm going to end up meeting this one being up there or out there.

  Eve Ensler

  Believe, Thinking, Covering

  Interview with Carolyn Roark, www.ecumenicajournal.org. February 16, 2016.

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• These various forms appear different in shape and size, yet they are of a single essence. . . . The Sixth Patriarch called it "essence of Mind". . . Here the Third Patriarch calls it "timeless Self-essence." Bankei called it "unborn Buddha-mind." They all refer to the same thing: Buddha-nature, true self. This essence is not born and can never die. It exists eternally. Some call it energy; others call it spirit. But what is it? No one knows. Any concept we have of what it is can only be an analogy. . . .

  Dennis Merzel

  Self, Essence, Mind

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• As human beings we have the same experience of destructive and constructive emotions. We also have a human mind capable of developing wisdom. We all have the same Buddha nature.

  Dalai Lama

  Mind, Emotion, Humans

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• For so many centuries women have been suppressed and regarded as inferior. And that of course is not right at all, that we all have buddha-nature - so what's the difference?

  Tenzin Palmo

  Differences, Century, Courses

  Source: fpmt.org

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• To the fuki plant, dandelions, and their kind that lie for long patiently under the fallen snow, comes the season of breezy spring. No sooner do they see the light of the world, stretching their longing heads out from the cracks in the snow, than they are instantly nipped off. For these plants isn't the sorrow as deep as that of the child's parents whose child had accidentally died? They say everything in the plant and tree kingdom attains Buddhahood. Then they, too, must have Buddha-nature.

  Kobayashi Issa

  Death, Children, Spring

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• Wordless is not the same of expressionless. All phenomenon of the universe, audible and inaudible, tangible and intangible, sentient and insentient, are the clear and ceaseless expression of the buddha nature.

  John Daido Loori

  Expression, Tangible, Clear

  John Daido Loori (2009). “The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans”, p.222, Shambhala Publications

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• Quoting Dudjom Rinpoche on the buddha-nature: No words can describe it No example can point to it Samsara does not make it worse Nirvana does not make it better It has never been born It has never ceased It has never been liberated It has never been deluded It has never existed It has never been nonexistent It has no limits at all It does not fall into any kind of category

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Fall, Example, Doe

  FaceBook post by Sogyal Rinpoche from Jun 29, 2016

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• In meditation, silently and serenely, all words are transcended.
  In Illumination, all things appear as is.
  Silence is the ceasing of ego-grasping. Illumination is the functioning of the wonder of wisdom.
  The unity of these two is awakening to Buddha Nature.

  Sheng-yen

  Illumination, Two, Silence

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• If we do not control our minds with our Buddha nature, do not practice seriously, are not honest to ourselves and do not examine our behaviors strictly, we will definitely be possessed by Maya. Being possessed does not necessary mean that we become delirious or our faces become horribly distorted. When we do not walk on the right path, we will be walking on Maya's path.

  Ching Hai

  Spiritual, Inspiration, Mean

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• To reflect on everything in daily life is to nurture your buddha nature.

  Shinjo Ito

  Daily Life, Life Is, Nurture

  Shinjō Itō (2009). “Shinjo: Reflections”, p.10

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• Since everything is already the Supreme Buddha Nature, where are you going to find it?

  Adyashanti

  Supreme

  "Welcome to Reality". Documentary Video, www.imdb.com. May 2006.

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