Beings really don't have a Buddha-nature

I have met a few Buddhists who think that because the Buddha said that all beings have the Buddha-nature they must already be Buddhas!  But what the Buddha really meant is that we have the potential to become Buddhas just like milk from a cow has the potential to become butter or cheese. 

If people saw in fresh cow’s milk cheese, for example, they would be deluded.  There is no cheese in milk.  The milk has to go through a certain kind of process in order for it to become cheese.  This the Buddha explains in a number of similes in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra about the way milk becomes cream or ghee when properly processed.  Likewise, the Buddha-nature is apprehended by sentient beings only though the fulfillment of certain conditions.  It is not automatically already present.

People who firmly believe they are already Buddhas because they have read somewhere that all beings have the Buddha-nature are without a doubt deluded.  I thought of this analogy to describe these kind of people since I practiced Dharma in the Motherlode area of California.

"There is man who owns a large tract of land. It is said that this land contains much gold. But this man has done nothing to actually obtain this gold. Still, he tells everyone that his land is gold. He sees it everywhere. People laugh at him and say behind his back, "This fool does not know what real gold is even though underneath his land there is an abundance of gold."

The Buddha-nature is altogether different from the nature of conditioned things found in this conditioned world.  It has nothing to do with the conditioned five skandhas of physical form, feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness, yet it is not apart from these aggregates insofar as they are empty configurations of it having no unique nature of their own other than name and form.

I have met people who are of the opinion that Buddhism is just a matter of reading a few books and can be mastered in a couple of months.  These same people get either irritated or hostile when I tell them their opinions about Buddhism, especially, Buddha-nature, are wrong.

I hate to say this, but these days it is difficult to find a good teacher or a good student.

Comments

[Nobody]

Lol. I have the song Terrapin Station playing in my head recently. Happy turtles playing the banjo

[n. yeti]

Nobody: I'm as happy as a turtle in mud.

[Nobody]

n.yeti:

I'm doing well. Thanks for asking. How are you?

[Alex Carlson]

Perhaps it depends on whose definition of Buddha-Nature you are working with. Dogen indicated that Buddha-Nature is not something we have, but rather that which we are.

[n. yeti]

Nobody:

Haven't seen you around here for a while. Just wanted to say hi and see how everything is going.