Can anyone give me any information about Buddha-Nature? Ive googled it, but what comes up is very complex and i cannot get my head around it. I also need to know how buddha-nature links to the idea of enlightenment for all?
Ok. Buddha is a title for someone who has attained perfect englightenment. So, Buddha nature means the nature in every being (not just human) and every situation that is originally pure and perfect; full of wisdom, kindness and compassion.
Pang said it beautifully. Buddha nature is like a vast limitless sky that is free from clouds. Clear, Pure and Perfect.
Anyway, please visit any of these links to have a deeper understanding on Buddhism and on what Buddha nature
is about:
Buddha nature is the essence of enlightenment, it doesn't matter whether one is a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Jew. All can achieve what is termed the Buddha Nature.
I'll try to simplify the idea, its a state of not being attached or clinging to anything in life.
Of being aware of our true self, our desires, fears, loves and realizing that they are not who we are, they are a manifestation of our mind or our ego.
We are not who we are presented to be, our mind/ego presents us as the sum total of our experiences, that is, we are the representation of our experiences in this world and it is a false representation created by fear and desire mostly.
If we can free ourselves from the limitations of our mind and deal with experiences positively it is to the benefit of enlightenment that will lead to Buddha Nature.
Meditation is the Key to gaining inner peace from our thoughts, and gaining awareness to our true nature.
Buddha Nature can also be considered as the Christ Consciousness, a different name but both are representations of the divinity of mankind.
Clouds come and go in the sky every day. The clouds themselves have no self-nature - they're just water vapor that gathers and separates in a natural, continuous flow.
Behind the clouds resides the clear blue sky - unobstructed and vast and always present.
The clear blue sky provides a space for clouds, birds, airplanes, smog, and balloons to frolic. But the sky remains untouched by these phenomena.
In this metaphor, clouds and other objects represent mental phenomena.
The clear blue sky represents our Buddha-nature. But, really, there's just nothing there - we can't go up in an airplane and "find" the sky.
Similarly, we can't "find" our Buddha-nature through meditation.
However, we can "realize" the vast sky just by looking up. Similarly, we can also "realize" our Buddha-nature just by looking clearly into ourselves. This realization is called enlightenment.