Day 9 The Elusiveness of Buddha-nature

One nature perfectly pervades all natures:
One Dharma includes all dharmas.
One moon appears in all waters;
The moons reflected in all waters are one.


Long ago my mother told me, "You are the youngest of my seven children, but from first to last, you were all equally painful. There was no difference in my suffering, yet you are all different. Some of you are clever, some thickheaded, some of you misbehave, some behave. This is all your own doing. It was not something I could predict. I never had anything to say about whether I would have a boy or girl. Each child took completely different things from me. Some of you are growing up better looking than others. Your sister complained to me, 'Ma, how come you made me so ugly?' I told her, 'That's your business. You're the one who's growing up ugly. I don't have anything to do with it.'"

A great Ch'an master saves all beings equally by giving each one an equal gift of Buddhadharma. He regards all sentient beings as the same. All beings are perfectly equal. All are unified in Buddha-nature, because Buddha-nature is universal. But what each person does with this gift of Buddhadharma is different.