（Addition for Nov. 30, 2006)
Chapter (5-3) of DHARMA.
BUDDHA NATURE
3-1.
The Mind of Purity.
3-2
Buddha Nature
1-1
We have spoken of the pure and true mind as being fundamental; it is the Buddha-nature, that is , the seed of Buddhahood.

（Addition: December 7,2006）
One can get fire if one holds a lens between the sun and moxa, but where does the fire come from? The lens is at an enormous distance from the sun, but the fire certainly appears upon the moxa by means of the lens. But if the moxa would not have the nature to kindle, there would be no fire.

（Addition: December 14,2006)
In like manner, if the light of Buddha’s Wisdom is concentrated upon the human mind, its true nature, which is Buddhahood, will be enkindled, and its light will illuminate the minds of the people with its brightness, and will awaken faith in Buddha. He holds the lens of Wisdom before all human minds and thus their faith may be quickened.

（Addition: December 21,2006)
6-2
Often people disregard the affinity of their true minds for Buddha’s enlightened wisdom, and, because of it, are caught by the entanglement of worldly passions, becoming attached to the discrimination of good and evil, and then lament over their bondage and suffering.

（Addition: December 28,2006）
Why is it that people, possessing this fundamental and pure mind, should still cling to illusions and doom themselves to wander about in a world of delusion and suffering, covering their own Buddha-nature while all about them is the light of Buddha’s Wisdom?

(Addition: Jan. 4, 2007) Once upon a time a man looked into the reverse side of a mirror and, not seeing his face and head, he became insane. How unnecessary it is for a man to become insane merely because he carelessly looks into the reverse side of a mirror!

(Addition: Jan. 11, 2007)
It is just as foolish and unnecessary for a person to go on suffering because he does not attain Enlightenment where he expects to find it. There is no failure in Enlightenment: the failure lies in those people who, for a long time, have sought Enlightenment in their discriminating minds, not realizing that theirs are not true minds but are imaginary minds that have been caused by the accumulation of greed and illusion covering and hiding their true mind.

(Addition: Jan. 18, 2007) 144th page
If the accumulation of false beliefs is cleared away, Enlightenment will appear. But, strange enough, when people attain Enlightenment, they will realize that without false beliefs there could be no Enlightenment.

(Addition: Jan. 25, 2007) 144th page
However buried in the defilement of flesh or concealed at the root of worldly desires and forgotten it may be, the human affinity for Buddhahood is never completely extinguished.

(Addition: Feb. 1, 2007)
6-４
There is an old story told of a man who fell into a drunken sleep. His friend stayed by him as long as he might be in want, the friend hid a jewel in the drunken man’s garment. When the drunken man recovered, not knowing that his friend had hid a jewel in his garment, he wandered about in poverty and hunger. A long time after wards the two men met again and the friend told the poor man about the jewel and advised him to look for it.

(Addition: Feb.8, 2007)
Like the drunken ma of the story, people wander about suffering in this life of birth and death, unconscious of what is hidden away in their inner nature, pure and untarnished, the priceless treasure of Buddha nature.

(Addition: Feb.15, 2007)
However unconscious people may be of the fact that everyone has within his possession this supreme nature, and however degraded and ignorant they may be, Buddha never loses faith in them because He knows that even in the least of them there are, potentially, all the virtues of Buddha hood.

(Addition: Feb.22, 2007)
So Buddha awakens faith in them who are deceived by ignorance and cannot see their own Buddha-nature, leads them away from their illusions and teaches them that originally there is no difference between themselves and Buddhahood.

(Addition: March 1, 2007)
6-5
Buddha is one who has attained Buddhahood and people are those who are capable of attaining Buddhahood; that is all the difference that lies between them.

(Addition: March 8, 2007)
But if a man thinks that he has attained Enlightenment, he is deceiving himself, for, although he may be moving in that direction, he has not yet reached Buddhahood.

