Doh! my bad sorry.Dan74 wrote:You might want to reread the post - it didn't come from me! :D
Better not let tilt see this "ground of all being" quote. It would be interesting though to see this in Thai to determine if it is a translators interpretation or a direct one to one translation.Dan74 wrote:.The original heart/mind shines like pure, clear water with the sweetest taste. But if the heart is pure, is our practice over? No, we must no cling even to this purity. We must go beyond all duality, all concepts, all bad, all good, all pure, all impure. We must go beyond self and nonself, beyond birth and death. When we see with the eye of wisdom, we know that the true Buddha is timeless, unborn, unrelated to any body, any history, any image. Buddha is the ground of all being, the realization of the truth of the unmoving mind.
But yes I agree with you it's not uncommon for Thai forest masters to talk about Buddha in this way, however I interpret the word Buddha here slightly differently. The word Buddha means "the one who knows", so when one refers to Buddha in this way it's the quality of knowing, awakenedness, and awareness, and of course we all have this capacity we just have to develop it, become it.
To me this is what taking refuge in Buddha means, taking refuge in the process of knowing, of the minds capacity to be awake and aware.
I don't have a problem with this being referred to as "Buddha nature", the problem arises I think when one reify's Buddha nature into some kind of seed, or pseudo-atman, or uses it as a cop out because one doesn't need to practise if one is already enlightened.
It's definately skilful means when understood correctly.