Buddha-nature (S., buddhatâ, buddhadhâtu, buddhasvabhâva, buddhatva) really mans ‘enlightened-nature’. Obviously, if we are not enlightened or awakened we don’t have a clue as to what Buddha-nature really means. Here is how the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra describes Buddha-nature:
“Buddha-nature is equivalent to Tathagata. Tathagata is equivalent to ‘all the distinctive characteristics [of awakening/buddha]. These characteristics are equivalent to liberation. Liberation is equivalent to nirvana.”
It also describes six aspects of Buddha-nature. It is 1) eternal, 2) pure, 3) true reality, 4) virtuous, 5) discernible in the future by everyone, 6) true. Buddha-nature also transcends good and evil, all karma, defilements, the Five Aggregates and the 12 links of dependent origination. It goes quite beyond the pale of samsara.
While thinking about Buddha-nature we need to keep in mind that the word “Buddha” does not exactly refer to some guy who lived over twenty-five hundred years ago. Buddha is an epithet given to Gautama as in, Gautama the Awakened One (buddha). As the Buddha, Gautama completely awakened from the sleep of ignorance.
It can be said that we all have the potential to become awakened if we set about to accomplish the awakened nature, i.e., buddhatâ. By the same token, we are not actually awakened. We are still mired in samsara living in ignorance of our true nature. Foremost, we lack the marks of being awakened. According to the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra sentient beings are burdened with defilements. Because of these adventitious defilements they lack the thirty-two marks and eighty noble marks of being awakened (i.e., buddha). In addition, the Mahaparinirvana Sutra says that “even though the Awakened One teaches that all beings have Buddha-nature [these beings] have not yet cultivated various beneficial means, and so still have no vision of the nature of awakening. Lacking this vision they have not yet attained perfect enlightenment.”
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