The Teachings of Zen Master Man Gong Part 2
What Am I? The Necessity of Finding Your True Self
6. If I shout someone’s name and they immediately answer, “Yes!” – that is true nature. True nature has no birth or death. It can’t catch fire, get wet, or be cut with a knife. It is completely free and without hindrance.
7. Just like the prisoner screaming as he is dragged, twisting behind a horse, the chains of karma drag us down the road of suffering. Repeatedly, we follow the cycles of life, sickness, old age and death. Only your wisdom sword can cut these chains.
8. No matter how well educated or respected you are, if you haven’t resolved the great question of life and death, you are like a person who has lost their mind.
9. When Sakyamuni Buddha was born, he pointed with one hand to the sky and the other to the ground and said, “Between the heavens above and the earth below, only ‘I’ am holy.” This ‘I’ means the true nature.
10. Everyone already has Buddha nature (true nature) but they cannot become Buddha because they do not understand themselves.
From the book, The Teachings of Zen Master Man Gong.
Check out a clip from the Kwan Um Zen Online Study Group, Is this idea of enlightenment even helpful?