(Addition: March 15, 2007)
Buddha-nature does not appear without diligent and faithful effort, nor is the task finished until Buddhahood is attained.

(Addition: March 22, 2007)
6-6
Once upon a time a king gathered some blind men about an elephant and asked them to tell him was an elephant was like. The first man felt a tusk and said an elephant was like a giant carrot; another happened to touch an ear and said it was like a big fan; another touched its trunk and said it was like pestle; still another, who happened to feel its leg, said it was like a mortar; and another, who grasped its tail said it was like a rope. Not one of them was able to tell the king the elephant’s real form.

(Addition: March 29, 2007)
In like manner, one might partially describe the nature of man but would not be able to describe the true nature of a human being, the Buddha-nature.

(Addition: April 5, 2007)
There is only one possible way by which the ever-lasting nature of man, his Buddha-nature. That can not be disturbed by worldly desires or destroyed by death, can be realized, and that is by the Buddha and the Buddha’s noble teaching.

(Addition: April 12, 2007)
III
EGOLESSNESS
1-4
We have been speaking of Buddha-nature as though it were something that could be described, as though it were similar to the “soul” of other teachings, but it is not.

(Addition: April 19, 2007)
The concept of an “ego-personality” is something that has been imagined by a discriminating mind which first grasped it and then became attached to it, but which must abandon it. On the contrary, Buddha-nature is something indescribable that must first be discovered. In one sense, it resembles an “ego-personality” but it is not the “ego” in the sense of “I am” or “mine.”

(Addition: April 26, 2007)
To believe in the existence of an ego is an erroneous belief that supposes the existence of non-existence; to deny Buddha-nature is wrong, for it is not the “ego” in the sense of “I am” or “mine.”

(Addition: May 3, 2007)
This can be explained in a parable. A mother took her sick child to a doctor. The doctor gave the child medicine and instructed the mother not to nurse the child until the medicine was digested.

(Addition: May 10, 2007)
The mother anointed her breast with something bitter so that the child would keep away from her of his own volition. After the medicine had time enough to be digested, the mother cleansed her breast and let the child suck her. The mother took this method of saving her child out of kindness because she loved the child.

(Addition: May 17, 2007)
Like the mother in the parable, Buddha, in order to remove misunderstanding and to break up attachments to an ego-personality, denies the existence of an ego; and when the misunderstanding and attachments are done away with, then He explains the reality of the true mind that is the Buddha-nature.

(Addition: May 24, 2007)
Attachment to an ego-personality leads people into delusions, but faith in their Buddha-nature leads them to Enlightenment.

(Addition: May 31, 2007)
It is like the women in a story to whom a chest was bequeathed. Not knowing that the chest contained gold, she contained to live in poverty until another person opened it and showed her the gold. Buddha opens the minds of people and shows them the purity of their Buddha-nature.

(From the pages 128, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144,146, 148, 150 and 152 of The Teaching of Buddha, English / Japanese version, 1189th revised.)

(Addition: June 7, 2007)
２−４
If everyone has this Buddha-nature, why is there so much suffering from people cheating one another or killing one another? And why are there so many distinctions of rank and wealth, rich and poor?
(Addition: June 14, 2007)
There is a story of a wrestler who used to wear an ornament on his forehead of a precious stone. One time when he was wrestling the stone was crushed into the flesh of his forehead. He thought he had lost the gem and went to a surgeon to have the wound dressed. When the surgeon came to dress the wound he found he found the gem embedded in the flesh and covered over with blood and dirs. He held up a mirror and showed the stone to the wrestler.

(Addition: June 21, 2007)
Buddha-nature is like the precious stone of this story: it becomes covered over by the dirt and dust of other interests and people think that they have lost it, but a good teacher recovers it again for them.


(From the pages 128, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144,146,148,150 and 152 of The Teaching of Buddha, English / Japanese version, 1189th revised.)

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