A Flower Does Not Talk: Zen Essays
by Abbot Zenkei Shibayama; translated by Sumiko Kudo
Charles E. Tuttle Co., Tokyo, Japan, 1970. 264 pp.
"The question we have to clarify next would be 'What is this Buddha Nature, or Dharma Nature, with which we are born?' I will give you a simile which has been used from olden days. In Buddhism, the wisdom of an enlightened one is often called the wisdom of a big round mirror. The circle is a symbol of this big perfect mirror. The mirror is thoroughly egoless and mindless . . . everyone is treated equally in front of a mirror. It does not discriminate between the rich and the poor. It does not make the rich and the distinguished look beautiful because they are special; nor does it make the poor particularly ugly. Male and female, old men and children, all are treated equally in front of the mirror. For the mirror, a big mountain and a tiny small stone are equal. . . . Such an immaculate and lucid mind, thoroughly fair and impartial with no discrimination at all, is called Buddha Nature or Dharma Nature in ourselves. The one who is awakened to this truth is called an enlightened one, a Buddha. A mirror is a good simile, but it lacks this function of awakening. This is the difference between human beings and mirrors." (pp. 90-92)
-- quote submitted by Mona Bronson
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