Buddha Nature

Buddha is interesting because he is not an example of what you should become, but what you already are. He is not an exemplar for us in the conventional sense of the word. Usually, we look to other people because we want something: "I want to look like him"; "if only I could sing like her"… In the Diamond Sutra, Subhuti asks the Buddha if he got anything when he got enlightenment. The Buddha answers by saying that he didn’t get anything, if he would have gotten anything it wouldn’t have been enlightenment.

Human beings are always looking outside for the solution, when it is actually already inside themselves, if they would just look. The Buddha even said that he had no teaching to give. His job was to remove people’s misunderstanding, so they could see their own Buddha nature for themselves. The teaching of Buddhism and Zen is just a “pointing”; it points towards us having a direct experience of our Buddha Nature.