Your Mind is the True Buddha

Don’t search for the Buddha, it’s already in front of you.
Your mind is the true Buddha.
Not trying to become a Buddha will make you a Buddha.
You are the seated Buddha and therefore you are already naturally enlightened.
Sitting meditation is the seated Buddha.

These are the ideas I've discovered in the writings of Dogen, Chinul, and the Shobogenzo. Am I the only one finding these doctrines really interesting?

The twofold approach of 'sudden awakening and gradual awakening' presented by Chinul as “an initial awakening and its subsequent cultivation” (Buswell, 101) is brilliant.
The idea that your search for the Truth, the Buddha, Enlightenment, is right in front of you. It is you. The only thing to do is awaken this inherent Buddha in you. Once it is awakened, cultivate the Buddha, cultivate your mind. At the end is your realization or reclaiming of the Buddha that was already in you from the beginning. In this way you prove your existence as the Buddha.

These ideas remind me of Prof. Ahn's reference to The Beauty and The Beast, the hero, and greek myths that we discussed in class.
The idea that the Beast in order to become human which he already was to begin with, cultivates his inherent humanity by overcoming obstacles, and ends up proving what was his from the beginning.


This also reminded me of Po's quest to become the Dragon Master and gain superpowers in the animated movie Kung Fu Panda.

Po the Panda is unexpectedly chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy. He is chosen as the Dragon Master who is to fight the evil Tai Lung and protect the village.
He is given the dragon scroll which is said to unleash the dragon warrior's superpowers. However when he opens it, the scroll like a mirror, only shows his own reflection.

*watch it from 0:37-1:17 and then from 8:21 to 9:01*

Po is disappointed and decides to give up. He then has a conversation with his father in which his father reveals to him the secret ingredient of his famous soup:

Dad: the secret ingredient is...nothing!
Po: huh?
Dad: you heard me, nothing. there is no secret ingredient.
Po: wait wait its just plain old noodle soup? you don't add some kind of special sauce or something?
Dad: don't have to. to make something special you just have to believe its special
*Po takes out the scroll peers at it. like a mirror, he sees his own reflection and amazement and realization dawns on his face*
Po: there is no secret ingredient...

Final Battle Scene with the evil Tai Lung
Tai Lung: finally the power of the dragon scroll is mine!
Tai Lung: ....its nothing!!
Po: it's okay I didn't get it the first time either
Tai Lung: what?
Po: there is no secret ingredient. It's just you.

There is no secret ingredient. It's just you. Po did not need to search for the power because he is the power, the dragon master from the very beginning. The power is inherent in him.
Hence through Po we can re-discover these enlightening doctrines:
Don't search for the Buddha, it's already in front of you. It is you.
Your mind is the true Buddha.

Who knew animated cartoons could be so deep?


Bielefeldt, Carl. “Dogen’s Lancet of Seated Meditation.” In Religions of Japan in Practice, edited by George Tanabe, 220-234. Princeto: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Buswell, Robert E., Jr. “Secrets on Cultivating the Mind.” In Tracing Back the Radiance: The Korean Way of Zen, 98-117. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i, 1991.

Gudo Wafu Nishijima and Chodo Cross trans. Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury, Volume I. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2007. http://www.numatacenter.com /default.aspx?MPID=81 (accessed January, 5 2008).